D.O.A.’s Joe Keithley back to play punk after run at politics

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After Vancouver based Canadian punk legends D.O.A founder Joe Keithley lost the NDP nomination by five votes last year, he did what he does best— he reformed the band,   recorded a new album “Live at Chinatown” and hit the road to Tour Australia and China in April.D.O.A Paddy Duddy, Joe Keithley, Mike Hodsall  Photo by Tom Wiebe

Keithley plus drummer Paddy Duddy and bassist Mike Hodsall will be heading  out east to Lethbridge,  to celebrate Halloween at Scores with Calgary's Jenny and Lethbridge punks Scallywags.


“ I remembered I haven’t forgotten how to play guitar, write songs and sing or how to kick ass on stage,” said frontman/ guitarist Joey Keithley about reforming the band.


He lost his nomination by a mere five votes. It was a learning experience.
“I suppose they didn’t want someone with an actual opinion,” he said.
 “ Instead they voted for a basically a potted plant, who doesn’t say much, who ran a poor campaign and who lost the riding,” he said.


“ When I went into politics, I always saw myself, and I’m going to use a reference nobody under 50 will get, as being like the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington—being really opinionated and outspoken,” he said.

“I suppose the biggest thing I learned from it is politics is really a pretty dirty game, which is really no surprise to anyone,” he summarized adding he is not counting out running for nomination again in 2017.


Right now Keithley is focussed on taking D.O.A. on the road again, so he went back to the band's roots in Vancouver, recorded  the new live album and is excited to return to Lethbridge for Halloween.

“ We’ve been there for the past two years, but it was several years before that. Though we’ve played Coaldale a couple of times,” Keithley said.
“ We’ll be playing songs from ‘Hardcore ’81’ and ‘Something Better Change’ and newer songs and songs from D.O.A.’s  middle ages,” he said.
He  said the new line up came together naturally.


“ I was negotiating with Paddy designing T-Shirts by trading vintage D.O.A. stuff and he said if you ever need a drummer…  I remembered he used to play in a hardcore band years back. He was in Circle the Wagons. And when I was planning the trip to Australia and China I did need a drummer and then I needed a bass player, so he said how about my friend Mike. He played guitar with Circle the Wagons,” he said.
 He said the new lineup is working well together.


“We had a great time in Europe. We played 17 shows in 17 days in nine different countries. So now we’re working on new songs for a new studio  CD to be released in 2015,” he said adding there is no shortage of things that make him angry and no shortage of fodder for songs.


“ When we started D.O.A. we were just kids who wanted to make a living playing loud rock and roll music and I found out I had something to say. I never wanted to fall into a nostalgia act,” he said adding the underlying issues he writes about- greed, corruption, police brutality are as true today as they were  over 30 years ago when he started playing music.

“ Twenty  years ago police were taught to take a person down by  shooting them in the knees. Now they aim for the body and they don’t just take them down, they kill them,” he said.

 


“I’m just telling people to stand up for their rights,” he said.

“Ninety per cent of artists don’t have anything to say, the other 10 per cent  are trying to say something about the world through their art. A lot of music is pretty predictable,” he observed.


“ i  grew up listening to folk and jazz and old country and then I discovered punk rock,” he said adding politics have always been a part of what he sings about.


He is always writing and is getting songs ready for the next  studio album, though they aren’t ready to be performed yet.
“ I’ve got a stack of songs on my ping pong table,” he said.


 He noted he drew a lot of inspiration from the band’s recent tour of China.


“ We played there in 2009,” he said adding rock music was just starting to be heard then. Things have changed now.


“I found people are fundamentally the same the world over. They’re just trying to get by under their governments,” he observed adding new bands are forming there. He was so impressed by a Chinese punk/ new wave band called Subs that he signed them to his record label “Sudden Death Records.”

 They will be be featuring another recent  Sudden Death signed band- Jenny— in Lethbridge.


“They’re a great live band. I was so impressed when I saw them  that I offered to sign them on the spot,” he said.


 D.O.A., possibly inspired by fellow veteran B.C. punks Nomeansno’s beer, has also released their own beer  “Hardcore 8.1” named after their album.
I was talking to a brewer fan of mine about it and decided to do it with Beaux Brewery in Ontario,” he said adding  The Hanson Brothers’ Punk Rauch Ale also inspired him  to make his own beer.


“ Johnny from Nomeansno and the Hanson brothers is  a good friend of mine. Besides the Hanson Brothers borrowed the hockey songs theme from us so    we borrowed their beer idea,” he chuckled.
Tickets for D.O .A., Jenny and the Scallywags  cost $15 in advance. They play Scores, Oct. 31 at 9 p.m.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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