Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All

Descendents are the best story ever.

They come from a different time in punk. They come from a different world.

You have this idea that started in seventy-something, and to see it still going?

That’s totally cool!

A lot of what people listen to obviously owes itself to the

fact that those guys made records all those years ago.

I remember hearing the Descendents for the first time and thinking,

Whoa, these guys listen to the Beatles.

There was a sense of melody and songwriting.

What instantly drew me into the Descendents was how

much melody they had. How catchy their songs were.

They were like the punk rock Beach Boys. Their harmonies were great.

And this, like, shameless love song aesthetic, you know?

None of the other bands had the balls to do that.

Everyone was screaming about Reagan or whatever.

I think the Descendents are possibly one of the most underrated bands

that too often don’t get the credit for essentially creating pop punk.

They’re a part of the foundation, the fabric.

This sincere connection of pop and angst at the same time

without it ever being this thuggish tough-guy thing.

You have this singer who looks like a fucking geek singing about

getting screwed over by a chick with the gnarliest band behind him.

It was great.

And they worked very few days off.

They’re always, always pushing themselves.

Almost militant work ethic.

It would be insanely sweaty in the room. It was gross.

They're the most precise band I think.

They were real players, and prided themselves

on playing their instruments very, very well.

With a fury, man. It’s right here in my heart to see these

guys again. This is Milo of the Descendents and, I’m sorry

I’m Bill.

Bill is the brainchild behind the Descendents.

It is trippy that they were a drummer-run band.

Our whole goal was like, “Yeah, it’s cool, there’s this

thing called ‘punk rock.’ Now let’s take it somewhere.”

When I said, “I wanna go be a nerd scientist geek,” then they

said, “Hey, see you later.” And all of a sudden they formed ALL.

Since this band’s inception in 1978…

You’re not gonna get one person…

You’ve probably never heard of them…

...on this planet…

“They’re formerly called the Descendents. They’re now simply called ALL.”

...to say they like ALL better than the Descendents…

"Folks, give a nice warm welcome to ALL!”

...no fucking way.

People literally didn’t know who they were. They’re like, “Who’s ALL?”

And I was like, “Well, it’s Descendents. Same band, different singer.”

So there’s a different singer, big deal, whatever.

There’s no other band like them. Doesn’t matter which one they are.

The caliber of songwriting and subject matter that is

so close and relatable to has not wavered for 30 years.

I don’t think there were any other bands that could do what they did.

It’s good to see that those guys are getting

credit for what they, in a lot of ways, created.

“But the show is far from being over…”

It’s just their time for people to understand

that the Descendents had a big place.

Male VO: “Welcome the Decendents!”

Milo: "It’s been a long time for us, so… wow."

Bill Stevenson: So going back to before we had the bands.

Before Descendents, before ALL, before Black Flag.

So, there was fishing.

Of all things to have brought would-be future punkers together.

Keith Morris: My history with Bill goes

all the way back to the Hermosa Tackle Box, which was a business

that my father owned on Pier Avenue down in Hermosa Beach.

My recollection is him working for my dad when he was about 14 or 15

and asking me,

“Keith, what music should I be listening to?”

Billy just struck me as that goofy kid that maybe needed some guidance,

maybe he needed somebody to point him in the right direction.

I guess I was giving him a list of things

to do to lead to freakdom or whatever.

Little did we know that Billy was going to grow up to be the drummer of not only the Descendents

and ALL,

but Black Flag in between.

See, we grew up where all of the music around us was Top 40.

The Dooby Brothers

or the worst of Fleetwood Mac.

Most of it was pretty bland, pretty boring,

and there was no bright spot.

With the exception of The Last.

Joe Nolte: Basically, I, like a lot

of others, was really dissatisfied

by the state of rock music. I was like 20,

had been brought up on the Woodstock myth,

and I couldn’t wait to get out there and

start going to all the great shows

only to find that, as the early ‘70s

developed, all the really good people died.

So I discovered there were these

bands with silly names like the Ramones.

That was my big cue.

I threw a bunch of soundproofing in the garage, and

at that time we came up with the band name The Last.

Keith: Through the Nolte brothers, we happened to

meet characters like Frank Navetta.

Total kook, total freak.

Dave Nolte: Frank came to my school, America Martyrs, in sixth grade,

and I was friends with him straight away.

We both had interest in music. We both started playing guitar at the same time.

Joe: They were just typical kids.

The next thing I know they’re deciding to start a band.

“Yeah, we’re gonna call ourselves the Descendents.”

Dave: Frank came up with the Descendents. He had the funny spelling.

Thought he was clever.

Joe: Mid ‘77, we’re hanging out and this big kid

on this bicycle that’s three or four sizes too small…

My brother David goes, “Oh my god. I know that guy.”

Dave: I had met Bill before. He was in my Spanish class,

so I already kinda knew what he was like.

And I thought if he could play any instrument

he’d be great to be in a band with, because he had just the right attitude.

Bill: Really I think I was a bother to Dave. I would come

over every day and be like, “Hey, you wanna hang out?”

You know, the friend that just keeps coming over?

And you're like, "Oh it's cool."

And then Joe really, I think, thought I was bother.

Dave: At that time, The Last was making their first album,

and I gave him tapes like rough mixes.

And that, he really got into that.

He was really influenced by our drummer, Jack.

Bill: Once I heard The Last "She Don’t Know Why I’m Here"

I was a totally groupie of The Last.

I thought they were the greatest band in the whole world.

Joe: What happened was Bill was intrigued

by what David and Frank were doing.

Dave: Frank made a demo of his songs, and Bill

took a tape and overdubbed backing vocals on it.

Joe: David and Frank got the tape back and said, “Oh my god.”

“He may smell of fish,”

“and he may seem kinda weird,”

“but this is the guy. He’s better than we are.”

Dave: That was truly the beginning of the band right there.

Bill: Frank got me into punk rock proper:

Ramones, Dickies, Sex Pistols.

Keith: Those guys were like twins.

The double-whammy-ultra-mega duo, Navetta/Stevenson.

Bill: Yeah, we really hit it off and we would go fishing every day.

I was in awe of all these great songs he’d written, and

he would play them on the acoustic guitar really hard,

Johnny Ramone style, all six strings.

He had this bitter resentment that just drenched

every step he took and every word that he spoke.

His songs were just filled with that envy of people

that are better looking and more successful.

It was just really inspiring to just be around someone

that just hated everything that much. It was just great.

Bill: It was not that long afterward where it was trash

day and I was bringing my trash out to the curb.

And one or two houses down, somebody had stuffed this

bass guitar, it was sticking up out of their trash can.

And at that point I had only played drums, and I

was like, “Whoa!” And I went and I got that bass.

And I wrote “Myage” on that.

I thought, “Well, Frank can write songs, so fuck it, I can write songs.”

Dave: Soon after that, we were rehearsing

in Frank’s brother’s garage in Long Beach.

Tony Lombardo: I lived on Walnut Street in Long Beach.

Frank’s brother lived on Walnut Street in Long Beach.

I played in my garage. I played the bass by myself.

Bill: I guess Frank had heard somebody playing bass down the alley,

and he’s like, “Dude, I think…” — Frank has a really high

voice, so when I do Frank I gotta go into the Frank voice:

“Dude, I think there’s some dude down there that plays bass.

Let’s walk down there and see.”

Sure enough, Tony…

Tony: They came over when they heard me, and they were

standing there and asked if I wanted to jam with them.

Bill: He appeared to be somewhat older than us, but I

have to say he looked and acted very young for his age.

Tony: I was in the band when it was ‘79. I was

34 years old when I started the Descendents.

And they were 15.

Now he looks at me like, “Oh my god,

this guy’s a fucking freak. Beep!”

Bill: It all worked out. There’s me and Frank

being completely ridiculous and asinine,

and Tony was in some ways the voice of reason or the elder ambassador

that would yield a modicum of propriety or

reasonableness to our stupid arguments.

Joe: What happened with Dave and

Descendents, he was playing in two bands.

So he couldn’t commit to practicing with

the Descendents, so they kicked him out.

Dave: It’s not really the Descendents as you know it today.

But I was there just before it happened.

Joe: The birth of the Descendents as a live entity

corresponds with the epiphanal birth of the Minutemen.

Mike Watt: We were called Reactionaries then, we weren’t Minutemen yet.

And the opening band was somebody from Hermosa Beach.

One guy was kinda our age or even older, but the other two were really young.

Their guitar man had fishing boots, rubber fucking…

I hadn’t seen cats like that in other bands.

Bill: Milo was the biggest Descendents fan.

At a certain point he would make me pick him up and drive him to practice,

and he would just sit and watch us practice. I mean I would pick him up every day.

Milo Aukerman: I think one day I was watching them practice and I said,