The Descendents Dish on Legacy

The Descendents has been a staple of the Hermosa Beach music scene since 1978.

It didn’t matter that the outfit had two prolonged hiatuses. The group’s legacy has been cemented in the area as a band that put Southern California's punk scene on the map, and eventually mainstream.

Guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo and drummer Bill Stevenson formed The Descendents.

In 1980, the group added singer Milo Aukerman and took the punk/hardcore rock scene by storm. At the time, Black Flag and Minutemen were the big bands and they helped The Descendents get its start.

"I really felt like I was a part of a family, with those bands," Aukerman told Hermosa Beach Patch. "It was really a special time for L.A. punk rock…there were so many great bands, and it seemed like everyone had so much enthusiasm for playing out and recording South Bay punk music."

Music served as a creative outlet for the band. There wasn’t much money in punk at the time, so the group performed as a way to get aggression out. 

"Back then, there was no real option to have a career playing punk rock, so I just wanted to have fun and not worry about the monetary aspects," Aukerman said. "Now, many years later, I keep coming back to it primarily as a creative outlet, and in that respect, it is most satisfying."

Though the band is deeply entrenched in the punk scene, its influences are a bit more eclectic.

"Two things come to mind," Aukerman said. "First, we had heavy exposure to surf music, mainly the Beach Boys and a local band the LAST (who had some surf-y elements mixed in with power pop.) These two South Bay bands, Black Flag, influenced our sound."

There also was another external factor that drove The Descendents’ sound: "The South Bay beach culture was often the focus of our anger and frustration, which we poured into our music," Aukerman said.

He added that he and the other band members didn't surf or skate or "act cool."

"Instead we went fishing and ate chili cheese dogs. I guess you could say the South Bay lifestyle was a negative role model for us. Having said that, I have fond memories of growing up in the South Bay, so I’m not saying I’m anti-South Bay. We were just doing our best to dispel the notion that the South Bay was paradise on earth," Aukerman said.

Now Aukerman is a plant genetics researcher, and has to squeeze in gigs during vacation days.

Band members have come and gone, most notably with the death of founding member Navetta in 2008. Despite the band’s come-and-go routine, it remains as popular as ever, much to Aukerman’s surprise.

"Being out of the public eye for that long, I automatically assumed that we would not be as popular now…but I was wrong," he said. "It seems like we’re more popular than we have ever been, in spite of, and perhaps due to, our long absence.  Somehow it worked to our advantage to go into hibernation at various times over the last three decades."

Since 2010, The Descendents has enjoyed its most active period in some time.

The group headlined some of the biggest festivals both home and abroad. Last year the band played its first area show since 1997, opening for Rise Against.

Though the band doesn’t live in the South Bay anymore, members are still proud of the influence they’ve had over the next generation of punk rockers.

"We, of course, have our own influences, so to be influential ourselves is very flattering to us," Aukerman said. "Making new out of old does require challenging the status quo, and that’s probably what I’m most proud of."