Early days (1982–1986) Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (then-called US D.R.I. which was basically the Suburbanites with Cassidy on guitar. Cassidy's roommate played guitar in the Suburbanites. The group started practicing at Kurt and Eric's parents' home. The noise made by the band allegedly drew regular complaints from Kurt and Eric's father. This led to the band gaining their name when they were described as a "bunch of dirty rotten imbeciles." This was also an inspiration for the song "Madman," which featured a clip of Kurt and Eric's father interrupting a band practice to complain about the noise. They initially went under the name US D.R.I for a brief period before shortening it to D.R.I. Presumably, the "US" stood for the band, as mentioned in interviews off of the extended version of the
Dirty Rotten CD. Photos of the band can be found with the original US D.R.I logo. The "Skanker Man" logo was designed by original drummer Eric Brecht as part of an assignment entitled 'signage', when both he and Kurt were attending the same design course at art college. Two months later, on July 2, 1982, the band played their first show at Joe Star's OMNI, in Houston. On November 6 and 7, 1982, D.R.I. recorded their first release, the
Dirty Rotten EP, fitting 22 songs into 18 minutes on a 7-inch EP. Not long before its release, US D.R.I. had changed their name to just D.R.I., He was replaced with a 17-year-old Felix Griffin. Also in 1984, one of their songs, "Snap" appeared on the anti-war benefit compilation
P.E.A.C.E. along with other famous hardcore and punk bands such as
Crass,
D.O.A., Dead Kennedys and
MDC. D.R.I.'s second full-length album,
Dealing with It!, was released in March 1985 on
Metal Blade Records. In November 1995, D.R.I. released
Full Speed Ahead. By the spring of 2004, D.R.I. had demoed at least four new songs for a potential eighth studio album, including "Against Me", which was available downloading at the "record news" page from their official web site for several years. During 1999, D.R.I. appeared as one of the headlining bands on the "Social Chaos" in North America Tour. One of their songs, "I'm The Liar", is used for a Social Chaos Tour CD compilation. During August 1999, in the middle of the tour, Chumly left the band after tiring of touring. He was replaced by Harald Oimoen. Oimoen had been working on and off with the band for years, doing everything from photography and merchandise to bass tech. The band resumed the tour missing only two shows. The turn of the millennium saw the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles headline the "Millennium 2000 Tour". The constant cycle of touring continued into 2001 with D.R.I. extensively touring the United States on the "Old School Tour" culminating in a headlining appearance at the Milwaukee Metal Fest, and other tours of the United States, Japan, Europe and South America into 2003. In 2003, Beer City reissued "Dirty Rotten CD," which featured the original full length
Dirty Rotten LP and the
Violent Pacification 7-inch EP as well as a number of never-before-released bonus tracks and interviews. Included within the bonus tracks were live recordings of D.R.I.'s first show ever and footage from the band's only performance at New York's famous
CBGB's from the 1984
Violent Pacification tour. In 2003, Beer City also reissued
Dealing with It!; the CD contained the original album plus never-before-heard bonus tracks as well as live video footage including a mid-80s interview from a San Francisco
Public-access television cable TV show. After another tour in 2004, the band released ''Live At CBGB's
CD and DVD, and the reissue of the Crossover album, all on Beer City. The reissue of Crossover'' was delayed due to Cassidy's illness.
Hiatus, recovery of Cassidy, and continued touring (2006–2010) In March 2006, Cassidy was diagnosed with colon cancer, which put the band's performances and recording on hiatus until his recovery. In December 2006, Cassidy had completed all radiation and chemotherapy; a one-foot section of the large intestine (colon) was removed through an eight-inch incision in his stomach. An announcement on the band's website declared Cassidy cancer free as of August 2008. Cassidy commented on his return to the stage: "I am very happy D.R.I. will be playing again, it has been far too long. We are currently setting up weekends to test the water and rebuild the stamina that we were known for. We all look forward to restarting up exactly where we left off." On April 13, 2010, Beer City Records reissued "Crossover – Millennium Edition" on LP and CD. Finally after many years
Crossover was once again available. This reissue was remastered by the original co-producer/engineer Bill Metoyer. The CD version contains eleven bonus tracks including five songs from their performance at NYC's The Ritz. That same year, the label reissued
The Dirty Rotten EP,
The Dirty Rotten LP,
Violent Pacification 7-inch and
Dealing with It! on vinyl.
''But Wait... There's More!'', lineup changes and possible new album (2011–present) From 2011 through 2019, the band regularly trekked the United States, as well as tours of the United Kingdom, Europe, and South America. The
COVID-19 pandemic canceled or postponed dates in 2020 but the band returned to the road in 2021 and planned for a 40th-anniversary tour in 2022 across the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Central America. D.R.I. entered a Southern California studio in October 2014 to begin recording an EP containing new material. It was produced by Bill Metoyer, Vocalist
Kurt Brecht has described the EP as "more punk rock than metal". Although no longer working with D.R.I., one of the band's old record labels, Rotten Records, in 2015, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in a suit against a
Comcast user who allegedly downloaded and shared the band's sixth album. According to the lawsuit, Rotten Records hired Rightscorp to monitor
BitTorrent networks for infringement. The company claims it connected to the defendants' BitTorrent clients and downloaded a full copy of the album, later verifying that they were identical to the original copyright works. On September 17, 2014, it was announced that Rob Rampy had departed from the band, citing serious injury as the reason. He was then replaced by Brandon Karns, who subsequently left the band shortly thereafter. Karns was then replaced by Walter "Monsta" Ryan. However, Rampy rejoined D.R.I in 2018. In 2017, the band parted ways with their longtime bassist Harald Oimoen, who was replaced by Greg Orr (ex-Attitude Adjustment). In 2024, long time drummer Rampy left the band and was replaced by Danny Walker. In January 2019, Metal Addicts reported that D.R.I. had been working on their first full-length studio album since 1995's
Full Speed Ahead, though no new material has been released as of 2026. In 2025, the band participated in the
Hell's Heroes music festival held at the White Oak Music Hall in
Houston. == Musical style and legacy ==