I was put into the way back machine reading this post by @boxcarblue this morning. It brought me back to my youth growing up, hitting the road, skating and listening to music, especially punk rock.
Me At The Cheesegrader, Temecula
During my high school years there wasn't a band more influential on me and my friends than the Descendents. Finding them was like finding crypto in 2011. They were pop punk in the fucking 80's and they were our secret find!
The Descendents were the soundtrack for Southern California teenage angst and skateboarding! They were different than most other punk bands though, they sung about love, relationships and they were actually good at playing their instruments, not just 4 power chord punk. Have a listen.
The Band
The Descendents were formed in the late 1970's in Manhattan Beach, Ca. by drummer Bill Stevenson(also of Black Flag), bassist Tony Lombardo and guitarist Frank Navetta. In 1979 Bill's friend Milo Stevenson joined as their vocalist and one of the most iconic punk bands ever started belting out classics like "Silly Girl", "Suburban Home", "Wendy"(Bach Boys Cover), "Pep Talk" and "Kabuki Girl", the latter of which probably subconsciously helped me meet my wife.
Bands like Green Day, Blink 182 and others have cited the The Descendents as major inspirations. You can hear The Descendents in most pop punk bands, after all they pretty much started the genre.
The band has been recording and performing since 1978 with hiatuses in-between and a side project called "ALL". ALL was the brainchild of drummer Bill Stevenson and formed when Milo took a break. They were a bit more poppy, but at the core were they still The Descendents.
The Descendents are still touring. Unfortunately I just missed them in Orange County back in March and they won't be back until next year it looks like, but they may be coming to a town near you. They are getting old so if you want to check them out now would be a good time before they retire. Tour dates can be found on the Epitaph Records website:http://epitaph.com
Skating
As I mentioned The Descendents were our soundtrack as we skated our ramps, that is as long as the ghetto blasters had batteries and/or a runaway skateboard didn't knock them out of service. Between my 3 friends, Jake, Jeff, Phil and I we built over 20 half pipes in and around Murrieta and Temecula, CA. Our most famous ramps were our spine & 7'. It was almost a skate park when we added another ramp, the Haden's ramp, which we cut in 3 pieces and relocated on a flatbed truck there! Fucking punk man!
We built them behind our houses on land that would later become an apartment complex. Until then though, it was ours and anyone could come skate them.
Professionals like Danny Way, Mario Rubacabla and others would occasionally come and skate. Danny once did a photo shoot for Power Edge magazine on our spine ramp. I had pictures, but when I moved to Tokyo I must have lost them.
Me testing out our 7 foot ramp before the finished plywood.
All was not fun and games though, we actually got nailed by one of the housing developers when they found out we had stolen some of their wood to build the ramps. We ended up having to do 1 day of work for them cleaning up their housing tract as payback. We got off easy though as we probably had well over $1000 in wood between the two ramps.
I had a great childhood, carefree, good friends, good music and good times. Thanks for bringing back those memories @boxcarblue.
And to my high school friends, Dave, Big Al, Chris, Liza, Phil, Jake, Jen, Marissa, and Tara Roll down your windows! Guys! Roll down your windows!
