Down By Law

Down by Law emerged as a Los Angeles punk band whose founding members drew from prior stints in All, Dag Nasty, Chemical People, D.Y.S., and Clawhammer. Though the group never matched the commercial peaks reached by Pennywise and the Offspring, its potent fusion of melody and independent punk spirit secured a devoted underground audience throughout the 1990s through key releases such as Blue, Punkrockacademyfightsong, and All Scratched Up!. After stepping away from the studio following 2003, the band resurfaced nearly a decade later with Champions at Heart in 2012, preserving its reputation for elite melodic hardcore and pop-punk.

Vocalist and guitarist Dave Smalley, who had already left All after that band’s opening two albums and had earlier played in Dag Nasty, launched Down by Law in 1989. He recruited ex-Clawhammer guitarist Chris Bagarozzi plus the Chemical People rhythm section of bassist Ed Urlik and drummer Dave Nazworthy. That lineup held only through the 1992 sophomore album Blue. When Punkrockacademyfightsong arrived in 1994, Smalley had assembled a new lineup that included guitarist Sam Williams III (formerly of Balance and Slap of Reality), bassist Angry John DiMambro (ex-Clay Idols and Leonards), and drummer Hunter Oswald. The album yielded hits with “Hit or Miss” and a high-energy cover of the Proclaimers’ “500 Miles.” Stability continued except at the drum position, occupied by Danny Westman on the acclaimed 1996 release All Scratched Up! and by Chris Lagerborg on 1997’s Last of the Sharpshooters. In 1999 the band issued its fifth and final Epitaph album, Fly the Flag. Windwardtidesandwaywardsails, released by Union Records in 2003, brought original drummer Nazworthy back, yet it remained the group’s last studio album for nine years.

Following an extended break, Down by Law reunited in 2009 for tours spanning North and South America. They signed with DC Jam Records in 2011, leading to the 2012 full-length Champions at Heart. The seven-track mini-album Revolution Time appeared in 2013, followed by the band’s eighth studio album, All In, on Cleopatra Records in 2018. In 2020 the group reissued Revolution Time as a full-length by adding studio outtakes and three acoustic covers, while the new 13-track studio album Lonely Town was scheduled for release in February 2021.