This weekend is a sentimental one as it comes from my first three. I was turning 11 years old and my brother of 5 years older bought me 3 CD’s to turn me to the punk rock side of music to which I still appreciate to this day. Those 3 CD’s consisted of Face to Face “Over It”, Bad Religion “Suffer” (highlighted here), and the Descendents “Somery”. Thanks brother!
The Descendents are a band that formed in the late 1970’s in the California punk rock scene and still play hard to this day. Since they formed they have had members in and out, notably lead singer Milo Aukerman who left to pursue his degree in biochemistry to which he now holds a doctorate in. Funny enough, their debut album was titled Milo Goes to College. The Descendents are considered pioneers and influenced many punk bands that came along. They have a long history much like many punk bands that formed in the 70’s and 80’s but like those bands, they impress me with their consistent and aggressive play through all the years. In my opinion the Descendents are one of the most underrated bands that formed in those early years and one that still stays true to their fans and roots.
Somery is an album that is in a sense a summary of all their early albums. But if there was one album that I could recommend to a new listener it would have to be this one as it is one that can be be played continuos and allow the listener to get a complete feel of the Descendents. I remember being an 11 year old kid and playing this with themes that were probably above my age, such as “Clean Sheets”, “Bikeage”, and “Hope”; they played in my new boombox CD player on a consistent basis as it was the aggressive style and beat of the Descendents that got my attention.
While I could not find the full album video I uploaded two of my favorite songs that I still love to listen to.
1) Hope – chose the live version as they follow the album version closely and this allows the reader to see them play
2) Bikeage – a song that has been played by other punk bands as a tribute, chose album version for sound clarity
