D.T. Boyz
High energy, up-tempo, melodic Hard Rock with Big, ripping guitars, pounding drums, soaring vocals, lot's of hooks and harmonies the way they used to make it. I
22
songs
446
plays
Superstitious Woman Ruff Teaser Superstitious Woman Ruff Teaser
Rough demo without vocals and unmixed.
Everybody's Done Ya Sister Everybody's Done Ya Sister
Rowdy up-tempo rocker with huge choruses.
Show all (22)
Albums
Formed in early 1989 by former members of Lazarus and Mad Hatter, D.T. Boyz was among the best known bands of the Boston club circuit in the late 1980's and early 1990's. They projected an androgynous Glam Rock image (ala Poison, Pretty Boy Floyd, Hanoi Rocks, etc.) complete with makeup and jewelry, cheesy stage names, dramatic hair coloring, tattoos, peircings, and leather clothing making them more closely resemble an act from Los Angeles than the more conservative Boston, MA. Those in attendance of a D.T. Boyz live show were often witness to some bizarre antics (usually substance related) during the performance. The fact that they wrote catchy, melodic songs featuring lots of hooks, vocal harmonies, and virtuoso guitar solos was often overshadowed by their image, checkered reputation for their various habits, and frequent on-stage intoxication. One of the most memorable examples of this was while opening for Blue Oyster Cult at The Channel in Boston's South End. "That crowd of bikers fucking HATED us! They just screamed BLUE OYSTER CULT!! and threw shit at us for our whole set, and that just made us even more obnoxious". - Randy St. James.
D.T. Boyz was similar in style to Motley Crue, Poison, White Lion, Dokken, Van Halen, and many other hard rock bands of the era. Led by Yori T'mico (guitar) and Randy St. James (vocals), The band was plagued by frequent personnel changes, substance abuse problems, and constant in-fighting and creative differences. The original lineup shared a house in Haverhill, MA briefly where they lived and rehearsed. None of them held day jobs at the time, so they paid their bills by selling drugs, renting rehearsal space to Mad Hatter, and hosting legendary rent parties on weekends. The constant stream of young women in and out of the house were all-too-willing to buy food, clothing, and alcohol for them as well.
Most of their material was written during this time though they would soon fire original vocalist Mick DiPesa shortly after beginning the recording of their first EP. After a brief period with Joe Casey on vocals, the band's then drummer Randy St. James moved up front to handle lead vocals permanently. Original bassist Shawn Toni soon left soon after Casey's dismissal citing creative differences. Toni's departure was followed by a succession of different drummers and bassists that moved in and out of the band over the next 3 years with St. James and T'mico remaining the only constants.
A 4-song cassette EP limited to one production run was released in early 1990. It featured the songs "Wet n' Wild", "Knockin' Up Ya Neighborhood", "Kidz (Are Stayin' Out All Nite)", and "Everybody's Done Ya Sister". Though Swifty T and Bobby Ray appeared on the cover and were credited in the liner notes, the Bass and Drum tracks were actually performed by Toni and St. James. It sold better overseas than in the US thanks to publicity from an article in Kerrang! magazine that was also picked up by other European Fanzines. Envelopes containing cash and letters requesting copies of the EP came from as far away as Romania and Poland. Management and much gigging soon followed leaving little time to rehearse or write new material. The band became an almost constant presence at the popular "No Bozos" Jams in and around Boston where they would often exchange the use of their back-line and drum kit for a favorable time slot, a bar tab, and radio promotion. D.T. Boyz eventually broke up for good in late 1991 during the mixing of their Independent debut album "Knockin' Up Ya Neighborhood" which was never mastered or released.
With the release of Nirvana's "NeverMind" album, the musical climate and fickle record-buying public was changing rapidly, so D.T. Boyz opted to disband and persue other ventures than to become a grunge version of themselves. Some of these subsequent projects included Attitude Inc., CrackHouse, Slewfoot, Love Makin' War, Bone Daddy and others.Band/artist history
The History of D.T. Boyz
Part 1 In The Beginning
The basis for D.T. Boyz started in winter of 1988. Mick, Yori, and Randy were still members of Lazarus at the time. Lazarus had recently dismissed their second guitarist Denis Cormier and was now a quartet. Shawn was a close friend and he lived with the band at their house in Haverhill, MA and he was between bands himself. He was no longer playing guitar in Mad Hatter but remained friendly with his ex band mates. Lazarus and Mad Hatter had always been friends and frequently partied together. Since Mad Hatter was in need of rehearsal space at the time it was decided that they could rent space in the Haverhill house and rehearse on nights that Lazarus wasnt. This worked out well in that Mad Hatter had a place to jam, Lazarus got some badly needed rent money, and both bands could party quite heavily at the house when neither was rehearsing. This also afforded both bands a captive audience to play to during what would become legendary parties.
