No, you’re not looking at a promo pic for a new film starring Seth Rogen as a 70s hesher, but of an actual 70s rock band from Davenport, Iowa who called themselves Turds of Misery.

You may have seen this photo making the rounds on the Internet a few years ago with a rather colorful background story which was originally reported by SF Weekly and Weather Station 1:

Turds of Misery played only six shows during their short existence. Based in a small town on the outskirts of Winnipeg, Manitoba, the three-piece act quickly abandoned their first concept—an Alan Parson Project cover band—to focus on original tunes. The band included (from left) bassist Dave, drummer Gord, and guitarist Bagpipes McDonald. One of their songs, I Seen You At The Corner Store, received some airplay on the local AM station in 1980. After the band split up, Dave returned to his career as a high school geography teacher, while Gord went to prison for stealing golf balls from the forest. Bagpipes, meanwhile, became the lead guitarist in the current touring version of Foreigner.

Well, it turns out Weather Station 1 was having a laff and said this:

So, that nonsense I typed up the other day about this weird picture of a faded 70s rock band called Turds of Misery kind of took off over the weekend. Internet writer John Biggs was the first to spot it, but the fuss all started because a writer named Ian S. Port at sfweekly.com believed my bullshit and ran it as a news item. This, for a while, lived on the front page of digg.com and has popped up all over the web.

Ian probably should have realized that there really couldn’t be anyone named “Bagpipes McDonald.”

Okay, now that we have all the confusion cleared up, there was in fact a real 70s band called Turds of Misery and here’s the real story behind this epic photo:

To set the record straight…. These boys aren’t Canadians. They’re from the Davenport, Iowa area. That’s my dad in the middle with the beer. His name is Dave, not Gord. Wade is on the right, and Wade’s brother on the left. They did an excellent cover of “Wild Thing.”

So now you have it. Everything you need to know about Turds of Misery.