History Music / DOA

* CanadaEh: The band wears their nationality on their sleeve, though not in a jingoistic way (the closest they ever get is criticizing American encroachment into the Canadian economy). References to Canada and locations within it are peppered throughout the band's discography, but notable instances include the following:
** The early D.O.A. song "Royal Police" is about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (better known as UsefulNotes/TheMounties), Canada's federal police service which also serves as the local police in most of Vancouver's suburbs. An updated version of the song was included on the 2010 album ''Talk - Action = 0'', retitled "The R.C.M.P." and making the subject matter more explicit (even referencing a specific instance of police brutality: the death of Polish-Canadian immigrant [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dzieka%C5%84ski_Taser_incident Robert Dziekański]] after being tased at Vancouver International Airport).
** The album title ''True (North) Strong and Free'' is taken from a line in the Canadian national anthem, "O Canada".
** The cover of the album ''Loggerheads'' features an iconic photo of a Canadian soldier facing off with a Mohawk warrior during the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oka_Crisis Oka Crisis]], and the opening track "Logjam" is a TakeThat against corrupt Canadian politicians, "free-traders" who ransack the economy, racist "rednecks", and the oppression of indigenous peoples.
** The video for their cover of fellow Canadian band Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business" features them playing hockey.

** Averted by Joe shortly before the band's 1990 hiatus when he accidentally cut off a small piece of his left ring finger with a chainsaw that was used as a prop in the band's live show; it only temporarily affected his ability to play guitar and he says the chunk "grew back".

** The video for their cover of Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business" features them playing hockey.

* GutturalGrowler [=/=] HarshVocals: Joe is known for his low, gravelly voice, which has only gotten lower and gravellier with age.

* FilkSong:
** "Rosemary's Baby" off ''13 Flavours of Doom'' is inspired by [[Film/RosemarysBaby the film of the same name]].
** "Captain Kirk, Spock, Scotty and Bones" off ''Talk - Action = 0'' is about the lead characters (minus Sulu) of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''.
** "The Man With No Name" off ''We Come In Peace'' is about Creator/ClintEastwood's character from Creator/SergioLeone's Film/DollarsTrilogy of films.

* AllDrummersAreAnimals: Original drummer Chuck Biscuits earned comparisons to Music/TheWho's Keith Moon in more ways than one; in addition to absolutely pummeling his drums, he's remembered for his irresponsible behavior, culminating in him ''[[https://archive.is/20130119183702/http://www.crawdaddyarchive.com/index.php/2010/03/11/chuck-biscuits-could-not-care-less-you-thought-he-was-dead/ tricking]] a blogger and fan that he had died of throat cancer'' in 2009, years after his retirement from music, prompting his surviving brother Bob to drive down to his home in Seattle to confirm he was still alive.

* GreenAesop: Joe is an outspoken environmentalist who has traditionally aligned himself with the British Columbia Green Party, and songs like "Hole In The Sky" and "Pipeline Fever" sharply criticize environmental destruction and the wealthy elites who profit from it. The band has also played numerous benefit concerts in favour of environmentalist causes.
* GriefSong: "Junk City Nowhere" is dedicated to former drummer and childhood friend Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery, who died of an accidental heroin overdose in 1994.

* HardcorePunk: They're one of the band's that helped put the genre on the map and are widely considered the TropeNamer.

* MinisculeRocking: ''Hardcore '81'' contains four songs less than a minute long: "Musical Interlude" a.k.a. "Oo Ee Oo Ee Oo Ah Ah" (22 seconds), "The Kenny Blister Song" (16 seconds), and "Waiting For You" (45 seconds).

* ReligionRantSong: Joe proudly proclaims his contempt for organized religion in songs like "I See Your Cross" and "That's Why I Am An Atheist" (as well as their accompanying music videos), and has This was also the theme for the packaging and promo of the album ''Festival of Atheists''.

* TropeMaker / TropeNamer: The band's album ''Hardcore '81'' and the subsequent North American tour of the same name is often credited with popularizing [[Main/HardcorePunk "hardcore"]] as the name of a punk genre, though the whole story is a little more complicated: Joe offhandedly described D.O.A. and other bands like it (such as Music/BlackFlag) as "hardcore" in a 1979 print interview, which soon inspired the members of Nevada-based group [[Music/SevenSeconds 7 Seconds]] to dub their own genre "hardcore new wave" (the terms "punk" and [[Main/NewWaveMusic "new wave"]] were often used interchangeably back then).

** Brian "Wimpy Roy" Goble -- bass, occasional lead vocals (1982-1995)

* HardcorePunk: They're one of the band's that helped put the genre on the map. They're also the TropeNamer.

* ReligionRantSong: Joe proudly proclaims his contempt for organized religion in songs like "I See Your Cross" and "That's Why I Am An Atheist". This was also the theme for the packaging and promo of the album ''Festival of Atheists''.

* SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein: Joe is known for slurring his vocals a lot of the time, particularly on earlier records, especially on faster songs (and ''especially'' on the even faster live versions).

Several lineup changes later, the band first called it quits in 1990 after releasing their 5th and 6th studio albums ''Murder'' and ''Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors'', the latter a collaboration with ex-Dead Kennedys frontman Music/JelloBiafra and their best selling-record to date. Less than two years later, they were back at it with new drummer Ken Jensen and a new studio album, ''13 Flavours of Doom''. Tragedy struck in 1995 when Jensen died in a house fire, and subsequently lineup changes became no less frequent than before.

** Jesse "J.J. Heathen" Pinner -- drums (2010-2013)

** Jesse Pinner = "J.J. Heathen"

The band is often credited with naming the hardcore genre: Joey Shithead offhandedly described D.O.A. and bands like it as “hardcore” in a 1979 fanzine interview, and iconic Nevada band 7 Seconds soon consciously adopted the word as a descriptor of their sound. D.O.A.’s 1981 album ''Hardcore ‘81'' and the extensive North American tour undertaken to promote it likely helped spread the term around. In 2019, the album’s iconic status was cemented when it won the Polaris Heritage Music Prize (beating out classic albums by Music/TheBand, Music/JoniMitchell, and Music/SarahMcLachlan in an online poll).

** ''Live Free Or Die'' features covers of Barry [=McGuire=]’s “Eve of Destruction”, Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival’s “Bad Moon Rising”, and a re-recording of “Marijuana Motherfucker”.

** "Dance O' Death" off ''Let's Wreck the Party'' was the band experimenting with a Music/HipHop (though Joe says they actually had funk in mind while recording it). A music video was released for the song, and Joe notes proudly in his autobiography that both it and their idol [[Music/TheRamones Dee Dee Ramone]]'s video for his solo rap single "Funky Man" were among the "worst rap videos of 1987" according to Creator/{{MTV}}.

** Harry Homo -- lead vocals (1978, lasted one show)

** Guys named "Harry Homo" and "Randy Romance" were in the band briefly as well, though it's not public knowledge what their real names were.