Formation

DYS was founded in the 1980s by singer Dave Smalley and bassist Jonathan Anastas.^[2] At the time, Smalley was a freshman at Boston College,^[1] while Anastas - at age 15 - had previously founded the short-lived band Decadence, whose song "Slam" was featured on the This Is Boston, Not LA compilation, and later adopted for a long-running MTV advertising campaign titled "Santa, the Man, the Myth, the Slam Dancer."

DYS took its name from the Department of Youth Services, a Massachusetts governmental organization where delinquent youth were housed, as well as the Alice Cooper teen power anthem "Department of Youth." Smalley and Anastas were joined by guitarist Andy Strachan and drummer Dave Collins. The band released their debut album Brotherhood, produced by punk recording legend Lou Giordano. They added lead guitar player Ross Luongo and released their second self-titled album, DYS, which took them in a metal direction and included the first power ballad ever attempted by a hardcore band. During their metal period, live sound was handled by noted hard rock producer Andrew Murdock, who works under the professional name "Mudrock” and ex-SS Decontrol drummer Chris Foley performed with the band, including their final show, a showcase for Elektra Records A&R executive Michael Alago, who was feted in a 2017 bio pic.

Initial Breakup

After DYS broke up, Anastas became a founding member of Slapshot. Dave Smalley went on to sing for Dag Nasty, ALL and Down By Law, before founding Don't Sleep. Strachan co-founded the more rock-focused band Slaughter Shack, before quitting music and converting to Sikhism. Ross Luongo went on to play guitar for the reformed Jerry's Kids.^[3] Both of DYS's 1980s albums were re-issued together on CD and in digital formats by Taang! Records (titled Fire and Ice). Brotherhood has also been reissued on CD, vinyl and digital formats by Taang! Records with the addition of the Wolfpack demo tape, featuring Hüsker Dü singing back-up vocals.

Reformation

On August 29, 2010, DYS headlined the Gallery East reunion show in front of over 1,000 fans, along with fellow Boston hardcore punk pioneers Jerry's Kids, Gang Green and The F.U.'s, Slapshot as well as New York City's Antidote. The reunion line-up included an additional guitar player, Bobby Frankenheim (Ex-Deathwish), and drummer Jack Clark of Jerry's Kids and Unnatural Axe. The show was recorded for the movie xxx ALL AGES xxx, a documentary about the hardcore punk scene in Boston in the 1980s.^[4] A live album of the performance was released on August 9, 2011, on Bridge 9 Records as "More than Fashion: LIVE from the Gallery East Reunion" on vinyl and digital formats.

After that show, and facing interest from promoters to continue the reunion shows, Smalley and Anastas recruited a new west coast-based "all star" line-up featuring ex-Foo Fighters and current Scream guitarist Franz Stahl, ex-Powerman 5000 drummer Al Pahanish Jr., and guitarist Adam Porris, who played in Far From Finished. They played the 2010 "Hometown Throwdown" at the House of Blues in Boston, in support of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and again at the same venue in support of the Dropkick Murphys' annual St. Patrick's Day stand in 2012. The band also completed 2011 and 2012 recording sessions with their old soundman, Andrew "Mudrock" Murdock, in Los Angeles. Recordings from these sessions were released as digital singles from Fall 2011 through to Fall 2012 on Bridge 9, the first being "Wild Card," released November 8, 2011, followed by "Sound of our Town" featuring Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones on guest vocals, released December 13, 2011, "Unloaded", released January 24, 2012, a cover of Motörhead's "(We Are The) Road Crew" in February 2012, a re-make of "Brotherhood" (Brotherhood 2012) in July 2012 and "True Believers" in October 2012.

This line-up of DYS played 50+ live shows in the US and Europe between 2010 and 2017. Major festival dates included the 2011 Rumble Fest in Chicago, the 2011 Sound and Fury Fest in Santa Barbara, the 2012 Black n' Blue Bowl, the 2012 SXSW Festival, the 2012 Groezrock Festival, the 2012 My Fest in Berlin, the 2012 Tsunami East Fest, the 2014 Southeast Beast Fest, the 2014 EIPER Fest and the 2017 Resurrection fest in Spain. DYS announced a summer 2020 run of European festivals and club shows that was cancelled due to COVID-19.