Copyright 2002 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company

The Houston Chronicle

November 04, 2002, Monday 3 STAR EDITION

SECTION: A; Pg. 17 Metfront
SOURCE: Staff
BYLINE: MARY FLOOD

'Crime musicians' lay down the law, lay down the funk

THE BAND GOT its name from an early "fan" who said it was the punishment they
deserved for playing.

Now Death by Injection, the local law enforcement-oriented rock group, has
put out its first CD - just 19 years after its first performance.

"It looks like a CD. And it even has a bar code," said Doug O'Brien, a lawyer
and former assistant Harris County district attorney who plays lead guitar and
banjo and sings.

The self-dubbed "Texas crime music" group started in 1983, when all members
were prosecutors and were in their 30s. Now the band is composed of two
prosecutors, three former prosecutors and a Houston Police Department detective.

They started playing cover songs, mostly '60s rock. Now they play their own
music about the things they've seen in the criminal justice system. The CD,
available at amazon.com and DeathbyInjection.com, is titled Down at the
Courthouse. It includes such would-be favorites as Don't Say Nothing 'til the
Lawyer Come, Witness Stand, There Goes My Little Honey and the alleged surfer
tune Lock'um Up, Lock'um Up, Throw Away the Key.

"In that one the crowd chants. Well, actually the band chants. But we'd like
the crowd to chant," said O'Brien. "We also think it would be a good chant when
hockey players are put in the penalty box."

The group regularly plays the county prosecutor Christmas party and
occasional FBI functions. But they've also played Rockefellers, Party on the
Plaza, Splashtown and other venues where fewer people are carrying guns.

"We found the name Death by Injection kind of scares some people. So when we
do something for the Ronald McDonald House or the Diabetes Foundation, we might
go by the alias band name of Music for Dancing," said O'Brien, who swears the
plaid tuxedos they got for $ 25 apiece at Al's Formal Wear look great on these
guys.




GRAPHIC: Photo: Death by Injection's first album, "Down at the Courthouse,"
recounts tales of the Texas criminal justice system in such jailhouse rockers as
"Witness Stand" and "The Price You Pay." The CD is available at the band's Web
site (color); Handout photo

TYPE: Editorial Opinion

LOAD-DATE: November 5, 2002