D.O.A. is a Canadian punk rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia. They are often referred to as the "founders" of hardcore punk along with Black Flag, Bad Brains, Angry Samoans, the Germs, Negative Trend, and Middle Class. Their second album Hardcore '81 was thought by many to have been the first actual reference to the second wave of the American punk sound as hardcore. Singer/guitarist Joey "Shithead" Keithley is the only founding member to have stayed in the band throughout its entire history, with original bassist Randy Rampage returning to the band twice after his original departure.

1990's Murder featured rawer, almost thrash-metal production, rather than their original basic punk sound. The same year also produced a collaboration with Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra with Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors. In August 1990, Joey decided he was breaking up D.O.A. but, at the suggestion of promoter Dirk Dirksen, they did a farewell tour of the West Coast, playing their "final" show on December 1, 1990 at the Commodore in Vancouver. In 1991, they released a posthumous live album entitled Talk Minus Action = 0 while Keithley pursued an acting career.  19 months after D.O.A. broke up, Joey Shithead and Wimpy Roy had reunited as D.O.A in the summer of 1992. Fellow Canadian punk rock veteran John Wright from NoMeansNo suggested they hire Ken Jensen from Red Tide as the new drummer, which they did. The new lineup released an EP and two albums in the early 1990s, 13 Flavours Of Doom and Loggerheads. These albums found the band replacing the more hard-rock oriented sound of the 1980s with a return to punk rock, although it was a heavier, tighter brand of punk than their earlier work. These albums were produced by Wright, who also played keyboards on the recordings. The band then added Ford Pier on guitar and vocals.  Tragedy struck in 1995 when drummer Ken Jensen died in a house fire. The "Ken Jensen Memorial Single" EP was released on Alternative Tentacles, including two tracks each from D.O.A. and Red Tide. With John Wright filling in on drums, ninth full-length The Black Spot was recorded. The album featured a more basic, sing-along type punk rock sound that was reminiscent of the band's late 1970s and early 1980s output.  The late 1990s found the band's lineup in turmoil, with Wimpy Roy leaving the band after a decade and a half of service. Keithley experimented with different bassists and drummers and released the album Festival Of Atheists in 1998. By the early 2000s, the band had found a permanent drummer in the form of The Great Baldini. In 2002, Keithley put out his first solo album, Beat Trash, and original bassist Randy Rampage returned to the band after nearly 20 years for the Win The Battle album. However, the reunion did not last, with Rampage leaving the band again after the recording of the album, to be replaced by Dan Yaremko.  The Lost Tapes was the first release on Keithley's revived Sudden Death label, followed by Festival Of Atheists. During this period, Keithley also oversaw the re-release of the band's classic early records on Sudden Death, several of which had been out of print for many years.

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