Biography of Dead Boys

Forming from the ashes of Cleveland's semi-legendary Rocket From the Tombs, the Dead Boys were one of the first punk bands to escalate the level of violence, nihilism, and pure ugliness of punk rock to extreme new levels. After they relocated to New York, ex-Rocket members Cheetah Chrome (guitar) and Johnny Blitz (drums) hooked up with guitarist Jimmy Zero, bassist Jeff Magnum, and vocalist Stiv Bators to form the Dead Boys. Their music wasn't very special; even by the relaxed standards of punk it was loose and incompetent, bordering on the stupidity of heavy metal. "Sonic Reducer" and "Ain't It Fun," the band's two best songs, were holdovers from former Rocket From the Tombs members David Thomas and Peter Laughner, who went on to form Pere Ubu. What distinguished the Dead Boys, and what makes them notorious to this day, is their pure nastiness, much of it coming from Bators. Their two albums -- Young, Loud, and Snotty and We Have Come for Your Children -- are brutal; wallowing in their own self-serving nihilism, they embodied the punk stereotypes held by the mainstream. After two albums, the band split. Bators formed Lords of the New Church and the rest of the members slid into obscurity. In 1990, Bators died of injuries sustained from being hit by a bus in Paris. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine