Descendents Artistfacts

1978-
Bill StevensonDrums
Frank NavettaGuitar1978-1983
Tony LombardoBass1978-1986
Milo AukermanVocals1980-
Ray CooperGuitar1982-1987
Stephen EgertonGuitar1987-
Karl AlvarezBass1987-
The Descendents were a big part of the early '80s California punk (some call it hardcore) scene that also included Black Flag and the Minutemen. They were more influential than popular, inspiring bands like Blink-182, whose frontman Tom DeLonge said, "I was trying to emulate that band. Really punchy guitars, fast, simple and formulaic nursery rhyme love songs."
They got their name because they were inspired by ("descended" from) other bands, particularly one called The Last, whose bandmember brothers Dave and Joe Nolte helped the Descendents get started and were a major influence on their sound.
Three of the members were teenagers when they released their debut album, Milo Goes To College, but the fourth, bass player Tony Lombardo, was older. He never disclosed his age, but his bandmates sussed out that he was older than they thought... by a lot.

"He was actually quite a few years older than us, I think 16 years older than us," lead singer Milo Aukerman told Songfacts. "We didn't know it until much later. We always assumed that he was more our age, maybe a few years older."
Girls tend to dig guys in bands, but that wasn't the case with the Descendents, who remained hopelessly uncool outside of punk rock circles while they were in high school. Many of their songs deal with their frustrations in that arena, including "I Wanna Be A Bear," where they put the stuck-up pretty girl wearing Jordache designer jeans on blast.
Bill Stevenson is also their producer - he's been at the helm for every album since I Don't Want to Grow Up in 1985. Stevenson has produced many other acts as well, including Rise Against, Less Than Jake and A Day to Remember.
They were into skateboarding, and their music was a big part of that scene. Their songs often showed up in skateboarding videos that circulated.
The band has taken a lot of time off over the years. Their first hiatus came just after their first album, and the reason why inspired the album title: Milo Goes To College. Milo Aukerman went to the University of California, San Diego, to get a degree in biology. He's long had a double life as a punk rocker and molecular biologist. "I have equal passion for both," he told Songfacts.
Aukerman earned his PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego in 1992. He's not the only punk rocker with a PhD: Greg Graffin of Bad Religion has one in Zoology from Cornell University.
Bill Stevenson has also produced in played in Black Flag and The Lemonheads.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

More Songfacts:

VoodooGodsmack

The line, "I feel the snakebite enter my veins," led many to believe the Godsmack song "Voodoo" is about drugs, but it's really about Wiccan ritual, inspired in part by the Wes Craven movie The Serpent and the Rainbow.

Raspberry BeretPrince

The UK band The Lightning Seeds of "Pure" fame got their name from a misheard line in Prince's "Raspberry Beret," mistaking "thunder drowns out what the lightning sees" for "thunder drowns out the lightning seeds."

Invisible TouchGenesis

The Genesis song "Invisible Touch" was inspired by the Prince-written Sheila E. track "The Glamorous Life."

More Than a FeelingBoston

Boston leader Tom Scholz went back to his job at Polaroid after releasing the group's debut album. When his co-workers kept coming by to tell him "More Than A Feeling" was playing on the radio, he knew it was time to quit his day job.

Someone Like YouAdele

Adele's "Someone Like You" is the first song with just piano and voice to hit #1 in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, which started in 1958.

The Battle Hymn of the RepublicTraditional

John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath got its title from a line in "The Battle Hymn of the Republic": "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored."