Descendents: Defining West Coast Surfer-Pop-Power-Caffeinated-Melodic-Hardcore-Punk-Rock

It almost feels like the story of Descendents wasn't supposed to happen. Like the gods of early punk rock dragged them kicking and screaming into the garage of 9th & Walnut and forced them to unite punk with angsty teenage emotion that would lay the foundation for the explosive pop-punk era of the 2000s. The band formed at a time when music was rapidly changing. Bands were emerging from the goody-goody era of the 1960s and into the more edgy and antisocial sound of the 1970s. 

By the 70’s punk had infiltrated California culture and in 1977, the original members of the Descendents, guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo, and drummer Bill Stevenson got together in that little garage at 9th & Walnut and formed one of the earliest power-pop-surf-punk bands on the West Coast. 1979 brought in frontman Milo Aukerman and the band shifted into a bit more of a melodic hardcore band, evolving with the punk and hardcore scene that married the laissez faire California lifestyle.

After a few tumultuous years of band members leaving for other bands (namely The Last), instrument swap-outs, and lead singer shifts, the band released the Fat EP in 1982 which was followed quickly by the debut album, Milo Goes To College, that same year. With Aukerman anchoring the lead vocals the band found their speed with a fast-paced "caffeinated" hardcore punk style that they would then become known for. The unified band was set to be short-lived, however, as Aukerman prepared to leave for college, the name of the album being quite literal.

And that was it; a single killer tone setting debut album and by 1983, Aukerman was on a track that would see him obtaining a PhD in biochemistry (nerd), and the soon-to-be legendary Stevenson would go play drums for Black Flag (and later Lemonheads). But - surprise! The Beach Boys of Punk were back together (dramatic) by 1985, marking an end to their first hiatus. 

The details of the comings and goings of band members, burned equipment, and competing front men are too lengthy to detail here but suffice to say 1985 saw a return of the evolving Descendent body of work with the studio album I Don’t Want to Grow Up followed by their second album Enjoy! the following year. 

The years between 1985 and 1987 saw a deeper evolution in not only the make up of the band but also in the motivation and intent of the music. A theme that emerged, despite numerous hiatuses and band rotating band members, and what would later influence themes commonly found in modern pop-punk, is the sentiment that adulthood is an affront to the human condition. Which is how we get ALL: the concept (and some would argue the internal religion of the band) that you should never settle, never stagnate, go for all, all in, all at once. The tenants being “Thou shalt not commit adulthood; though shall not drink decaf; thou shall not suppress flatulence”, per a 1987 interview in Music magazine.

The All album came out in 1987 (with an entire song only being literally farts - staying true to the religion) with the sixty-day FinALL tour, referencing Aukerman’s second departure to pursue his career in biochemistry (super nerd). And with that, another foundational album was released and the band would go on hiatus until 1995.

In true Descendents fashion, after the departure of Aukerman the band reformed with different members under the name AlI, which would release music and stay together until 1995. But this is not an article about All, this is about the Descendents, which at this point in my writing seems to be a fairly fluid concept.

The following years would see Aukerman return to front the band, which released music well into the pop punk era that came to define the late 90s and early 2000s, including the polished and cohesive 1996 return to punk rock with Everything Sucks. 

9th & Walnut, released in 2022, brings us all right back to the beginning. The album was largely recorded during a 2002 session with the original lineup—Bill Stevenson, Frank Navetta, and Tony Lombardo—while lead vocals by Milo Aukerman were added later. The album features eighteen songs written between 1977 and 1981, including reimagined versions of early tracks like “Ride the Wild” and “It’s a Hectic World”,  marking the first time since Everything Sucks that the band has recorded with its classic lineup.

And here we are in 2025 waiting to see Descendents descend on the Rifflandia stage reminding us all of where West Coast surfer-pop-power-caffeinated-melodic-hardcore-punk-rock all started. The band, deeply unserious and so incredibly earnest at the same time, paved the way for an entire genre to emerge that would capture the deep frustration and absurdity of being a teen in the 90s and early aughts. Green Day, Blink 182, Fallout Boy - all came out of that garage on 9th and Walnut. Now, we get to introduce our own teens to a living, thrashing piece of punk history before what will inevitably be one last hiatus in the years to come.

– Jill Van Gyn-Carr. Jill Van Gyn-Carr is a recovering entrepreneur and the director of Business Development for Rifflandia Entertainment Company. She has written for Eat Magazine and Douglas Magazine and prefers cake to pie but bakes a better pie than cake. She is the mother of children and spends her time being generally tired.