Manhattan Beach, CA · pop-punk · punk

Descendents

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Milo goes to Riot Fest — the caffeinated blueprint for all pop-punk, still fast, still nerdy, still out-hooking the generations they invented.

Descendents formed in Manhattan Beach, California, in 1977, when guitarist Frank Navetta and bassist Tony Lombardo began writing songs with drummer Bill Stevenson as a power pop and surf punk band. Their debut single, cut at Media Art studios and released on Stevenson's own Orca Records, paired Navetta's "Ride the Wild" with Lombardo's "It's a Hectic World," a sound Stevenson later called a caffeinated blend of rock, surf and pop-punk.

In 1979 the band recruited Stevenson's schoolmate Milo Aukerman as singer, after a brief run with singer Cecilia Loera, and the songs turned shorter, faster and more aggressive. The shift made Descendents a fixture of the hardcore scene taking shape in Los Angeles, confirmed by the 1982 Fat EP. Their debut album, Milo Goes to College, followed later that year, recorded at Total Access Recording in Redondo Beach.

Bill Stevenson has anchored the band throughout, and Milo Aukerman has fronted it for most of its history; his cartoon likeness has served as the band's logo since Milo Goes to College, whose title referred to his departure to study biology at the University of California, San Diego. Since 1986 the lineup has settled around Aukerman, Stevenson, bassist Karl Alvarez and guitarist Stephen Egerton.

The band combined hardcore punk speed with melodic songwriting, singing about food, coffee, girls and social awkwardness, a formula that became a template for later pop-punk. Across more than four decades they have released eight studio albums, three live albums, three compilations and four EPs. Activity has been intermittent, largely because Aukerman spent years working as a biochemist rather than touring, and members have also recorded together as All.

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