Lazarus bassist Jon Fitzy Fitzgerald had a very strained relationship with the other three at this juncture and had all but moved out of the house. There were still lingering resentments over Denis dismissal and a growing bitterness overall. He would turn up for rehearsals and gigs, and continue his role as the bands manager, but wasnt on particularly friendly terms with the others. Yori, Randy, and Mick had grown tired of the never-ending revisions and overdubs to the bands forthcoming album, Fitzys often heavy-handed business style, and his constant policing of their drug and alcohol consumption. Randy and Fitzy had frequent disagreements over the bands direction and were barely speaking at all. Yori managed to play mediator between the two even convincing Randy to withdraw his resignation from the band at one point. The two managed to get on well enough to complete mixing of the album after what seemed like an eternity. Distribution negotiations and plans for a tour to support the album began with tensions mounting internally.
Yori and Randy quietly started writing new material that was very different than anything Lazarus had done previously. This material was stripped down; simpler, up-tempo Hard Rock as opposed to the progressive Heavy Metal that Lazarus was known for playing. Randy was helping Shawn with some new stuff that he was writing at the time as well. He mentioned to Yori that Shawns material was very complimentary to what they were writing and that he should give it a listen. Shawn and Randy played him three of Shawns new songs. All agreed that it fit right in with what Yori and Randy were working on. Over many beers they all joked that they should form a band but soon laughed it off.
Things in Lazarus had come to a head after the Club III incident and the constant in-fighting. Randy declared that he would never work with Fitzy again and quit the band. At first Yori again tried to play peace-maker, but soon realized he would be unsuccessful in changing minds this time. Yori and Mick expressed similar unhappiness with the situation in Lazarus and opted to follow suit. All three agreed that they would remain together and that Fitzy and Lazarus had to go. A meeting was called and Randy fired Fitzy from the band and declared Lazarus defunct. He also expressed that they expected Fitzy to move out of the house immediately. The three didnt know it at the time, but Fitzy had arranged things legally so that he alone would own the session and master tapes from the album. At first this angered them even further, but they quickly realized that it was actually for the best. They decided that it was time to move on entirely and go in a different direction. Randy and Shawn chatted frequently over beers about the drama of the whole situation and decided that it was all bullshit and that rock n roll should be fun.
Several phone calls were made to clubs and booking agents explaining that Lazarus was no longer in existence and that there would be no tour, but that a new project was forthcoming. Mick, Yori, and Randy were now at a crossroads and had some decisions to make. All three were excited about their prospects and optimistic about the future for the first time in a long time. The three sat around the parlor in the house drinking, smoking, and pondering their next move. They all valued Shawns friendship and allowed him to sit in on their discussions. It was decided that they would form a new band. This band would be nothing at all like Lazarus. It would be a rock n roll band, not Heavy Metal and the emphasis would be on songwriting instead of technical virtuosity. They also agreed that overt political lyrics, doom and gloom, and songs about killing n shit were fuckin boring and therefore off limits this time around.
Now that some decisions were made, they were left with two new problems:
1. They needed a bass player.
2. They needed a name for the band.
Randy insisted repeatedly that camaraderie and common interests were the two most important things in finding their new bass player. Being able to drink with a guy was very important too. He also said quietly to Yori on several occasions that he wanted to convince Shawn to play bass for them. Yori was open to anything, but thought Shawn would decline. After all, Shawn was a shredder of a guitar player who had studied with Tony MacAlpine and would likely find playing bass in this band too easy. Randy expressed his confidence in being able to persuade his close friend into agreeing to join the band anyway. He started by dropping subtle hints to Shawn about great bass players while they drank and listened to Guns n Roses, Badlands, and Led Zeppelin. They both quickly discovered that they shared a mutual admiration for John Paul Jones over and above anyone else. This came as a relief as there were no intentions of playing with another busy bassist like Fitzy had been.
Another meeting was called and the question was posed to Shawn. Randy said Dude, plain and simple, we want you to play bass for this band. Yori and Mick both echoed these sentiments to Shawn. The argument was made that they were friends, already lived together, liked the same kinds of music, and that all involved were in need of musicians to complete a band. Shawn thought about it for a minute and asked if he would be able to contribute song ideas and be an equal partner in this new endeavor. They assured him that he would be an equal and that they liked the songs that he had played for them. Shawn pondered a bit more and then declared OK, Im in. This was good news and a celebration was in order. As was routine in the house, much alcohol and such was consumed over plans for the future.
Once they were sufficiently liquored-up, the four decided to jam as a unit for the first time. Yori and Randy quickly ran through the opening riff of what would become Wet n Wild. Shawn commented that the intro reminded him a little of Zeppelins The Immigrant Song, but it was different enough not to be a rip-off. Yori (not being a big Zeppelin fan) laughed as he showed him the chord changes for the rest of the song and they gave it a whirl. The song fell into place musically by the second time through and Mick began ad-libbing vocal parts. They jammed for a couple hours and hashed out the basis for five more songs. The next two weeks were spent jamming for hours a day and the new band quickly had eight original songs. They began reworking a couple from the Lazarus catalog as well as goofing on some half-assed cover songs for fun.
