ALL are possibly the single most underappreciated band in the history of underground music.
In 1987, Milo Aukerman announced he would be leaving the Descendents to concentrate full-time on microbiology. Rather than completely dissolve the band, Bill Stevenson (drums), Stephen Egerton (guitar), and Karl Alvarez (bass) enlisted former Dag Nasty vocalist Dave Smalley, who at the time was studying in Israel. After a few long distance calls from Stevenson, Dave flew out to LA where the other members picked him up and headed straight to their practice space to begin work on what would become their first album, Allroy Sez.
Kicking in with "Pretty Little Girl", Allroy Sez sounds similar to the Descendents, only a little faster and more straight forward. The mix was unfortunately buried under a sheet of reverb, and despite incredible songs like "Hooidge", "Sugar and Spice", and "Just Perfect", this album is commonly referred to as the members' least favorite album. Later in 1988 the band released the Allroy For Prez EP, with better production and an incredible leap in songwriting ability. There isn't one weak song among the records six tracks (The CD version has 8 tracks, including the "Just Perfect" single).
ALL would completely outdo themselves on their next album with the addition of Three Car Pile-up vocalist Scott Reynolds after Smalley left the band to form Down By Law. Opening with the instrumental "Gnutheme", the album does not let up, giving you amazing power pop like "Scary, Sad", "Mary", and "She's My Ex". The CD version includes a cover of "Hot Rod Lincoln", and arguably the best song on the album, "Carnage". This record belongs in every collection.
Soon after the release of "Revenge", ALL began work on their follow up, the more progressive sounding Allroy Saves. The use of odd time signatures and unusual song arrangements was a lot for some fans to handle, but Saves is just as good if not better than Revenge. Highlights on this album are "Frog", "Prison", "Just Living" and Bill Stevenson's tribute to his dead best friend, "Explorador".
The next year ALL released Percolator, which would be Scott Reynolds' last recording with the band. Reynolds had grown tired of touring, and after this record would leave the band to form Goodbye Harry. Despite Percolator's two instrumentals and three joke songs, it shows some of ALL's best work, including "Nobody's", "Minute", "Dot", and "Egg Timer". Percolator is also a lot more straight forward than Saves.
Follwing Reynolds' departure, ALL enlisted new vocalist Chad Price for their next album Breaking Things, which would be the last record they would record for SST subsidiary Cruz Records. Breaking Things features ALL's best production to date, and Chad's deeper, slightly gravelly voice offered a change of pace from the more high pitched, smooth vocals of Scott Reynolds and Dave Smalley. Breaking Things is one of ALL's strongest records, with Price contributing the anthemic album opener "Original Me" and "Stick", and one of the best songs Karl Alvarez would ever write, "'Cause". The band released singles for "Shreen" (theres a video for that, too), and "Guilty", which was also included on the Mallrats soundtrack.
For the followup to Breaking Things, ALL signed a deal with major label subsidiary Interscope Records, releasing the underrated Pummel. Pummel is much darker than any previous album, with tracks like "This World" and the album's monumental closer, "Black Sky". The band recieved some negative press for the song "Hetero", which was seen as homophobic, and Pummel failed to break into the mainstream radio market, despite the strong single and video, "Million Bucks". ALL was soon dropped from Interscope and Pummel went out of print. (To be reissued soon with bonus tracks on O & O Records)
In the meantime, Milo Aukerman had been writing songs and approached Bill about possibly doing another Descendents album. Bill agreed, and the band began work on songs that would make up the Descendents incredible comeback album Everything Sucks, and ALL's next release, Mass Nerder, with Chad and Milo deciding which songs would go on which record. Throughout 1996 the Descendents toured to support Everything Sucks, while Chad worked with his alt-country side project Drag The River (www.dragtheriver.com).
Once the Descendents had finished their tours and Milo returned to microbiology, ALL released Mass Nerder on Epitaph, followed by Problematic a couple years later. Since then, a two disc ALL/Descendents live album has been released entitled Live Plus One. Last year Stephen Egerton moved to Oklahoma, slowing down ALL's pace, though all the members still keep busy. Bill Stevenson runs the Blasting Room studio and plays drums in Only Crime with Aaron Dalbec of Bane and Russ from Good Riddance. Chad Price has been working full time with Drag The River who released their demo collection Hobo's Demos followed by their first album, Closed. The rest of the band's demos, entitled Chicken Demos, is slated for release in the next month or so followed by Drag's next album. Karl Alvarez now plays bass in All System's Go, featuring Doughboy's vocalist John Kastner and Big Drill Car guitarist Mark Arnold. The Descendents recently released a new album entitled Cool To Be You, though there are no plans for a tour. ALL is currently working on two albums, one of which will be instrumental.
Official ALL website-everything you need
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