Doby Daenger

Doby Daenger is an American musician, writer, TV personality and performance artist based in Hollywood, California. Her first performance was with Benny Goodman at the age of 8 on his boat in Santa Catalina Island. She was born on Sunset Boulevard and grew up on Santa Catalina Island in Southern California.
As a youth she fronted the punk rock group Strait Jacket in the early '80s, performing at countless clubs, including a regular spot on Sundays nights at Doug Weston's Troubadour. Mr. Weston would often join her onstage in a drunken stuper with his dogs and without his pants. This lineup produced a 45, "Get Out" on Bat Cat Records.
Graduating to the harder stuff, she joined the staff of the notorious Cathay De Grande as DJ/waitress serving up tunes and liquor and befriending the likes of Texacala Jones of Tex & the Horseheads, joining her in a short lived band Texorcist, backing up Tex on saxophone. Also comradering with Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs, 45 Grave, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, GBH and countless others. Working the illegal after hours shift, she waited on and hobnobed with the likes of Lauren Hutton, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, and David Lee Roth.
On her first night working there she was assaulted by the singer of Suicidal Tendencies and his band as she was trying to get away on her Honda 90, which turned into an all out brawl, with bouncers attacking the band and resulting in part of the singer's ear being bit off while in a headlock on the roof of his car.
After getting acclimated to the riot squad police that often lined the club, the bits of ceiling that would filter down on her, the satanic raising recordings played during clean-up, the bathroom slash shooting gallery, she expanded to DJing at the out of control after-hours club slash art gallery Zero One, where she had the company of Bobby Pasterelli, the Gettys, El Duce of The Mentors (always urinating on someone), and Dave Edmunds to name a few. Her friendship with El Duce continued and she managed to get him on the now infamous segment of The Wally George Show.
After this club closed and migrated up the street to Hollywood Blvd. under the name Raji's, she continued working and playing, forming arockabilly band Doby Daenger and The Hi-Hi Boys and recorded another 45, "Dum-Dum" (b/w "Time & Again") on Good Lookin' Records.
On a dare, Doby changed the name of the band to The Anti-Elvis Club and continued performing in the Los Angeles area throughout the 1980s with high-caliber musicians such as Carlos Guitarlos of Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs and Spyder Mittleman. A CD was produced by Billy Bremner of Rockpile, with members of The Plimsouls in attendance. Billy often performed in her band at another local hang out The Gaslight.
In 1991, after befriending Joey Ramone, relocated to New York City, and began moving back in the direction of punk. During this time she produced a TV show titled, Doby-TV on local station Manhattan Neighborhood Network. At the encouragement of Joey's brother she began writing a monthly column in popular punk rock newspaper that rapidly gained a cult following in the East Village underground scene, and was published in The New York Press as well as a few publications in London and Los Angeles.
Late nights, She could be found regularly DJing at seedy ungentrified hangouts such as Motor City in the Lower East Side, as well as a weekly broadcast on pirate radio station Steal This Radio.
Before relocating back to Los Angeles, she formed a performance art band with robotic giant female rats, The Ratonettes, performing at her favorite stomping ground, C.B.G.B.s as her farewell gig.
In 2005 she relocated back to Los Angeles and can currently be seen on celluloid: as a shocked airline passenger in Get Smart, an irrate courtroom spectator in Changeling, an impatient patient behind Robert Downey Jr. in The Soloist, a regular bar patron at The Crab Shack on My Name Is Earl (Season 2, 3, & 4), and as Cheryl, her first named character, on the magical and misunderstood genius show "Warren the Ape."
In January 2011, you'll catch her in the post apocalyptic offering from Screen Gems Priest as an unfortunate soul in this desolate world.
Now living in her hometown of Hollywood, she is compiling her column Surfin' Asphalt for book publication, and is creating her own rock 'n' roll fantasy animated series, "The Ratonettes," and surreal series "Jax & Dax." Doby sometimes plays her 1923 Criterion ukulele in front of the Carousel on the Santa Monica Pier.
Background
Family
Her father was from Flatbush, Brooklyn, a member of "The Dukes," street gang. He was known as "Buster" at this time and claimed they were a social club that wore top hats, sported canes and held dances. Shadow Morton would later clarify this, as he also belonged to a gang in this neighborhood then, called "The Tigers," that attended these dances—with chains and knives.
His parents David and Kate were immigrants from Germany. David, rumored to be J.D. Salinger's cousin, owned a lingerie company.
The family relocated to Los Angeles where Burton attended Hamilton High School, according to him, in attendance with Joel Grey and Hymie the Robot. He became President of the school, captain of football team, and met his high school sweetheart and soon to be wife.
Doby's mother was from Denver, born to Russian immigrants. Her maternal grandfather was in the 11th or 12th Cavalry assigned to and did pursue Pancho Villa across the desert. His pal in this event was a guy named Frank, which became Doby's middle name.

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