Dirty Rotten Imbeciles

Formed in Houston, Texas in 1982, the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (D.R.I. for short) started from the remains of the hardcore band Suburbanites with Kurt Brecht on vocals, Spike Cassidy on guitar, Eric Brecht on drums, and Dennis Johnson on bass. Although the positions of bassist and drummer in the band would change, Kurt and Spike have remained in their positions since the beginning.

The band has a very dedicated fanbase, despite never gaining much attention (Beavis and Butthead reviewing Acid Rain is about as "mainstream" as they got) and are probably best known as the Trope Namer and Trope Codifier of Crossover Thrash, and is a Trope Maker in the genre, along with Suicidal Tendencies, M.O.D., C.O.C., and S.O.D.


 * 1983 -- Dirty Rotten LP
 * 1985 -- Dealing With It
 * 1987 -- Crossover
 * 1988 -- 4 of a Kind
 * 1989 -- Thrash Zone
 * 1992 -- Definition
 * 1995 -- Full Speed Ahead


 * A Good Name for a Rock Band: The name came from Kurt Brecht's father complaining about the group playing in his house and calling them "a bunch of dirty rotten imbeciles".
 * Adult Fear: Abduction, naturally.
 * Arguably Syringes in the Sandbox.
 * Author Existence Failure: Averted with guitarist Spike Cassidy. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in the mid 2000's, and with the help of chemotherapy and surgery, he managed to pull through.
 * Broken Record: Equal People only has the lines "Look at you, then look at me/There's no difference I can see" repeated again and again.
 * Who Am I? also has this.
 * Dual Meaning Song: The aforementioned Equal People can be seen as either "a plea for understanding or a sarcastic comment on the ideas that gave way to the political correctness phenomenon".
 * Face of the Band: Kurt Brecht and Spike Cassidy, for being the only original members of the band.
 * Green Aesop: Acid Rain.
 * Heavy Meta: Thrashard.
 * Karma Houdini: The protagonist of Slumlord.
 * Kill the Poor: Again, Slumlord.
 * Mascot: The Skanking Man, also known as Moshman and the Thrashing Man, which was designed by Eric Brecht for a corporate logo, according to The Other Wiki. It appears on pretty much anything D.R.I. related, such as shirts, album art, etc.
 * To a lesser extent, the soldier on the Dirty Rotten LP.
 * Precision F-Strike: The "fuck you!" at the end of I Don't Need Society is rather well placed.
 * Protest Song: I Don't Need Society, Snap, Do The Dream, Suit and Tie Guy, Violent Pacification...
 * Something Blues: Nursing Home Blues.
 * Soup Kitchen is sometimes labeled as "Soup Kitchen Blues".
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Problem Addict.
 * Three Chords and the Truth:
 * This Is Sparta: Slumlord, Abduction, Beneath The Wheel...let's just say there's a few of their songs that use this trope.
 * Trope Namer: For the genre of crossover thrash.