Joe Keithley, aka Joey Shithead, founded legendary punk pioneers D.O.A. in 1978. Punk kings who spread counterculture around the world, they've been cited as influences by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Rancid, and The Offspring, and have toured with The Clash, The Ramones, The Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Nirvana, PiL, Minor Threat, and others, and are the subject of two tribute albums.
But punk is more than a style of music: it's a political act, and D.O.A. have always had a social conscience, having performed in support of Greenpeace, women's rape/crisis centres, prisoner rights, and anti-nuke and anti-globalization organizations. Twenty-five years later D.O.A. can claim sales of more than 500,000 copies of their eleven albums and tours in thirty different countries, and they are still going strong.
I, Shithead is Joe's recollections of a life in punk, starting with a bunch of kids in Burnaby transfixed with the burgeoning punk movement, and traversing a generation disillusioned with the status quo: stories of riots, drinking, travelling, playing, and conquering all manner of obstacles through sheer determination. And through it all, Joe reveals that the famous D.O.A. slogan, talk—action = 0 is, for him, more than a soundbyte.
With an introduction by music producer Jack Rabid, publisher of seminal New York music magazine Big Takeover.
What People Are Saying
There are countless other stories told in I,Shithead that will hold any DOA fan's attention for hours on end.
—Reflector
Good stuff about an under-appreciated anarchistic act.
—Booklist
Joe Keithley, lead singer of the seminal punk rock band DOA, is featured prominently in the new feature-length documentary American Hardcore, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is now in limited release across North America.
—American Hardcore