Tagged: descendents
DESCENDENTS/ALL Filmage RE-View: The Original 80’s Kings of POP-PUNK in 2025!
TOTAL Pop Punk Nostalgia: The FIENDZ are BACK!
Waaaaay back in 1991 I discovered one of my favorite pop punk albums of all time: ‘Wact’ by The Fiendz. This was before the term “pop punk” was a dirty word and the mainstream was flooded by countless generic bands trying to ride off the back of Green Day’s success. Bands like the Descendents/ALL, Big Drill Car, Jawbreaker, The Parasites & Doughboys (amongst so many others) were changing the punk scene in the late 1980’s and one band that’s often not mentioned enough is indeed New Jersey’s The Fiendz who dropped onto the scene in 1987. They brought the pop punk classic album ‘We’re The Fiendz’ in 1989 and got to see them for the first time in Green Bay Wisconsin’s legendary punk venue Kutska’s Hall with Portland OR band Crackerbash in the early 90’s. Their albums ‘Wact’ and ‘We’re the Fiendz’ were part of my soundtrack of teenage years.
I think the NJ three piece had just as many chops as Green Day did in their heyday but unfortunately the band around that time time changed their sound quite a bit, leaving their peppy punk sound behind and going for a more polished refined style that to me was more reminiscent of Elvis Costello than the earlier guitar driven anthems. Looking back I think The Fiendz could’ve grabbed the gold with their original sound at the time but also respect (and liked) their later albums. I got to see them several times and even share the stage in the 90s while on tour with my bands King Friday and Ben Grim-not only were The Fiendz a great band live but also great humans.
Well as the years passed I’d sort of assumed I’d maybe I’d heard the last of them, but lo and behold it’s now 2023 and they’ve returned with a brand new album called ‘Dummy’ that’s indeed more of a “return to form” to their original crunchy guitar rock sound. Packed with 15 solid nuggets of chunky pop punk/power pop is just what I’d been hoping for when I originally heard they had a new album on the horizon. Even better yet they took the album to their old pal Bill Stevenson (Descendents/ALL/Black Flag) to mix it and it sounds pretty awesome.
If you’re unfamiliar with The Fiendz they definitely had that classic sound that fit the bill (no pun intended) with Stevenson’s Descendents/ALL brand of frenetic pop punk styles. ‘Dummy’ is filled with their unique brand, cool unexpected time/tempo changes, huge harmonies and wildly catchy guitar work. There’s no mistaking a riff from The Fiendz for any one else’s either and it’s evident here they’ve went back to what originally made my teen self love them so much and appreciate even more so many years later. There’s some fast paced stuff that harkens back more to their late 80s debut album, mid tempo rockers and a few slower power pop style numbers to give ‘Dummy’ a nice balance while keeping the distortion on guitar amped up. Most of all it’s just a record that’s a ton of fun, with plenty of pop hooks to chomp on.
The band here really is flawless too, my only “complaint” is that I’d wished their original drummer Joe Darone, who contributed in other ways to the record would’ve been behind the skins again. Don’t get me wrong the playing here is excellent, but his style on the drums was one of the big highlights of their earlier albums and to really kick the nostalgia factor into hyperdrive his presence would have been the icing on the cake as a big fan myself. However this isn’t the first album he’s been missed on. That being said this a pretty nice return for a band that really deserves more praise from lovers of the genre- before it was watered down by mainstream record deals and MTV. The Fiendz are back and if you’re missing the classic sound of pop punk from the late 80s and early 90s the way I’ve been for so many years this album will bring it all back around full circle.
I’d love to see them on tour or at least get them opening a few shows for the Descendents (once Milo’s all healed up), fans of the iconic band would most definitely find their new favorite band they might’ve missed out on for all these years! Check out their new album HERE!
Plus here’s one of my favorite Fiendz songs from their classic second album:
DESCENDENTS/ALL Fans: Sign the Petition Demanding a New ALL Record!
I’ve been meaning to make this post for a while now as I’d recently seen someone had made a super cool petition to get one of my favorite bands, ALL to record a new damn record!
If you don’t know who ALL is, you should probably be ashamed, but hey no worries, let me give you the scoop, basically they’re the Descendents minus Milo Aukerman and formed after he left the band in 1987. Similar sound but with several different singers through the years and basically the soundtrack of my teens and beyond! Pop punk perfection. However they never quite got the recognition of the Descendents yet had definitely made a stronger run for “rock stardom” in the nineties then the ‘Dents ever did, even signing a major label record deal.
Over the years we’ve luckily gotten a good amount of new Descendents material, and don’t get me wrong, I’m fucking stoked about that! But let’s get serious and most importantly let’s get ALLULAR! It’s going on 22 years since ALL’s last record, ‘Problematic’ and we’re well past due for a new one.
Over the last two decades the band has also played shows with ALL three of their singers, Dave Smalley, Scott Reynolds & Chad Price, which has led many legions of fans to request a new ALL album that features ALL three of them on lead vocals! The best way to decide who’s gonna sing on this epic-ness is simply to get them ALL! Like a sort of 3-way split full length divided up equALLy, In fact I was so pleased to see that the maker of this petition had the same idea!
Has any other band in history ever made a brand new album featuring ALL of their previous vocalists? I’ve never heard of it happening. How epic would that be for the fans? So not only would I like this post to circulate around with THE PETITION to get the band to make a new freakin’ album, I also am hoping the 3 headed monster of ALL will indeed return and merge ALL vocalists onto one new album, in other words: ALL of ALL!
So if YOU’RE a fan of the band please get this out there and let’s make it happen, I think this petition needs and deserves WAY more fucking signatures! Kudos to whoever put that together you’re totally ALLULAR! So maybe this thing can get the attention of the core band members, Bill Stevenson, Karl Alvarez & Stephen Egerton. When I first came across the petition on Facebook it was slightly confusing what the petition was for if you didn’t click on the actual link, so I’m hoping with this to clear up any confusion and get more people to sign it! Let’s get the band to know we want this dream album to manifest! ALL? Yes ALL!!! SIGN THE PETITION HERE!
The DESCENDENTS Find a Time Machine & Bring Back Their Lost 80s Album!
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of The Descendents, so you can imagine how damn stoked I am for their latest release ‘9th & Walnut’. Long story short, all of these songs from the new album are from the late seventies and early eighties. Lost tracks the band demoed but never released, instead produced a batch of new songs that became their iconic album ‘Milo Goes to College’.
Well in 2002 the original line up recorded this lost album and in 2020 lead singer Milo Aukerman finally recorded the lead vocals for it. What we end up with is a bonafide classic brought back to the future, literally a lost punk rock time capsule. It oozes of eighties goodness with the sound and type of songs that I feel have been missing largely from the band’s last two albums.
It also Clearly is oozing with teen angst, nowhere to be found are songs about getting too old or not being able to eat the greasy food you want anymore. Instead we get a batch of snotty love songs and angry punk ragers clearly fueled by a hefty dose of caffeine & french fries. This is the exact way that I love my Descendents, drenched in the 1980s sunshine and no filter. It’s also notable that the sound comes full circle with the original lineup intact even though sadly guitarist Frank Navetta passed away not long after this was recorded.
Jam packed with classic guitar riffs with plenty of their nostalgic attitude & the sweet melodies of their original bassist Tony Lombardo bring me back to simpler times. This album IMO is an absolute dream come true for hardcore fans who grew up listening to them in the 1980s. The anthems of those awkward teen nerds come alive one last time with this latest release from the Descendents! Mmmm…TOTALLY!
U-Dork Rock: 90’s Alt Pop Punkers DOUGHBOYS + MEGA CITY FOUR Lost Vids!
I rarely ever do music posts here, but every now and again I’ll throw something up that really means something to me. Well today I wanted to share a few videos that recently surfaced from one of my all time favorite nearly forgotten bands, Canada’s own DOUGHBOYS. The Doughboys, who formed in ’86 have been a staple in my teen years right up to today. My best description of them would probably be to call them Canada’s answer to HUSKER DU (except with more focus on vocal harmonies) another of my all time faves. Blending their punk roots with crunchy power pop before the likes of Blink 182 was everyone’s go to idea of what pop punk is. I’d even go as far to say that in the early 90’s they were kinda like what the the classic early Foo Fighters would eventually become.