The guys were drinking quite heavily on a constant basis. Theyd become very familiar to the staff at the liquor store in Lafayette Square. Money was tight, so it was Schlitz beer, Night Train and Boones Farm wine, and Popov Vodka instead of the good stuff. All of this drinking led to many mornings with tremors, hangovers, and the hair of the dog. Keg parties with a cover charge (for rent money) were held almost every weekend and much debauchery followed by frequent visits from the Haverhill Police ensued. When they werent jamming, they were struggling to find themselves a name. They decided that they were a young, new band. Mick had suggested Youngblood laughing about the Rob Lowe movie of the same name, but no one really liked it. Yori was making jokes about the fact that he kept waking up with the DTs from all of the drinking that theyd been doing. Randy seconded his sentiments and Yori said No shit dude, were like the fuckin D.T. Boys or some shit. AHHH thats it!! Yori said. D.T. Boys, lets call ourselves D.T. Boys. They all liked the sound of that much better. After some further discussion they decided to spell it D.T. Boyze and then finally D.T. Boyz. They had enough material for an EP and a live set, and now they had a name. It was time to play to a live audience.
The new band found out quickly that backlash from The Club III incident towards Lazarus was fairly significant. It took some time to convince the booking agents around Boston that this band wasnt Lazarus and that they had nothing to do with Lazarus. Lazarus was Fitzy, not them, they were D.T. Boyz. While they waited for it all to blow over they decided to take Charlie Andrews up on his offer to play live in the studio on his radio show Nasty Habits on WERS in Boston. They were still working out lyrics, vocal parts, and harmonies on the new songs but decided to go forward with it anyway. It was decided that the experience would be fun and that they could use the recording as a demo until they went into the studio. The band loaded their gear into Ricos van and made the trip into Boston to WERS. Aside from a couple of technical quirks during the recording, the session went off without a hitch. Mick was still reading lyrics for some of the songs from a notepad and Randy, Yori, and Shawn found themselves mumbling some of the background vocalsHave you performed in front of an audience?The band broke up in late 1991 though a CD does exist and is for sale. Recently there have been talks amongst some of the guys and a possible reunion show may happen in the future.
***UPDATE***
The band played a reunion show Agust 21st, 2009 at The Middle east in Boston, MA. A Live CD is nearly complete, in the meantime check out "Face Value" and "Lights" on our song list.
Your musical influences
Motley Crue, Poison, old Van Halen, Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Stones, RATT, etc.What equipment do you use?
Gibson, Fender, Ibanez Guitars
Marshall and Mesa Boogie Amplifiers
Hamer and Ibanez Basses
Pearl Drums
Paiste Cymbals
Remo Drum Heads
ProMark Sticks
Shure MicrophonesAnything else?
Original Lineup: Mick DiPesa - Lead Vocals, Randy St. James - Drums & Vocals, Yori T'mico - Guitar & Vocals, Shawn Toni - Bass & Vocals.
Mach II Lineup: Randy St. James - Lead Vocals, Yori T'mico - Guitar & Vocals, Swifty T - Bass & Vocals, "Rotten" Bobby Ray - Drums.
Mach III Lineup: Randy St. James - Lead Vocals, Yori T'mico - Guitar & Vocals, Billy Dee - Bass, "Rotten" Bobby Ray - Drums. This was the longest running and most widely known lineup.
Mach IV Lineup: Randy St. James - Lead Vocals & Guitar, Yori T'mico - Guitar & Vocals, Billy Dee - Bass, C.C. Newell - Drums & Vocals.
2009 Lineup: Randy - Lead Vocals & Guitar, Yori - Lead Guitar & Vocals, Swifty - Bass & Vocals, Jay DiPersio - Drums & Vocals.
Honorable Mentions:
Greg Scott (Touch Me Hooker) Bass - Though he never actually learned the songs, he was briefly "in the band" and lived in the rehearsal room for a bit. Greg owned the COOLEST Purple B.C. Rich Warlok Bass. He was quickly replaced by Swifty T.
Joe Casey (N.E. Rocks, CrackHouse) Lead Vocals - In the band for less than a summer and appeared for one warm up show. Though they respected his vocal abilities, the band never felt he was a good fit for D.T. Boyz and quickly dismissed him. Randy Took over lead vocal duties soon after this.
Jay DiPersio (Gypsy Rose, Whoopie Cat, Trash Generation) Drums - Sat in for 1 show when Bobby was sick and he learned the band's songs on a day's notice. On stage St. James remarked that he had completely forgotten about Bobby's absence.
Roy Porter (Tin Pan Alley, Acid Jack) Bass & Vocals - Sat in for 1 show when Billy was sick and he learned the band's songs after sound check in the club's bathroom. On stage St. James teased him about being the band's "new Bass player".
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