Descendents - History - Early Years, Fat EP, Milo Goes To College, and First Hiatus (1978-1983)

Early Years, Fat EP, Milo Goes To College, and First Hiatus (1978-1983)

In 1977, friends Frank Navetta and David Nolte began writing songs on acoustic guitars with the intention of forming a band. They initially called themselves The Itch, until Navetta came up with the name Descendents. By the end of the year they had failed to attract any more band members, so Nolte instead joined The Last with his brothers. In late 1978 Navetta was joined by drummer Bill Stevenson and bassist Tony Lombardo, revitalizing the Descendents project. Nolte sang with the group at several of their early performances, but by the Spring of 1979 The Last were becoming more active and he left the Descendents. The singerless "power trio" lineup of Navetta, Lombardo, and Stevenson recorded the band's debut single at Media Art studios and released it on their own label, Orca Records, named after Stevenson's fishing boat. Navetta sang "Ride the Wild" while Lombardo sang "It's a Hectic World". Nolte produced and mixed the session, and his brother Joe turned the lead guitar level up, resulting in the guitar being very loud in the mix.

The band's music at the time was described by Stevenson as a "coffee'd-out blend of rock-surf-pop-punk music The sound consisted basically of Lombardo's hard-driving, melodic bass lines, Navetta's tight guitar riffing, and my 'caffinated' surf beats." Steven Blush, author of American Hardcore: A Tribal History, describes the single as "a blend of Devo-style New Wave and Dick Dale-like surf." Ned Raggett of Allmusic describes it as surf-inspired power pop with a New Wave edge: "Not quite Devo if they grew up on the coast, but there's something to that comparison."

Lacking a lead singer, Navetta and Lombardo provided vocals on the single. After a six-month trial with a female singer, they recruited Milo Aukerman as their new vocalist. The addition of Aukerman and the consumption of large amounts of coffee led the band to write shorter, faster, and more aggressive songs in a hardcore punk style. They later released the Fat EP in 1981. It was a record which had established the band's presence in the southern California hardcore punk movement with its short, fast, aggressive songs.

For the recording of their first album in June 1982, the band worked at Total Access Recording in Redondo Beach, California with Spot, who had also engineered and produced the Fat EP. While still short and fast, the songs on Milo Goes to College were also melodic. Singer Milo Aukerman later reflected: "It's interesting: we started very melodic, then moved to hardcore, but melded the two at a certain point and became melodic hardcore." The album's title and cover illustration referenced Aukerman's departure from the band to study biology at the University of California, San Diego. The illustration was done by Jeff Atkinson, based on earlier caricatures by a high school classmate of Aukerman's named Roger Deuerlein, who had drawn comic strips and posters depicting Aukerman as the class nerd.

A note on the back of the LP read "In dedication to Milo Aukerman from the Descendents", and was signed by the other three members. Aukerman later recalled that the band took his departure in stride:

When I decided to go to college, the guys in the band were pretty hip on it because they knew how big of a nerd I was. Like, "What else would you expect him to do but to go off and be a nerd?" I mean, I've got a Ph.D in biochemistry — how uncool is that?

The band had time off so I spent like two years with Black Flag. I got in over my head. When I joined Flag I had every intention of doing both bands but it was physically impossible. Flag had all this stuff in progress, so I put Descendents on hold.

–Bill Stevenson on the groups first hiatus.

The band continued performing for a time with Ray Cooper on vocals, who then switched to rhythm guitar, and occasionally with Aukerman when he would make return visits to Los Angeles. At the same time, drummer Bill Stevenson had also joined Black Flag, intending to be in both bands at once but soon finding it too difficult due to Black Flag's touring and recording schedule:"The band had time off so I spent like two years with Black Flag. I got in over my head. When I joined Flag I had every intention of doing both bands but it was physically impossible. Flag had all this stuff in progress, so I put Descendents on hold."

With Aukerman in college and Stevenson in Black Flag, the Descendents went on hiatus from 1983 to 1985. During this time lead guitarist Frank Navetta burned all of his equipment and moved to Oregon, while Cooper and bassist Tony Lombardo performed as the Ascendants.