POISON BOYS – Viva Rock and Roll

According to who you talk to, Rock and Roll is either dying out, evolving, or back in full swing. In the case of the POISON BOYS from Chicago, they’re pumping new life into the genre and keeping it as punk as possible. Staying true to the sounds of late 1960’s/early 1970’s protopunk bands like THE STOOGES, NEW YORK DOLLS, and FLAMIN’ GROOVIES, and mixing them with late 1970’s New York and UK punk bands like the HEARTBREAKERS, DEAD BOYS, THE VIBRATORS, and SLAUGHTER & THE DOGS, with a little HANOI ROCKS glam for good measure, the band is a breath of fresh air in today’s Punk and Rock and Roll scene.

One of the hardest working Rock and Roll bands in recent years, POISON BOYS are hot off the presses with their new full length LP ‘Don’t You Turn on Me’ on Riot Records. The band’s influences are clear on the album, bringing punk energy reminiscent of late 1970’s UK bands SLAUGHTER & THE DOGS, THE VIBRATORS and GENERATION X (“Day by Day,” “Living on the Edge of the Knife,” “Little Speedway Girl,” “Keep Knocking,” “She’s Nowhere,” “Can’t Get You Out of My Mind”), mixing it with early 1970’s ROLLING STONES, FLAMIN’ GROOVIES, BERLIN BRATS, 70’S IGGY POP, and MC5 (“Don’t You Turn on Me,” “Sweet Marie,” “I Was Cryin”), and late 70’s New York Rock and Roll sounds of Johnny Thunders (“Dick in the Dirt”, “Take a Chance With Me”), and the Dead Boys (“Nothing but Darkness”).

In early 2014, longtime friends Matt Dudzik and Mike Lippman felt there weren’t enough real Rock and Roll bands left, especially in Chicago. The two quickly put a band and demo together and began playing shows in the Chicago area, steadily gaining a following throughout the summer of 2014. Tragically, in the fall of that year, Mike passed away at the age of 23 in an accidental drug overdose. In honor and continual recognition of their friendship, Matt decided to continue the band and the vision the two of them shared for the future of the POISON BOYS.

Over the next three years, the band completed their first tour of the East Coast US in 2015 (kicking it off opening for THE VIBRATORS in Chicago), released two 7″ EPs, Headed for Disaster (No Front Teeth Records, 2016) & Bad Mouth (NFT Records, 2017), and ended 2017 with a successful “Bad Mouth in the South” Southern US tour. In 2018 the band played a four-show West Coast stint in April dubbed the “Lost LA Weekend,” a two-week “Wasted in the West” West Coast US tour in September (opening for THE ZEROS in Los Angeles), and released their first music video for the track “Bustin’ Out” from their third 7″ Poppin’ Eyes and Flashing Feet (White Zoo Records, 2019).

The following year was hugely successful as the band released their debut full length ‘Out of My Head’ (Dead Beat Records, 2019), two music videos “Tear Me Apart” and “Been Here All Night” from the LP, and completed a triumphant East Coast/Canada tour in support of it all. The album was far from a straightforward “Punk n Roll” record, with songs ranging in style from THE STOOGES’ “Raw Power”-inspired proto-punk classics like the title track “Out of My Head” and “Tear Me Apart,” to more sweet sounding glam stompers like “Cut Right Out” and “Been Here All Night,” to the old school Bomp! Records/HANOI ROCKS influenced, sax-drenched hit “Desperado.” The album also includes an absolutely ripping cover of LARRY WILLIAMS’ 1958 Rock n Roll standard “Slow Down” and the DEAD BOYS’ teenage lament “I Won’t Look Back.”

POISON BOYS were on an upswing immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, playing House of Blues Chicago opening for UK punk heroes THE ADICTS to a crowd of 600+ people in Chicago. Their next 7″ Mean Queen b/w Take a Chance With Me (Hobo Wolfman Records, 2020) (the latter written by JERRY NOLAN of the NEW YORK DOLLS/HEARTBREAKERS) was released in the fall of 2020.
The boys used their downtime wisely during the pandemic, spending the next year recording and releasing digital singles for their second full length ‘Don’t You Turn on Me’ (Riot Records, 2021/2022).