Punk Marketing Tactic

After 1 a.m. in O.B., I left Winstons and walked down Newport Avenue to the beach. I spotted a sealed Drunkin Punkin Idiots CD on the sidewalk, recorded by a band of the same name. I picked it up and noted that it had been recorded and manufactured at Spotless Studios, around the corner on Bacon Street. I listened to the CD at home. I would've liked it better when I was 14 -- hardcore, old-school punk rock about drinking, fighting, and fucking. It took a while to get a hold of a band member, but I reached bass player James Herrault.

"DPI started in April of 2002," Herrault said. "I was the manager at a skate/surf shop in O.B. called Pride. Our lead singer worked there, and all we listened to was late-'70s and early-'80s punk. One day he says to me, 'I'm starting a punk band!' I said I used to play bass when I was 12. He says, 'I have a bass for you to use, I'm the singer, Toby [who then drummed in reggae band Vegitation] is playing drums, and we're practicing today after work.'

"We went over there and wrote our first two songs.... I couldn't play bass worth shit. The drumming and singing was carrying us along. But we still didn't have a guitar player.... The first shows were house parties, and if you were fortunate to be there, you saw some insane shit. Absolutely packed like sardines and DPI girls almost naked, dancing around like psycho go-go dancers while the pit was crankin'....

"The last year or so things have changed," said Herrault. "After our first record came out, some more well known bands took notice and had us open for them. Over the last year we have played for killer old-school punk bands like JFA, Battalion of Saints, DeCry, Dr. Know...and soon, in the near future, Fear."