ALL

ALL is a pop-punk/rock band inspired by groups like Black Flag, Alley Cats and The Last. It was formed by the remaining three members of The Descendents in 1987 when their frontman left to pursue a college degree. The band’s name is based on a concept that originated with the Descendents 1987 album of the same name.

Dave Smalley of Dag Nasty, a friend of the band, was recruited to become the group’s frontman. He sang on the band’s debut EP Allroy For Prez and debut album Allroy Sez before quitting. Stevenson later shared “Our experiment with Dave, it didn’t work as well as I thought … I had thought it was going to be different than it was.”

Smalley was replaced by Scott Reynolds, who “re-energized” the band. By then, ALL was performing 200 shows a year. Reynolds fronted the band for three years, producing two albums Allroy Saves and Percolater. Between these albums, the collaborative New Girl, Old Story (credited to TonyAll) was made with original Descendents bassist Tony Lombardo and included songs he’d written in the 1980s. Reynolds contributed vocals to the album alongside Lombardo.

After Reynolds quit, vocalist Chad Price replaced him for 1993’s Breaking Things. The underground success of the album’s two singles “Guilty” and “Shreen” led to signing with Interscope Records for 1995’s Pummel. The relationship with Interscope began smoothly, with the band being allowed to ‘do what they do’ – even firing the producer the label had assigned them. But after the record came out, Stevenson shared they were unhappy with Interscope because they did ‘a half-assed’ and ‘pretty mediocre job’, being more focused on hip hop than rock at the time.

ALL (along with the newly re-formed Descendents) then signed with Epitaph Records in 1996. ALL’s final two studio albums were 1998’s Mass Nerder and 2000’s Problematic. The live album Live Plus One followed, becoming the band’s first and sole appearance on a Billboard Chart debuting and peaking at #45 on the Independent Albums Chart.

In 2000, Price joined the alt-country band Drag The River. In the following years, he released two acoustic solo albums. The other members of ALL have continued occasionally touring and recording with the re-formed Descendents, and have also toured as ALL with Scott Reynolds. In 2009, while Reynolds was performing with ALL again, Price told Westword :

Things are still up in the air between me and ALL. I still see the guys every now and then, but we haven’t really talked about me singing with them. Scott set up most of these shows, which is why he’s singing with them … And that’s fine with me. I could go either way. It’s been years since I’ve sung punk rock, and I don’t miss it yet.

In 2016, Price joined the punk supergroup A Vulture Wake. When Stevenson was asked in 2017 if he foresees another ALL album happening. He responded with:

We’re all very close with each other. There’s no bitterness among our camp. We’re wiser and happier, more comfortable. My docket right now is 50 billion Descendents shows, but I think that it would be lame if ALL didn’t do another record.