Dürt

AJ McKinney Drums  
Kevin Rhodenbaugh Bass, Vocals  
Matt Walden Vocals, Guitar, Casio  
Mike Tarr Bass  
Norm Auzins Drums  
Tim Hargrove Bass  
Todd Cravens Guitar, Vocals, Casio  

Active: 1985 - 1987
Location: Kokomo, Indiana

Notes: In the winter of 1985, four bored high school recluses from Kokomo, Indiana, got together and did the most unlikely thing - they started a punk rock band. The band was called Dürt, but the music was dirtier. With Todd Cravens on guitar, Mike Tarr on bass, Norm Auzins on drums, and former Parasyte, Matt Walden (christened “Jello” for medicinal reasons) on vocals and occasional guitar, Dürt wrote a bunch of tunes and recorded Dining Room Demos, which became a neighborhood smash and garnered undulating reviews throughout the thriving Kokomo punk scene. Tunes like "Eat The Dead" and "School's a Drag" showcase the bands wit, humor, and physicality, while virtually reinventing “tardcore,” the sub-punk style we've all come to know and love. On the other hand, the album included delicate numbers such as "Will I Ever Find Out?" and "Cadence Of Souls/Heroes," which, if you weren't paying close attention, were almost profound, depending on what the listener had for breakfast.

Fast-forward six months later with Mike Tarr at boot camp and Kevin Rhodenbaugh in his place (and playing Tarr's ever-ready Hondo bass - the key to the band's microtonic musings), Dürt further refined their chemistry to what they coined “the shit sound” and recorded The Buetow Sessions. New songs such as "Skate Skank" and Rhodenbaugh's "Hypocrite" displayed a band with a renewed purpose - to eat or be eaten.

Fast-forward another month with Norm Auzins at Culver Military Academy (temporarily replaced by local metal guru A.J. McKinney on the traps), the classic Live At Rich Fruth's captures the band full-on and at their zenith. Unwittingly performing their last show under the moniker Dürt (they changed their name to The Mansons), they let it all hang out; ferociously antagonizing the audience with a barrage of verbal and physical contempt that left spectators scratching their collective head. New songs such as "(No More) Mr. Nice Guy," "Modern Life 2," and "Death Sentence" are indicative of where the band was headed - absolutely nowhere.