DA! was a Chicago-based

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

band of the early 1980s, known for their songs "Dark Rooms" and "Time Will Be Kind". Their sound was influenced by artists such as

the Cure The Cure are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Crawley in 1976 by Robert Smith (musician), Robert Smith (vocals, guitar) and Lol Tolhurst (drums). The band's current line-up comprises Smith, Perry Bamonte (guitar and keyboards), Reev ...

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes due to th ...

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

and

Siouxsie and the Banshees Siouxsie and the Banshees ( ) were a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. Post-punk pioneers, they were widely influential, both over their contemporaries and later ...

History

DA! was formed in 1977 by a 17-year-old singer and bass guitarist, Lorna Donley, along with the guitarist and keyboard player Evelyn Marquis and the drummer Dawn Fisher. This line-up performed only once, and the guitarist Gaylene Goudreau (who had previously played with the all-girl punk band Lois Lain) was added in late 1979. By early 1980, DA! had replaced Marquis with the guitarist David Thomas (who had previously played in St. Louis punk bands The Singapores and Cool Jerk). By that summer, the band had become a fixture on Chicago's early

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

music scene, performing regularly at area clubs like Exit, Oz, O'Banion's, Tuts, Waves and Space Place and opening for visiting groups including the Fall,

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

and

Mission of Burma Mission of Burma was an American post-punk band from Boston, Massachusetts. The group formed in 1979 with Roger Miller (rock musician), Roger Miller on guitar, Clint Conley on bass guitar, bass, Peter Prescott (musician), Peter Prescott on drum k ...

. DA!'s manager, Terry Nelson, a local punk radio DJ, formed Autumn Records with the producer George Kapoulas. DA! began to record demos in late summer 1980 with Timothy Powell and Metro Mobile. The first single, "Dark Rooms"/"White Castles", was produced at Acme Studios by Kapoulas and Mike Rasfeld. With the spring 1981 release of the single, DA! attracted attention from outside Chicago, and performed in Milwaukee with the Ama-Dots, in Minneapolis with

Hüsker Dü Hüsker Dü () was an American punk rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continuous members were guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer/vocalist Grant Hart. They first gained notability as a hardc ...

, and in Madison with X. Kapoulas, an engineer at WGN-TV, produced a music video for the single and "Dark Rooms" went into heavy rotation on "Rock America", a pre-MTV video cable service available in music clubs. "Dark Rooms" was the "music video of the day" at ''

Chicagoist ''Gothamist'' is a New York City–centric blog operated by New York Public Radio. From 2003 to 2018, Gothamist LLC was the operator, or in some cases franchisor, of eight city-centric websites that focused on news, events, food, culture, and ...

'' on March 22, 2013. DA! appeared on the next Autumn Records release, a 1981 compilation LP titled ''Busted at Oz''. Recorded over three nights, it had live recordings by DA! and other Chicago punk bands including

Strike Under Strike Under was an influential Chicago punk rock band of the early 1980s. It was started by Steve Bjorklund (singer-guitarist) after the demise of his previous band, The Rabbits. The principal musicians, besides Bjorklund, were his brother Chris ...

Naked Raygun Naked Raygun is an American punk rock band that formed in Chicago in 1980. The band was active from 1980 to 1992, along with reunion shows in 1997, and since 2006. Naked Raygun have cited various bands as influences, including Buzzcocks, Wire, ...

, Silver Abuse, The Subverts and

The Effigies The Effigies are an American punk rock band from Chicago. The band played its first show in 1980 and was active initially for approximately a decade, undergoing multiple personnel changes (with frontman John Kezdy the only constant) before disban ...

. Following the release of the ''Busted at Oz'' LP, Fisher was briefly replaced by the Strike Under drummer, Bob Furem. DA! recorded the ''Time Will Be Kind'' EP with Powell at Sound Impressions in late 1981, but by the time of its 1982 release, the group had disbanded. DA! and Donley appeared in ''

You Weren’t There ''You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk, 1977–1984'' is a 2007 documentary film about punk subculture in Chicago from 1977 through 1984. The film was written and directed by Joe Losurdo and Christina Tillman, and profiles the punk ba ...

'', a 2007 film about the Chicago punk scene from 1977 to 1984. In 2010, Factory 25 Records released ''Exclamation Point'', a vinyl LP compiling the band's previously released and unreleased material. DA! played two Chicago shows in 2010 to support the LP, the first with Furem on drums, the second with a new drummer, Jason Batchko. Their reunion concert at the Abbey Pub was documented in Robert Beshara's ''DA! Concert Film'' (2012), which was screened at the Chicago International Movies and Music Festival. Donley, later a librarian in the

Chicago Public Library The Chicago Public Library (CPL) is the public library system that serves the Chicago, City of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. It consists of 81 locations, including a central library, three regional libraries, and branches distributed thr ...

system, died on December 1, 2013, due to a ruptured aorta. The music historian

Joel Whitburn Joel Carver Whitburn (November 29, 1939 – June 14, 2022) was an American author and music historian, responsible for setting up the Record Research, Inc. series of books on record chart placings. Early life Joel Carver Whitburn was born in W ...

once speculated that the band had recorded " Ready 'N Steady", a lost song credited to "D.A." that appeared on the ''Billboard''

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

chart for three weeks in 1979. The band insisted that they had not recorded it, and Whitburn withdrew his speculation regarding DA!'s involvement with the song. The song was found in 2016, at which point the "D.A." who recorded that song was revealed to be the amateur singer/songwriter Dennis A. Lucchesi of California.

Discography

Singles/EPs

* "Dark Rooms/"White Castles" 7" single (Autumn Records 1981) * ''Time Will Be Kind'' 12" EP (Autumn Records 1982)

Compilation albums

* ''Exclamation Point'' LP (Factory 25 Records 2010)

Compilation appearances

* "Fish Shit" and "The Killer" on ''Busted at Oz'' LP (Autumn Records 1981/Permanent Records 2011) * "Dark Rooms" on the ''You Weren't There'' LP (Factory 25 Records 2009) - Soundtrack

References

External links

"Dark Rooms" video on YouTube

"Next to Nothing" video on YouTube

"Discovered 8 subliminal images in music video: DA! Next to Nothing (1982)" video on YouTube

Da! 2010 live video on Vimeo

Interview with Lorna Donley and David Thomas, 1988, ''Chicago Tribune''

Interview with Lorna Donley and David Thomas, 2010, ''Victim of Time''

Interview with Lorna Donley, 2010, ''Gapers Block''
{{authority control American girl groups American post-punk music groups Musical groups established in 1978 Rock music groups from Illinois Musical groups from Chicago 1978 establishments in Illinois