They also were one of the most entertaining & energetic live bands I’ve ever seen, I often felt bad for any band who had to follow them on a bill and the sheer amount of hair this band had collectively would leave any metal band envious. If you like the sound of what I’m laying out here I recommend checking out their 5 albums, you won’t be disappointed. So back in 1996 these guys released their last album ‘Turn Me On’ and it was one of their best. My old band, Ben Grim, even opened for them once in Green Bay, Wisconsin at the iconic ‘Concert Cafe’ during this period, ah those were the days.
Ok so the one thing that was exciting about this era of the Doughboys was that they replaced their longtime lead guitarist. Normally I’d have been upset by the news, but they chose Darren “Wiz” Brown (RIP), the singer/guitarist of one of my other all time favorite bands, Mega City Four, to keep the band in tact. Mega City Four is basically the British counterpart to bands like Husker DU and the Doughboys & Wiz even co wrote songs with the band. So hearing he’d joined made me and my friends most excited for what they might come up with for their next album. However that sadly was not the case, the Doughboys career didn’t last much longer and to my knowledge they only recorded one song with the Wiz in the line up (unless of course they did some demos?!). Still, he was clearly a Doughboy and was pictured on the album and also in the videos that ‘Turn Me On’ produced.
Yeah there were a couple videos back then that never saw the light of day here in the USA, but now 25 years later they of course surface on Youtube! The damn wonders of the internet, I tell you. So hopefully this post might be seen by other fans of the band. who like me. missed out on them decades ago, it was a big deal for Mega City Four and the Doughboys to merge back in the mid 90’s. For a few minutes upon watching these videos I felt the pressures of the modern day vanish into simpler sweeter times of alternative 90’s rock. Check out ‘I Never Liked You’ one of the band’s best songs from ‘Turn Me On’ that also features the late great Wiz on guitar…
….and another great one ‘Everything and After’ from the same album:
Also some footage I posted from the same era:
The Top 10 Best Animated Music Videos of ALL Time!!
I saw a couple really cool animated music videos this week and it really got me wondering – what are the greatest cartoon / animated music videos of all time?! There’s a few that come to mind immediately and I know there are a ton that likely have fallen under the radar over the years.
The videos I’ve chosen are official ones by the actual artist, mainly more of an old school traditional animated or hand drawn style & I’ve steered away this time of the modern CG style stuff. Maybe some day I’ll investigate that further in the mean time check this out and most definitely let me know if I have left something off of the list – so let’s get crackin’ here as we figure out exactly what the coolest animated videos of all time are!!
Descendents – No Fat Burger (2016)
Here’s a brand spankin’ new video from one of my personal favorite bands of all time. The Descendents have been around since 1978 and packing the pop into punk like no other band can. This cool frantic animated video finally finds it’s cartoon mascot (and lead singer) “Milo” growing older and trying to resist eating everything unhealthy in sight. The band now in their fifties still has the energy but let’s face the facts, they just can’t eat the way they used to as teenagers. This is a call back to their classic song ‘I Like Food’. I always wanted to see the Milo character come to life in animation and the wait is finally over.
A-ha – Take On Me (1985)
Here’s one of the most popular videos of all time and it’s animated! Aside from this song being one of the best pop tunes of the 1980’s it also featured this incredible video filled with adventure & pure heart. The song was released several times but failed to chart, however when they produced this amazing video the whole thing exploded. One of the best things about it is that it tells a short action packed story that really sticks with you long after the video is over. The cool rotoscoping animation also gives it a hyper realistic quality no one had ever seen before in a music video. A true classic.
Spazz Out On The New DESCENDENTS Song!
Today was a special occasion as one of my all time favorite bands dropped a new song from their upcoming album due out July 29th! Yep the Descendents are back and kicking ass again with an old school sounding track called Victim of Me. If you haven’t already check it out below! The Descendents prove that they indeed have NOT grown up!! Check it! Milo, punk rock’s most famous nerd is back!
We Can Never Go Home: Classic Punk Rock Variant Covers!
