Descendents

As they say in Spinal Tap, it's such a fine line between stupid and clever. Los Angeles punk band Descendents knew exactly where that line was, and was always happy to cross it. At its best, the group was uniquely able to be silly and smart at the same time, turning childish rants about food, fucking, parents, and girls into tales of adolescent ennui. In a scene where you could only be cool if you were an outcast, vocalist Milo Auckerman easily occupied the role Angus Young fills in AC/DC; both band member and band mascot, whose persona is a pissed-off geek with a perpetual hard-on. Most of the band's album covers include a Bart Simpson-looking doodle that caricatures Auckerman, a cartoonishness well-suited to the band's extremes.

With their 1981 debut EP, Fat, Descendents established their ongoing MO -- hyperspeed punk songs with lyrics like, "I like food, food is good." The original version of that record did not include the group's first single, "Ride the Wild" b/w "It's a Hectic World," recorded before Auckerman joined the group. Although those two cuts appear on Bonus Fat, they can't be considered much of a bonus. Milo Goes to College is all straight-ahead punk -- 15 songs in less than a half hour, each full of metally riffs and lightning-speed plucking by bassist Tony Lombardo, who was always the band's secret weapon. Much like the Who, Descendents often used the bass for melodies and the guitar to bash out a steady rhythm. Parents shows a British punk influence, with Auckerman spitting the complaint: "They don't even know I'm a boy/They treat me like a toy, but little do they know that one day I'll explode." Both Fat and Milo Goes to College were later repackaged as Two Things at Once, an essential introduction to the group.

After Milo really did go to college, Descendents regrouped in 1985, and the resultant album, I Don't Want to Grow Up, featured the most singable tunes the band had ever written. "Good Good Things," "In Love This Way," and "Can't Go Back" were positively sunny by Descendents standards; the Beach Boys-gone-punk vibe was an obvious precursor to Weezer. The real advance was their ability to give strong melodies to thrash songs: "My World" and "Silly Girl" border on heavy metal but leave out the goofy excess and include way more self-pity.

Enjoy is weak overall, due in part to Lombardo's departure, though mostly because of the scatolog-ical humor on the title track. ("Sniff my ass while I pass gas," goes but one pearl.) The album is res-cued by a cover of the Beach Boys' "Wendy" and the band's own "Sour Grapes," on which Auckerman gets rejected by a snooty new-wave girl. All is often underrated because of the strange pseudo-arty in-strumental tracks on its second half; nonetheless, the album features three of the band's best songs, "Cameage," "Coolidge," and "Clean Sheets." The subjects are perennial, but Auckerman's sophistication as a lyricist has grown. "Coolidge" is about accepting one's uncoolness, and "Clean Sheets" talks of being forced to sleep on the floor after a lover's infidelity sullies the sheets.

Given its superior selection of songs, Liveage is the better of the band's two concert recordings; but Descendents weren't the kind of band to switch things up in concert, and these albums are for completists only. By contrast, the 1991 anthology, Somery, is the only Descendents record to qualify as must-have. It's got virtually all of the winning songs, from the goofy hardcore tunes like "Kids," "Weinerschnitzel," and "My Dad Sucks" to the more commercial-sounding rockers like "Hope," "Silly Girl," and "Sour Grapes."

For some unforgivable reason, the band reformed in 1996 with All bassist Karl Alvarez and guitarist Stephen Egerton. Their new album, Everything Sucks, lived up to its name. Cool to Be You (2004), on the other hand, finds the band sticking their toes into more adult themes (divorce, dead parents, complaints that "punk rock won't pay my bills"), amid some formidable hooks. (JENNY ELISCU)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide