The Descendents - or - All punk sounds the same and it all sucks.

The Descendents/ALL - There is so much I could say about this band that I could probably sit here and rant for ages, but instead I'll just try and keep it straight and to the point of what makes this band incredible. I've been putting off which band to start with because frankly it's a daunting task trying to type everything out about this band I want to, so I'm just going to do the best I can after doing a 45 minute presentation on transvestites, a 10 minute presentation on the divided-self in Victorian novels, and typing a 6 page paper on the representation of Mercutio in Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet."

When you hear the term pop-punk nowadays, you probably think of some crappy band that looks like they were put together on "Making The Band" where the members wear too much mascara and play a horribly poppy, watered down version of up-tempo rock with a bit of punk influence. Think pretty much any band on the Drive-Thru Records label.

In the late 70's/early 80's, this was not the case. The Ramones had released their self-titled album in 1976 and the Sex Pistols released "Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" in 1977. Regardless of which band you feel "started" punk, the genre of music known as "punk" officially blossomed to the public in those two years. The aim of those bands was to play loud and fast while expressing your anger at whatever government was in control of your country at the time or the inequalities of social institutions. The music spoke to thousands of angry, angsty teenagers at the time just waiting to express their frustration. Four of these kids were Milo Aukerman, Bill Stevenson, Karl Alvarez, and Stephen Egerton.

The four high school kids, all around age 17, formed a band based around "rejection, food, coffee, girls, fishing, and food" and decided they would use music as their outlet. They eventually would become one of the best punk bands ever and release a solid list of albums as well as tours for nearly 30 years.

Ok, thanks for the biographical info (if you want to read more just check the Biography on their homepage), what makes them special? At the time when the Sex Pistols were shouting "Anarchy in the UK" and The Ramones were doing the "Bliztkrieg Bop," the Descendents took the energy of punk music and decided they didn't want to change the world, they wanted to sing about what they knew. They took the pop melodies that they liked to jam out to, the frenetic speed and energy of punk, and topped them off with lyrics full of teen angst and humor. The band wasn't a bunch of big, mohawked punk rockers with dyed green liberty spikes walking around the hall. They were the nice, quiet, nerdy guys with glasses getting A's in all their classes that would go jump around in the pit looking for a way to vent their frustrations. While most bands were writing lyrics solely to distinguish one song from the next, the Descendents were putting genuine feelings into what they were singing about.

The result is that they were one of the first "pop-punk" bands ever and released one of the greatest punk albums ever written around the time they were all 18, "Milo Goes To College."

Alright, enough of the stupid biographical information, hopefully you understand their context now, what makes me love them so much? Well, when you're a geeky, suburban, middle-class, angsty high school student that is just starting to discover punk rock and you hear a band ranting about everything you're experiencing, it's pretty easy to identify with them. Back when Napster was first developing and I was first beginning to get into punk rock, I stumbled upon the song "I'm Not A Loser." I immediately fell in love and tried to get my hands on everything that I could find. I bought "Milo Goes To College" and to this day it's still one of my favorite albums ever, the song "Bikeage" ranks as one of my top 5 songs ever. Everything I sat through in high school wishing I could rant about to the people in my school, I found The Descendents to have vocalized my frustrations not only with words, but with kickass melodic pop-punk. I spent many years catching up on the back catalogue of stuff they'd released, and then realized that they were still releasing albums. That fed me with plenty of The Descendents to keep me busy for a while, but when I had finally listened to everything, I began digging around. I then discovered that the band ALL is basically The Descendents without Milo. ALL is an excellent band, don't get me wrong, they've written a lot of incredibly good songs, but Milo just completes the quartet.

So yes, the Descendents defined a lot of my teenage years, even now when I listen to certain songs I can remember driving my '88 Toyota Corolla around my little suburban areas rocking out to this band that I felt was able to see directly into my head. The band was able to sing about how I may not be going out to a party one weekend, but it was a choice, I embraced my nerdiness; I didn't want to be one of the spoiled jerks at my school and I didn't want to associate with them. The great thing about the band, however, is that while I was growing up and graduating from high school, the guys in the band had moved past that point so I could grow up as they were growing up. As you can see in the Milo Goes To College album cover, most of the album covers feature the same structure, a cartoon sketch of Milo and the covers are incredibly simple, just the name of the band, album title, and different sketch of Milo. Some people hate it, I find it totally fitting for the band. They consistently rank as one of my favorite bands, and easily my favorite band that ranks in any band related to the "punk" category.

Now, I know many, many people hate punk rock because it all sounds the same. This is because when a band like The Descendents comes around, they influence so many people that they spawn hundreds of imitators. Then these imitators spawn imitators which are even worse and basically what you are left with is a bunch of crappy bands that have only peripherally heard the name of the band that created what they're trying to mimic. Every band that tries to play some form of pop-punk and sings about personal experience or self-deprecation, those bands a good portion to the founding fathers and pioneers of that style, The Descendents. Most people will listen to The Descendents and find them to be nothing special at all, but remember that the pop-punk you were hearing in 1998, The Descendents were doing that, except better, and 20 years ago. Now, they were widely influenced by many other bands around the time such as The Buzzcocks, but I feel that The Descendents did it best, and many other people would agree with me. I can't make the statement "The Descendents founded pop-punk," but they were some of the pioneers and were massively influential on hordes of bands.

They've got an incredibly large, solid following, if anyone says they listen to "punk" and doesn't know who The Descendents are, they probably think Blink 182's self-titled album is the best album they've ever heard and purely has bad taste therefore you should never discuss music around them again unless you're forcing them to listen to something worthwhile. The Descendents' early stuff is fairly abrasive, however, their later albums are loaded with catchy riffs that most people people can tolerate. The band is hugely influential and widely popular with anyone that listens to any form of punk rock, chances are you've heard me mention them or have heard their name in passing somehwere.

Even if you are a steady believer in hating punk rock, such as my friend Jeff, I think you should give this a spin. He heard me jamming to "Milo Goes To College" and now it has a fairly permanent spot on his iPod, or at least that's what he tells me.

I think that most people are too lazy to go look up any band I mention here and I can't possibly say enough good things about these bands. so I think it's best if people just give them a listen and decide for themselves. Anyway, since I am serious about trying to get people to listen to some of the bands I want to rant about, I figure I'll put some links up to some of my favorite songs so all you need to do to listen is to click one link.

The Descendents - ALL - Coolidge
The Descendents - Milo Goes To College - Marriage
The Descendents - Everything Sucks - Everything Sux
The Descendents - Milo Goes To College - Bikeage
ALL - Allroy Sez - Hooidge
ALL - Mass Nerder - Perfection
ALL - Allroy's Revenge - Box

(yes, there is a recurring theme of songs ending in "age" or "idge" or any suffix that produces a similar sound)