I had to put up some of these awesome variant covers for one of my favorite comic books out on the scene right now- We Can Never Go Home. Being a big fan of classic punk rock I can’t say enough about how cool these are. If you haven’t checked out the book yet it’s a super fun read and set back in the 1980s. They’ve been doing some various variant covers in the theme of classic 80’s punk rock album cover. Here’s are the comic book covers along with the album covers they’re based on! Get this book from Black Mask Studios and yeah if you haven’t already – get these albums!!
Kickstart GREEN BLAH! : The History of WISCONSIN Punk Rock?!!
The time has come to go back to my punk roots!! My first real passion as a kid was comic books but it wasn’t long until I fully discovered something else that truly engaged me – punk rock. Yes I grew up in Wisconsin and most people seem to think that all America’s Dairyland has to offer is beer & cheese, but hell you couldn’t be more wrong! Wisconsin has an incredibly rich history in punk rock and “Green Blah! The History of Green Bay Punk Rock” will once and for all prove all the naysayers wrong!!
When I was a kid I discovered how much was actually really going on in the punk scene right there. Sure there may not have been the legendary bands like Black Flag, Descendents, Circle Jerks or Bad Brains emerging from the scene but there were a lot of equally awesome bands that never got the respect they deserved from way back in the day. This documentary will prove that!
Growing up near Green Bay in the 80’s & 90’s was awesome for a kid like me who was hooked on the music because the scene there was bursting full of life. Yep Green Bay was where it was at if you were a touring punk band! The kids there were ravenous for punk because lets face it, there wasn’t a fuck of a lot to do in the suburbs of Wisconsin other than Skate & Destroy and go to punk rock shows. So now we finally get to let everyone in on the awesome scene that Green Bay & Wisconsin had going on! Green Blah! is a film by veteran Wisco punks Chris Pretti & James Baker and right now you can help fund this Documentary on Kickstarter! So all you punk rockers out there help these guys get this flick out there to document another important chapter in the history of punk music. Check this shit out and get on board already!!
We Can Never Go Home – Truly Dangerous Teen Angst and Punk Spirit in the 80’s!
Oh how I love the 80’s! There’s something truly unique about that decade and even more so to me, having grown up in that era. That might be one of the reasons why I am loving ‘We Can Never Go Home‘ from Black Mask Studios so much, it really holds some serious nostalgia within it’s pages. In the late 80’s I was probably just about the same age as these characters in the book and was fueled by things like skateboarding, punk rock and well for me…girls. This series is set in 1989 and feature two characters who somehow seem like long lost characters from my childhood, only these two teens have something other than just raging hormones pulsating through their veins, they’ve also got some strange superhuman abilities. So what’s so unique about a story with some teenage misfits with dangerous mutant like powers you might ask?
Well writer Matthew Rosenberg pulls no punches and at issue #2 we see our two leads getting into a boat load of serious, serious trouble. Imagine if you were a teenager with raging hormones and you had a peculiar case of superhuman strength or could kill someone with your mind? It’d be a dangerous scenario and after our two troubled teens Madison & Duncan become friends it becomes quite an unholy alliance. With Madison sending her boyfriend crashing through a car window after he picks a fight with a loner punk rocker Duncan, things begin to get real messy real quick. Soon these two find out they have more in common than they ever imagined.
After one fatal move the two are bound to never go home and head off on a road trip that by issue number two will have you gasping for air. These two teens just seem to get deeper and deeper into a tangled web that could easily cost them and anyone they care about their lives. So what better solution than stealing a car and robbing the local drug dealer of all his cash huh?
I’m also loving all of excellent references to old punk rock, mix tapes with everything awesome & confusing about being a teen in the 1980’s. It’s clear Rosenberg himself is a fan of the era and he captures the heart of a great rebellious 80’s flick within the pages of his book, which isn’t an easy task. I can already see this series transformed into great tv series or movie, kind like if ‘Heathers’ and ‘Firestarter’ got together and had lovechild.
So in a time when superhero books leave you feeling a bit empty inside it’s nice to know we’ve got a true alternative to the genre and one more exciting road trip left to go on with that awesome girl (or boy) that may have have got away many years ago. Just make sure to bring that totally rad old mix tape on this ride because is gonna get epic and most definitely deadly…
Universal Dork 