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Tony Lombardo was the bassist with the pioneering pop-punk band Descendents for 6 years. Lombardo was part of the original Descendents lineup in 1979 with guitarist Frank Navetta and drummer Bill Stevenson. This lineups first release was the single Ride The Wild/It's A Hectic World in 1979. Lombardo sang lead vocals on It's A Hectic World. The band added new lead vocalist Milo Aukerman in 1980, with which they became hardcore sensations. The band put out their first release with Aukerman in 1981, the Fat EP. The next year, the band put out their first full length release Milo Goes to College. Lombardo showed off his skills on this album. While on Fat there was not a lot of distinctive bass parts, Milo showed Lombardo playing bass riffs in nearly every song, including the introductions to "Myage" and "M-16", which showed off his talent. In most of the other songs on the album he was heard playing improvizations to the rhythm guitar of Navetta, and traded off leads with Navetta on "I Wanna Be A Bear". The Descendents split in 1983 when Aukerman left for college, but the band reunited in 1985, releasing I Don't Want to Grow Up. Lombardo recorded the album but did not participate in the tour and left that year, replaced by ex-Anti bassist Doug Carrion.
Lombardo then joined fellow ex-Descendents member Ray Cooper to join a band called Spiffy. Lombardo is considered one of the band's best bassists, along with Karl Alvarez, and is critically acclaimed. A Descendents reunion of sorts occurred at ALL's quasi-annual Stockage Festival in Fort Collins, Colorado in the spring of 2002. Frank Navetta joined Tony Lombardo and Bill Stevenson to play songs from the brief trio-era before Milo Aukerman joined the group. As far as is known, Tony Lombardo is not related to Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo despite the fact they have the same last name and are both from southern California.
