Dwarves - Biography
By Scott Feemster
In a genre of music that often prides itself on overkill and hedonism, the Dwarves have built up a reputation over the years as one of punk's most outrageous performing units. Built around the core members of vocalist Blag Dahlia and guitarist HeWhoCannotBeNamed, and featuring a rotating cast of band members over the years, the Dwarves have constantly tried to outdo themselves by finding new ways to anger and provoke their audience, as well as their critics.
Trying to separate fact from fiction in the story of the Dwarves is difficult, but this much is known about the band's early formation. Vocalist Blag Dahlia (real name Paul Cafaro) and guitarist HeWhoCannotBeNamed formed an early version of the band in 1983 to perform at one of their suburban Chicago high school's pep rallies. Taking the name Sexually Deprived Youth, the band did not go over well with school officials, but did manage to make a scene, and ensured the band an instant following among the area's punks and outsiders. The group soon changed their name to Suburban Nightmare, and soon after released an EP, called Hard Day's Nightmare, on the small Midnight Records label. The group's early sound was a mix of Nuggets-era '60's style garage rock mixed with the aggression and dark humor of punk. In 1985, the group changed it's name to the Dwarves, and the next year recorded their first album under that name, Horror Stories (Voxx). Already, the band was starting to leave it's '60's garage-rock sound and head towards a more hardcore punk sound. The group toured around the U.S., and quickly built up a reputation for it's wild onstage antics, which often included Dahlia taking off his clothes, (HeWhoCannotBeNamed started making his on-stage uniform a Mexican wrestling mask and either gold lame briefs, or nothing at all), and was known to often cut himself or hurt himself in one way or another, and often get in fistfights with members of the audience. The group was also becoming known for their hard-fast shows that would often last only 15 minutes and would end in their drums and amps being trashed. The group relocated to San Francisco somewhere around 1986, and continued their trail of destruction, and even had a petition circulating around the famed Gilman Street venue in Berkeley asking the band to “stop hurting people and stop eating meat”. The group released Toolin' For A Warm Teabag (Nasty Gash) in 1988, before coming to the attention of the growing Sub Pop record label in 1989. Sub Pop probably saw the band as a controversy and publicity generating machine, and a way to assert the label's punk-rock roots. The Dwarves saw their signing to Sub Pop as a way to make some more cash, piss off more people, and take their trail of destruction international.
The Dwarves definitely upped the ante for their first Sub Pop release, 1990's Blood, Guts and Pussy. If the cover art showing two nude models and a dwarf covered in blood, (with the dwarf seemingly also sodomizing a bunny), wasn't enough to anger the general public, then the 13 songs clocking in at a little over 14 minutes, with such charming titles as “Let's Fuck”, “Fuck You Up And Get High”, “Fuckhead”, and “Motherfucker” were sure to do the trick. The group also released the Lucifer's Crank EP the same year, on the No. 6 Records label. The band toured and capitalized on their reputation for outrageous behavior and questionable acts, and followed up the next year with Thank Heaven For Little Girls (Sub Pop)(1991). The group continued their punk rock assault, though there were more subtle shadings of a bit of '50's-era rock thrown in with their tales of depravity and bad taste. As if the Dwarves couldn't shock any more, it was announced by the band in 1992 that guitarist HeWhoCannotBeNamed had been stabbed to death in Philadelphia. The group released a press release, complete with where to send condolences, and included a tribute to HeWhoCannotBeNamed on their 1993 release Sugarfix (Sub Pop). Shortly after the album came out, it was revealed that it the guitarist's death was a hoax, and was yet another in a long line of sick jokes perpetrated by the Dwarves. The Dwarves hadn't even clued in their label, Sub Pop, on the joke, and the owners of the label, Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt, had just experienced the real-life losses of friends Charlie Ondras (Unsane/Boss Hog) and Stephanie Sargeant (Seven Year Bitch), and didn't find the practical joke/publicity stunt funny at all. Sub Pop officially dropped the Dwarves from their roster, and the band continued on touring for a while before going on hiatus. The group reformed in 1997, and though they were still fierce and definitely punk rock, they seemed not as bent on total destruction as they had been before. The band released Are Young And Good Looking on the Theologian label in 1997, which contained some of the group's heaviest yet cleanest sounding songs in their career. The Dwarves released the compilation album Free Cocaine in 1999 on the Recess Records label, which gathered together various single, EP, and compilation tracks the band had completed over the course of their career up to that point. Soon after, the group signed with the larger punk-based label Epitaph, and delivered the album Come Clean (Epitaph) in 2000. The album artwork, recalling the band's earlier Blood, Guts & Pussy album cover, again featuring dwarf model Bobby Faust posing nude with two female models, this time covered with bath bubbles. The sound of the album was a bit of a change of pace for the band, as it added a more pop-punk sound and even bits of metal and industrial rock sounds into the mix. The group toured heavily in support of the album, adding and subtracting various band members as they went along. The group released the album How To Win Friends and Influence People on the Reptilian Records label in 2001, which featured the group tearing through new versions of some of their old favorites. The Dwarves returned in 2004 with a new label, Sympathy for the Record Industry, and a new album, The Dwarves Must Die. With a cover that featured Faust nailed to a cross and held aloft by naked models, it was a sure bet that the album would probably not be featured in Wal-Mart, but it sent a signal that the Dwarves had not backed down on their desire to shock and provoke. The album expanded on the various musical influences featured on Come Clean, even adding a bit of hip-hop into the mix. Guests who appeared on the record included Dexter Holland from the Offspring, Nash Kato from Urge Overkill, Nick Oliveri from Queens of the Stone Age, (in reality, Oliveri is Dwarves on-again off-again bassist Rex Everything), and famed Laugh-In announcer Gary Owens. The group, with yet another line-up of the band centered around Blag Dahlia and HeWhoCannotBeNamed, toured around the world in support of the album, and a live DVD of the festivities, Fuck You Up and Get Live (MVD) is released in 2005. The group followed up the next year with another DVD release, FEFU: The DVD (MVD), which featured a video the band completed with the Suicide Girls collective for the title track of the DVD, along with archival footage of the band playing, (and getting in numerous fights with the audience), over the years, as well as interviews and extra bonus footage.