Filmage: The Story of Descendents\All Page #3

you the most hellacious

farts known to humanity.

MIKE:
The scene was so

small in those days, stuff

just didn't come to you.

You had to make it happen.

BILL:
Bands would get

together and rent VFW halls,

or rent Eagle's Clubs,

or Knights of Whatever.

The clubs that were

doing punk rock

at the time, the

ones in Hollywood,

they weren't down with us guys

with no punk rock appearance.

KEVIN LYMAN:
Looks? There was

no image or looks for that band.

Back then it would, like, The Addicts

had a look, the Buzzcocks had a look.

But the Descendents? They

just looked like whatever

they slept in the van they

would come out and play in.

ZACH BLAIR:
These

were these nerdy guys

that didn't give a

sh*t about an image

or trying to fit in with

somebody's click, and

not even trying to fit

in with their own click.

CHRIS DEMAKES:
Working man's band.

Jeans, T-shirt, BOOM.

Steamrolled you from the

time they hit the stage.

TONY:
We were just about the

music. And kicking ass.

Kicking ass musicially!

Then you can walk

out feeling proud.

BILL:
"We were real fat people.

I weighed about 240 pounds, and

Frank weighed about 190 pounds."

INTERVIEWER:
"240?"

BILL:
"Yeah. We eat

hamburgers and stuff.

People thought, "Oh, they do

this funny thing."

"But we really into that.

We were into that."

"I wrote that song about going

to Der Wienerschnitzel,

because we were all into it.

We were like "YEAH!"

BILL:
I just decided to

not write normal songs.

"I Like Food" and

"Wienerschnitzel",

I thought that was the

way of the future.

Like, "Yeah, these songs are

more cool than normal songs."

MIKE:
Then they made an album

called Milo Goes To College.

And we were blown away by it.

BILL:
By the time we recording

"Milo Goes To College",

the pendulum had swung

somewhere in the middle.

There's a lot of melodic

and pop elements to it,

but it also has that bitter resentment

I was talking about with Frank.

MIKE:
The songs are like these little

films, the movies, these little adventures.

They're intense. "Catalina",

that's the big swan song on there,

and it's the epic voyage. We're

gonna go out fishing and sh*t.

BILL:
You didn't get bored because

Tony's coming from way over their,

and I'm coming from way over there,

and Frank's over there, and Milo...

DAVE:
Yeah, I think the Milo

record is their "Sergeant Pepper".

CHRIS SHARY:
From the moment that I

heard the beginning it was like,

This is the music that I

have been waiting for.

TREVER KEITH:
We made no

secret that Descendents

were an influential

band for Face To Face.

FAT MIKE:
I heard "Kabuki Girl"

on Rodney on the Roq and,

kabam! There it is!

TIM MCLLRATH:
The

Descendents were definitely

one of my gateway

drugs to punk rock.

MIKE HERRERA:
I wanted to

do what they were doing.

I wanted to sound like

they were sounding.

DONI/ZACH:
It resonated with

both of us so much, and spoke

to us so much that it was

almost like this revelatory...

Holy sh*t!

JOEY CAPE:
Yeah, it was just an instant

love affair. It just changed my life.

I realized that you could

make a punk record and have

that kind of pop sensibility

but also be intricate.

DAVE GROHL:
If the Descendents

had made "Milo Goes To College"

in 1999, they'd be

living in f***ing mansions.

That's a f***ing amazing record.

JOEY:
And don't even get

me started on the artwork.

CHRIS:
It just started off to taunt

Milo. I mean it was just to taunt him.

Roger just did these

drawings on pieces of paper

and would pass notes to

Milo just to piss him off.

JEFF ATKINS:
Bill shows up at my

house and says, "Dude, I need Milo!"

I go, "What do you mean?

He's with you." He goes,

"No I need the cover for the album.

You gotta do it."

I go, "Roger does the drawing."

He goes, "No, you gotta do it."

I said, "Okay, what

kind of Milo do you want?"

So I draw him a Milo. First,

it was the crew neck T-shirt.

Then I drew the polo shirt Milo.

Then I drew the Milo with a tie,

because he goes to college.

And he goes, "Oh, that's it." And it

becomes the cover of the first record.

MILO:
Bill's known me since

high school, and he knows

that I've got this whole

dichotomy of desires.

I want to rock out and

be a punk rock guy,

but I also have this really strong

ambition to be a scientist.

INTERVIEW:
"So what do you wanna

be when you grow up? A biochemist?"

MILO:
"Yeah, I'd like to cure

the world of all known diseases

and solve the world's hunger

problem and solve war."

"I figure I should be able to

do that in 20 years or so."

BILL:
There was never

the idea of Milo not

being a scientist and

staying in the band.

He was always real clear about being

into his science first and foremost.

MIKE:
After that, Billy

becomes part of Black Flag,

and Descendents

kind of went on hold.

KIRA ROESSLER:
Bill

has the little boy.

He's this very high energy guy.

Childlike in all the

best sense of the word.

But who else he was was

this incredible work ethic,

just "I will lay down my

life to make this great."

Playing in a band when

you are not the leader

is a huge challenge, and it's a wonderful

exercise in how to be a better player.

MILO:
Bill was recording

with Black Flag and he

invited me up to do backing

vocals for "Loose Nut."

And he pulled me aside and

said, "Hey, I got these songs,

but they're

not Black Flag songs."

"They're really more Descendents songs."

And I said, "Let me hear them."

So, it was just an instrumental

track and he sang over

it and sang "Silly Girl" to

me, and I was like, "Wow!"

MILO:
He said, "I can't

do these in Black Flag,"

and I said, "Well maybe

we should do them!"

He and I and Tony. Frank had

already took off, so it was Ray.

BILL:
At some point, Frank just

took off.

He put all of his

equipment in a pile,

and lit it on fire. And

then moved to Oregon.

Genius, right? Frank's a genius.

But he and I had a

very deep friendship

in the end and that says it all.

TONY:
We recorded "I Don't

Want To Grow Up" in two weeks.

We learned the songs and

recorded it in two weeks.

MILO:
We could've put a lot

more practice time into it,

but I think that the songs

themselves are really good songs.

We play them all better now.

BILL:
I got a taste of touring in

Black Flag, and I wanted to take that

and spread that laterally to what the

Descendents would or could do.

TONY:
Bill came. He had

just left Black Flag.

And he had a road

trip all lined up.

I had just bought this house

and the job and the girl...

It was a mistake. I did it.

It's my fault.

Bill always says,

"Well, you quit."

And it's true, but how long has

it been? Twenty-six years?

I've seen murderers get

off sooner than that

for punishment. Is

my attitude showing?

TONY:
I feel like I was almost

born a Descendent.

It was the perfect

vehicle for me to

express my inner

emotions and attitudes.

It was the best time of my life, and

I'd still be doing it if I could

DOUG CARRION:
Billy, I, and Milo

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