“No future” was one punk rock’s most famous rallying cries in the late ’70s, but that didn’t stop Joe Keithley from showing a little foresight. While Johnny Rotten was urging the world’s newly minted anarchists to destroy everything, the singer-guitarist of Vancouver hardcore icons D.O.A. was busy storing away gig posters, original lyric sheets, set lists, ticket stubs, and Polaroid photographs. These would all prove priceless when it came time to assemble the newly released book Talk – Action = 0: An Illustrated History of D.O.A. (Arsenal Pulp Press).

The man known to fans as Joey Shithead had boxes of memorabilia to rummage through when he began planning out his 304-page historical document of the Great White North’s most famous and longest-running punk band. His tendency to hang on to things evidently runs in the family.

“First off, I want to let you know that my aunt was quite a hoarder,” Keithley says with a laugh, on the line from his Burnaby home. “But I was able to throw out about five boxes of stuff where I had too many duplicates, so I don’t think there will be an episode on my hoarding on the Slice channel, or whatever it is.”

Keithley, who previously authored the memoir I, Shithead: A Life in Punk, first met with Arsenal Pulp Press head Brian Lam last year to discuss an illustrated D.O.A. poster book. The singer was well aware that there was gold in the boxes that he hung on to, as were the folks at the Vancouver publishing company.

“So, last November, when I got off a long tour,” he recalls, “I went downstairs and got about 14 or 15 boxes of posters. I went down to Arsenal with about two big boxes of posters, and they had a big boardroom table. I turned the boxes upside down, dumped them out, and said, ”˜There’s your book.’ Of course, it sort of looked like a bit of a nightmare. They basically went, ”˜Um, what the fuck?’”

Talk – Action = 0 was initially envisioned as something less ambitious, with most of the book in black-and-white and limited to posters.

“I got this book of punk-rock posters called Fucked Up and Photocopied,” Keithley says. “It’s an excellent book that came out about five or six years ago from these alternative-type pressing guys from California. I sort of used that as a template. It’s American—although SNFU, the Dayglo Abortions, and D.O.A. are in there—hardcore posters from about ’78 to ’84. If you ever see it, it’s excellent. It doesn’t have any text, but the posters are laid out really nicely with different-coloured pages. We looked at it, and thought, ”˜That’s a really nice way to do it.’”

Working with the staff at Arsenal, Keithley’s first order of business was attempting to put D.O.A.’s various gig posters in some sort of chronological order. That done, the singer began thinking about expanding Talk – Action = 0 into something bigger.

The result is a treasure trove of material for anyone who has ever considered themselves a D.O.A. fan. Fittingly, given the way the book started out, concert posters make up a major part of the fun. Taking us right back to punk rock’s DIY roots, early gig fliers are often hand-drawn with nothing more than a Sharpie. Among Keithley’s favourites is one he created for his D.O.A. precursor band, the Skulls. The reprinted poster—on which old, yellow Scotch tape marks are still visible—promises “Punk Rock” With the Skulls” at the Port Moody Legion Hall. Included are crude—to put things charitably—hand-drawn likenesses of each band member. Just as awesome is a poster advertising Stone Crazy, the Keithley band that predated the Skulls. It consists of nothing more than a lined sheet of white paper with the following written on it: “Dance With the Hard Driving Stone Crazy”—this being for a “Burnaby North Reunion Dance” at, once again, the Port Moody Legion Hall.

“That was my great artwork back when I was 18 and trying to be a rock entrepreneur,” Shithead says with a big laugh. “It was like ”˜Piss on it—I’ll make the fucking poster.’ Those are hilarious.”

Starting from those early days, Talk – Action = 0 chronicles the long and storied history of one of the country’s most important bands ever. Highlights include a shitload of rarities (e.g., reproductions of the steno notepads that Keithley used for writing the lyrics to D.O.A.’s landmark Disco Sucks EP), iconic shots of the band by legendary photographers like Bev Davies, Ed Colver, and Alex Waterhouse-Hayward, and vintage newspaper clippings. In addition to highlighting some dream shows (imagine Black Flag, D.O.A., the Descendents, and the Minutemen all on the same bill), the posters, which make up the backbone of the book, create a can’t-miss statement about the sheer longevity of D.O.A. In the beginning, the crude handmade flyers have them playing with the long-gone likes of the Dils and the Shades. The considerably more professional-looking ones of later chapters have the band billed with the likes of Fishbone and the Black Halos.

Much of the material is accompanied by short entries from Keithley, who—as anyone who’s followed his career is well aware—knows how to tell story.

“When I wrote this one, I made sure that I didn’t re-read I, Shithead,” Keithley says. “So some of the stories might be the same, but not told exactly the same way.”

One of the great ones involves a gig poster for a Reno show, advertising a band called Who Screwed You?. Keithley writes the following: “I phoned Cliff Varnell (the local promoter) and told him that we were bringing a band from Minneapolis with us called Hí¼sker Dí¼. Cliff misheard me, because Hí¼sker Dí¼ had morphed into Who Screwed You? We had a good laugh about that with them!”

Quite rightly, Keithley is proud of Talk – Action = 0, which D.O.A. celebrates with a book launch this weekend.

“I’m really happy with the way that it turned out,” he says. “I wasn’t expecting it to be so good, because we really didn’t have a concept at first. Part of what I wanted to do was show the activism side, but to balance it out you can’t have D.O.A. without the sort of fun partying, which is obviously a big part of the band—all the stupid stuff that we’ve done.”

There is, however, he suggests, a serious message behind the book, and it’s one that anyone can apply to their life: namely, that you can do anything if you’re willing to get off your ass.

“The bottom line is that I wanted to show people that you can do all sorts of things,” Keithley says. “We started out with nothing in what was not a music town at all. We went out and made a name for ourselves by working hard, and by being fortuitous and having some moxie. I wanted to show people you can do that, if you set your mind to it.

“People might say,” he continues, “that we use it [the slogan] too much, but that’s why I wanted to use Talk – Action = 0 for the book. I and everyone involved in D.O.A. at various points were real self-starters who were willing to go out and tackle any set of circumstances and somehow get by and make it happen. That’s why D.O.A. still has a following, as opposed to just being a nostalgia band. There’s some forward-thinking and some adaptability. It’s a matter of thinking on your feet.”

D.O.A. plays a Talk – Action = 0 book launch and concert at the Rickshaw Theatre on Saturday (June 4).