Tagged: pop punk
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!
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:
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!
Bob Mould Gets Super Sneaky in his Awesome New Video!
l don’t do a ton of music posts here so when I do you know it’s something special that’s worth checking out! I had to take a minute to mention that a little over a month ago I worked on the latest music video from Bob Mould. I was lucky enough to work on the styling and wardrobe for one of my musical idols, being a fan since his days in Husker Du this obviously meant a great deal to me not to mention this new song “I Don’t Know You Anymore” I consider to be one of the best songs he’s ever written. It calls back to some of his best work from Sugar, his band from the early 90’s.
If you don’t know who Bob is and you love loud punky guitar rock, you may have at least heard him on the last Foo Fighters album where he and Dave Grohl dueted on guitar, vox and songwriting for the albums best track “Dear Rosemary”. Otherwise I highly suggest checking out his his work starting with Husker Du. This latest video was filmed right here in Portland Oregon and directed by Alicia Rose, who we worked with on several other projects together including Corin Tucker’s video for “Neskowin”.
I can tell you the latest Mould video is pretty damn funny too as Bob and his band tries to “get with the times” after releasing a vinyl single for the bands latest track and being schooled by Colin Meloy from The Decemberists. I also got his new album “Beauty and Ruin” which was released on Merge Records yesterday and it’s rock solid with jam packed with amazing guitar driven power pop. This guy just gets better with age- if you have any doubt check out the video already!!!
Don’t Fear The Davis Baby! Just Download it for Free!
I’m taking a moment here to share a new song from my latest musical endeavor The Davis Baby! Yes it’s named after that little mutant monster baby from the 70’s horror flick “It’s Alive”. See back in the mid 90’s I lived in Wisconsin & I played in a pop punk band called Ben Grim, we were inspired by bands like Descendents/ALL, The Doughboys, The Hard-ons ect, we released some records and toured around the US with our best buddies Fun Size (one of the best pop punk bands of the 90’s). It was some of the best times of my life, as Bryan Adams might say. So I decided to put together a group today that sort of brought that old Ben Grim sound back.
We wrote four songs of crunchy old school power pop the way we would have done it back in the Ben Grim days. The project features my former band mate Joel Vega, who sang and played guitar in Ben Grim with me, my old pal Kevin Carl from lates 80’s/90’s band G-Whiz & Jim Wadsworth my good friend/fellow D&D player from Portland, Oregon band Danger Death Ray. We posted a FREE/name your price download of our new song “Laid to Rest”. It’s meant to be free but bandcamp doesn’t just let you list the track as purely “free”. So please no need to pay just download it!
It’s gonna be featured on our upcoming split ep with Higley (Kevin Carl & Duane Kiener of G-Whiz, Kris Roe of The Ataris & Bill Stevenson of Descendents/ALL/Black Flag) out soon on SP Records. The song also features Mark Arnold from Big DRILL Car on guitar. Which we were fully stoked to have play on it as Big DRILL Car remains to this day one of my favorite bands ever!
Download The Davis Baby for FREE here https://thedavisbaby.bandcamp.com/
Like us on Facebook HERE!
I’m trying to get the word out on this project, and it’s tough in this day and age to get anything out there on your own in the vast sea of the internet, so if you like it please help me share the song-maybe we’ll record more or start playing live!
Filmage – The Story of DESCENDENTS/ALL: Delivers True Nerd Rage!
I was lucky enough to see the new documentary “Filmage” over the holidays, a movie I felt like I’d waited my whole life to see! Yeah it was that good and it chronicles the story of the legendary pop-punk godfathers the DESCENDENTS / ALL from their start in the late 1970’s. It’s about time that these guys get the recognition they deserve and it seems as if these days they are more popular than they’ve ever been.
If you don’t know who the Descendents are then this is the perfect place to start as Filmage is premiering now all over the USA. But plain and simple The Descendents are the BEST pop punk band of all time. They’ve influenced countless bands and if it it wasn’t for them It be a safe bet to say that a band like Green Day would have never existed. I pretty much sum them up as the ultimate in real teen angst. The true spirit of what it was like to be a nerdy teen with raging hormones. Growing up in the 80’s I loved punk rock but it wasn’t until I heard them the first time that I really found a band that truly spoke to me as a teen.
