I Want To Be Stereotyped. I Want To Be Classified
Welcome back to Radio Unfriendly.
Here’s another band that I originally featured on the podcast (I’m basically playing catch up for now). It is another one of my favorites from Southern California. This time around, I cover the band DESCENDENTS!
As always, first, we get into some history.
Descendents were formed in 1977 in Manhattan Beach, California by Bill Stevenson, Frank Navetta, and Tony Lombardo. Two years later, in 1979, they added Milo Aukerman on vocals.
They have gone through many lineup changes but since 1986 their lineup has remained the same with Bill Stevenson on drums, Milo on vocals, Stephen Egerton on guitar, and Karl Alvarez on bass. Fantastic group of musicians here.
Of of this writing, they have released 8 studio albums, 3 live albums, 3 compilation albums, and 4 EPS.
As far as personal history with Descendents, I was first introduced to them through a friend in high school. He had a copy of Liveage on cassette. At the time, although I found them interesting, they didn’t quite connect with me. I’m not really sure why. It wasn’t until the mid-1990s, after the band itself had dissolved, that I really started to get into them. A friend of mine that I was in a band with played a lot of their stuff and I listened to a lot more of their albums and the band really started to resonate with me. In my humble opinion, they are the epitome of melodic punk rock. Their songs are catchy and fun. All of the musicians in the band are top tier at their instruments. You really can’t go wrong with this band.
I have seen the band live four times. The first time was at Riot Fest Dallas in 2012. And then I saw them in November 2018 at Cains Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the very next night they opened for ALL at the IDL Ballroom, also in Tulsa. The last time I saw them was in Chicago at Riot Fest in 2022.
And now that the short but sweet introduction is over with, here are my 5 favorite albums from Descendents!
#5. Hypercaffium Spazzinate
This one, which is their most recent full length album, was released in 2016 by Epitaph Records. The band recorded it at the Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado and Armstrong Recording in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Some bits were also recorded at Whitehouse Studio in Newark, Delaware. It was produced by Bill Stevenson and Stephen Egerton. This album has, so far, been their highest charting album, reaching #20 on the Billboard 200. Some of my favorite tunes from this album include “On Paper,” “Victim of Me,” and this one:
#4. Cool To Be You
Cool To Be You was released in March 2004 by Fat Wreck Chords and was recorded in February and April 2002. Tracks were recorded at The Blasting Room and Planet of Sound in Wilmington, Delaware. It was produced by Bill. This album contains a song from an EP that they released earlier that year that is, as far as I can remember, their first overtly political song “Merican.” Some of my favorite songs from Cool To Be You are the aforementioned “Merican” and also “Talking,” “Nothing With You,” “Dreams,” and the title track.
#3. I Don’t Want to Grow Up
This one was their 2nd full length album. It was released in 1985 by New Alliance Records. It was recorded in April 1985 at Music Lab in Los Angeles and produced by Bill and David Tarling. The guitar player on this album was Ray Cooper who had replaced Frank Navetta. This album was recorded after Bill left the band Black Flag and reunited the Descendents. It was the last album of theirs to feature Tony Lombardo. He quit the band because Bill wanted to ramp up touring and Tony did not want to tour. Some of my favorite songs from I Don’t Want to Grow Up are the title track, “Pervert,” “Silly Girl,” and “Good Good Things.”
The Bouncing Souls recorded a cover of the song “Pervert” for the Descendents tribute album Homage in 1995.
#2. Everything Sucks
The first album of new material recorded since the 1987 album ALL (because they split up after that), Everything Sucks was released in September 1996 by Epitaph Records. It was recorded at The Blasting Room in June and July of 1996 and produced by Bill and Stephen. It was the first album of theirs to chart on the Billboard 200 reaching #132. I was living in Alaska when this album came out. Just a couple of years prior to the release of this album is when I really started getting into this band. I was at the Base Exchange (basically a department store on military bases) and saw this CD on the shelf. I had no idea that they were even back together much less had recorded new material. I was ecstatic. My favorite tracks include the title track, “When I Get Old, “I’m the One,” “ Coffee Mug,” “Rotting Out,” “Sick-O-Me,” and “She Loves Me.”
And my #1 favorite album from Descendents…..
#1. Milo Goes to College
This one, their debut full length album, was released by New Alliance Records in September 1982. Produced by Spot, the album was recorded in June 1982 in Redondo Beach, California at Total Access Recording. This one is listed on several best punk albums of all time, understandably so. It has also been cited by numerous musicians as their most influential album including artists such as Mike Watt, Zach Blair (Hagfish, Rise Against), Dave Grohl, and many more. The entire album is great but some of my favorite tunes from MGTC are “Jean is Dead,” “Bikeage,” “Suburban Home,” “Hope,” “Marriage,” and “Catalina.” A lot of songs from this album have been covered by other artists.
For instance, heavy metal band Baroness covered “Bikeage”:
Joey Cape from the band Lagwagon has also covered the song for a punk rock compilation album called Punk Rock Karaoke:
Here is the original:
And here’s another track from Milo Goes to College to close things out. This is the final track from the album.
Great band. If you would like to learn more about here, here are some links:
That’s all for this time around. Hope you enjoyed it. I’ll be doing another one of these soon.
Oh yeah! Before I forget, here is a link to the original podcast version of this one.