Before there was The Crash That Took Me, and before there was Daryl, Dylan Silvers was in Fitz, the first band he fronted.

But it wasn't the first band he was in. According to Zac Crain, in this edition of This Week In Dallas Music History, Silvers had already played guitar in several local punk bands including Strafers, and Mess, who later changed their name to Darlington. And before that, Silvers played in a handful of hardcore punk bands in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois.

But in 1998, as Crain writes, Silvers had finally come into his own. "He's the leader of the band in the same way that Dee Dee was the leader of The Ramones," writes Crain, "writing most of the songs and making the band go with his unflagging energy."

The rest of the story goes on to tell about how the fresh-faced Silvers got the band together. It's an interesting look back at this Dallas music veteran's beginnings.

If that margin's too tight, check out the story in the Observer archives.