DOA

The first wave of Punk was on it’s death bed in the late 70s. Around this time, North American bands such as Bad Brains, Black Flag, Germs, Dead Kennedys, and Vancouver’s D.O.A started playing a little faster, and applying DIY ethics to their approach (touring, recording, etc). In 1981 D.O.A released their second album “Hardcore ’81”. Many credit this album title with establishing the term “Hardcore Punk”. Skip forward to 2019…D.O.A and their front man Joe Keithley are awarded the prestigious Polaris Heritage Prize in Canada for their seminal classic “Hardcore ’81—besting fellow Canadians like Sarah McLachlan.

As filming begins for an upcoming documentary about Joe Keithley and his 40+ years of political activism and foray into local political office, we’re proud to offer this limited edition “Something Better Change” t-shirt. The upcoming film; Directed by Scott Crawford (“Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC”) shares the same name as D.O.A.’s seminal ‘Something Better Change” LP and promises to be an exhaustive look at Keithley and his dual career as a punk rock activist and grassroots politician.