The Descendents said all of the shit that you were really feeling growing up, something a lot of the punk bands lyrically were maybe too macho to sing about. Yeah they were most definitely not politically correct, at times even sexist, incredibly sappy, often crude and totally immature but at their core just a band of heartbroken nerds with no punk rock image. They covered the spectrum of hardcore punk while at the same time ripping into shameless love songs simultaneously. How many bands can even pull that off today much less back in 1982?!
Well Filmage gives us the full scoop into the minds of these guys, their lives, their struggles and transitioning from the Descendents into the much less popular outfit ALL back in 1987. The movie was made by true Dents fans and it shows by how much care was put into this documentary. Filled with amazing vintage footage of the band, incredibly personal interviews, hilarious animated sequences and interviews with the likes of Dave Grohl, Mike Watt, Mark Hoppus, Keith Morris amongst many others whom cite the band as having a huge influence on them.
It’s funny, sonically awesome and emotional as we follow the struggles of the band members lives up to current times. The movie in the end is really the full story of Bill Stevenson, the bands only constant member throughout Descendents and ALL while also filling us in on his time as drummer for Black Flag from 1982-1985.
It’s his journey as the band leader and all of the friends along the way that helped make his dream a reality. It tells us exactly why the band is finally getting the attention they deserved all these years. While watching it I was almost glad they never hit the big time, as the band always stayed true to their signature sound til this day. We also get a great glimpse into ALL’s struggle to fill the shoes of the bands most valuable musical weapon, Milo Aukerman, the ultimate nerd front man.
I don’t wanna give away to much of the story but I put this up there on the same level as “A Band Called Death” one of the years best rockumentaries. So check this out if you’re jones’n for the full story of the greatest melodic hardcore band of all time-you won’t be disappointed!
Check out the trailer:
HIGLEY : Re-Mastering Old Skool Pop Punk!
I love old pop punk! Especially the stuff from the late 1980’s and early 90’s like The Descendents/ALL, Big Drill Car, Chemical People, The Hard-ons & The Doughboys. I’ve posted here several times about the upcoming Descendents documentary “Filmage” and just how excited I am to see it finally released. So naturally I am super stoked on Higley, who just released their first two songs to the public last week!
I know, I know who the fuck is Higley?! Well it just so happens to be some people from a couple of my favorite pop punk bands of all time namely Kevin Carl & Duane Keiner of G-Whiz along with Bill Stevenson of Descendents / ALL & Black Flag. G-Whiz has been a fave of since the early 1990’s and I’d go on record to say that they’re one of the best pop punk bands of that era hailing from Tempe Arizona. My old punk band King Friday had a split record with them back in the day and currently I have an EP’s worth of material recorded with Kevin Carl for our long distance band The Davis Baby. Higley however has been a work in progress for Carl who recorded the tracks years ago with Bill Stevenson at the Blasting Room (Stevenson’s studio) in Fort Collins Colorado. However the songs had been demo’d with several singers over the years (the first I am told had Stevenson on vocals) but finally found the perfect fit in Kris Roe, known better for his band The Ataris.
Some might want to call this a super group but at it’s core it’s the baby of Carl who wrote all of the material with a little help from his friends to execute it. What we have here are two new songs, the first of many that are already recorded (I have heard eight more tracks, without vocals yet) that will become the bands first full album. Check these out below, if you’re a fan of any of the groups I mentioned you’re sure to love this. If you like what you hear go buy the songs on their bandcamp page as it will help get the full album out of the studio and into our ears….
Milo Goes to Austin…
As many of you may already know I am a huge Descendents fan and most recently did a blog about them here as they have reunited once again to fill our souls with teen angst. Well it turns out that the Descendents were recently added to the bill as the headliner of the Austin, Texas “Fun Fun Fun Festival” as a replacement act for Devo who had apparently had to cancel their performance a mere two weeks ago due to an injury of one of the key band members. If I had more time I just may have tried to make it down to Austin for the show.
Last night was the first time these punk pioneers have played live in 8 years-though in 2004 they did release an album (Cool To Be You) they played no shows to support the album. I decided to check out youtube to see if anything had been posted yet and sure enough there was a nice video of these guys already up. Though they do look considerably older I know that they sill haven’t grown up…Enjoy my good friends! Enjoy…
Universal Dork 