History
Soon after forming in 1977 the band relocated to San Francisco, where they would have a significant influence on that city's embryonic punk scene (bassist Tony Kinman would play very briefly with San Francisco punk band The Avengers during 1977), and then Los Angeles, becoming one of the major bands in the early Los Angeles punk scene too. They were known for their conspicuous radical left politics, and for a strong melodic sense that earned them the nickname "punk rock Everly Brothers".
Their debut single was "I Hate The Rich" / "You're Not Blank" (the latter most famously covered by Minneapolis punk band Dillinger Four), on Los Angeles-based label What? Records (also home to The Germs, amongst others), originally released in 1977 in what collectors refer to as the "Oils" sleeve - the lettering chosen for the band's logo looking more like "The Oils" than "The Dils" at first glance. This was later reissued by the same label in a more easy-to-decipher font. Their next record was their critical high-point, 1977's "Class War" / "Mr.Big" (the former most famously covered by Canadian punks D.O.A., issued on L.A.'s groundbreaking Dangerhouse label, in a pressing of 1500 copies entitled "198 Seconds Of The Dils". The last contemporary release was a three-sided double-7", "Made In Canada", which showed a gathering roots rock orientation. The Dils broke up in 1980.
Music from the Dils (including material unreleased during the band's lifetime) remains available.
In their early years, Stephen Schwartz was manager of the Dils.
Read more about this topic: The Dils
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“If usually the “present age” is no very long time, still, at our pleasure, or in the service of some such unity of meaning as the history of civilization, or the study of geology, may suggest, we may conceive the present as extending over many centuries, or over a hundred thousand years.”
—Josiah Royce (1855–1916)
“I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)