All about punk

Descendants of the Descendents still crank

by Don Fluckinger

In the era of the punk and ska reunion album and cash-in tour, there's one classic LA pop-punk band who never went away, never achieved fame and fortune; and -- because they never hit it big -- they're still, amazingly, an unchanged, underground phenomenon. We're talking about All.

To put All (who play the Palladium this Friday) into proper context, the history of the Descendents must be examined. Formed by guitarist Frank Navetta and drummer Bill Stevenson in the late '70s, the Descendents featured seminal punk shouter Milo Aukerman, who influenced many, many SoCal punkers to follow. Aukerman's love of biochemistry and disdain of touring eventually tore him from the band. Not wanting to hang it up, the group hired a new lead singer and renamed themselves All in late 1987. Renaming the band was a smart move; it preserved the history of the Descendents' original albums (they released eight in the 1980s), by not creating a silly situation like Van Halen's or Pink Floyd's, in which different lead vocalists took the band in different directions, never better. It also left the door open for Aukerman to return.

"The Descendents has always been really just a hobby, or kind of a back-seat thing to All," says Stevenson, who with guitarist Stephen Egerton and bassist Karl Alvarez has formed the backbone of both bands for the past 10 years. "Milo wanted to put less and less time into the group, whereas I, we, wanted to put more time in the group. So we started All so that we could pursue the music full time. That would leave Descendents as kind of a part-time outlet if Milo wanted to participate here and there, and that's kind of how it is now."

The Descendents toured extensively in 1997 and All toured this year. All's current lead vocalist Chad Price sang back-up on the ninth Descendents album, Everything Sucks, while Aukerman sang backing vocals on All's new album Mass Nerder. Although this can all get confusing, remember this: All remain the steady, permanent group, while the Descendents do the occasional gig.

"What we did last year was kind of a fluke," Stevenson says. "I don't think we'll be touring like that [again] with Milo. He enjoys his life as a scientist and we enjoy ours as musicians; and there's a middle ground where those two things can meet, and that would be Descendents."

As always, All are at the top of the punk game, slugging out perfect, two-minute, three-chord tunes mostly in major keys. It's basic ear candy: it's uncomplicated, easy-to-digest stuff that works as the perfect antidote to the overwrought country, tired rock, and pseudo-soul milquetoast on pop radio today. Their songs present simple ideas: with titles like "Fairweather Friend," "World's on Heroin," and "Romantic Junkie," there's not much explaining needed.

They still cater to the teen-angst crowd, which tends to turn over pretty quickly as they get older and move on to other bands. Yet even older punk fans still appreciate good tunes when they hear them, and enough new fans show up at All gigs -- thanks to their Warped Tour exposure -- that it's worthwhile for All to tour. They also crank out new music regularly; the group worked out a deal with major label Epitaph to release new material from All and the Descendents.

Both groups spent years on Cruz Records. The Descendents inked a deal with Epitaph first; All quickly followed. After Cruz, All did a single record with Interscope -- which gave the group a million-dollar budget for Pummel but no real support. As per the contract, the rights to Pummel revert back to the band this year (they will re-release it on Owned and Operated Records -- their own label -- based in All's current hometown, Ft. Collins, Colorado). The way All structured the deal, Interscope couldn't rip All off and hold their work hostage; Interscope sort of rented the group for a while.

"We were open to the notion that they could have done a good job promoting the record," Stevenson says with a laugh, "but it seemed at the time that their primary interest was in bailing criminals and murderers out of jail and making hip-hop records with them. So they didn't seem to have enough time to promote our record properly. It did sell twice as many as the ones on Cruz did, roughly, but when you consider the amount of power that a label like Interscope has, that's really kind of pathetic."

All play the Palladium with Less Than Jake and Snuff at 8 p.m. on October 16. Tickets are $10. Call 797-9696.