Tony Lombardo

Tony Lombardo was the bassist with the pioneering punk rock band Descendents between 1978 and 1985.[1] Lombardo was part of the original Descendents lineup with guitarist Frank Navetta and drummer Bill Stevenson.[1]

Contents

Early years with Descendents

This lineup's first release was the single Ride The Wild/It's A Hectic World in 1979.[2] Lombardo sang lead vocals on It's A Hectic World before the band added new lead vocalist Milo Aukerman in 1980, with which they became hardcore sensations.[1][2] The band put out their first release with Aukerman in 1981, the Fat EP.[1][2] The next year, the band put out their first full length release Milo Goes to College.[3]

Critiques

Lombardo showed off his skills on this album. While on Fat there were 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".

Later years with Descendents

The Descendents went on hiatus in 1983 when Aukerman left for college, but reformed in 1985, releasing I Don't Want to Grow Up.[2][3] Lombardo recorded the album[3] but did not participate in the tour and left that year, replaced by ex-Anti bassist Doug Carrion.[4][5]

Music work after Descendents

Lombardo's reason for leaving Descendents was to join his own new band Nuclear Bob, later renamed Three Car Pileup, who released only one album. Lombardo then joined fellow ex-Descendents member Ray Cooper to join a band called Spiffy who are still recording. Lombardo is considered one of the band's best bassists, along with Karl Alvarez, and is highly critically acclaimed.

Additionally, Lombardo joined with members of ALL in 1991 to form the one off band TonyALL and which issued the album "New Girl, Old Story." The album was generally traditional Descendents / ALL fair with fast, driving baselines and generally melodic vocals.

2002 reunion

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. Sadly, after a brief fistfight backstage involving Tony Lombardo's girlfriend and a dog, he left the band permanently.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Blush, Steven; George Petros (2001). American Hardcore: a tribal history. Feral House. p. 85. ISBN 9780922915712. http://books.google.com/books?id=7AgdUYZ6U0wC&pg=PA85&dq=%22Tony+Lombardo%22+descendents&hl=en&ei=TFqaTeHvO8rp0gH5_ezkCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22Tony%20Lombardo%22%20&f=false. Retrieved April 4, 2011. "Three 15-year-olds from the Hermosa/Manhattan Beach area — guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo, drummer Bill Stevenson — came together in late 1978 to cut their first single [...]. Descendents reformed after Stevenson's 1985 split with flag. The new quartet — Bill, DYS/Dag Nasty singer Dave Smalley, and Stephen Egerton and Karl Alvarez of Salt Lake City's Massacre Guys — by 1987 changed their name to All [...]." 
  2. ^ a b c d Cogan, Brian (2006). Encyclopedia of Punk Music and Culture. Greenwood Press. pp. 54–55. ISBN 9780313333408. http://books.google.com/books?id=OQcKAQAAMAAJ&q=%22tony+lombardo%22+%22fat+ep%22&dq=%22tony+lombardo%22+%22fat+ep%22&hl=en&ei=dWCaTZ-2Eom90QGotanxCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA. Retrieved April 4, 2011. "The band was formed in 1979 by Bill Stevenson as a three-piece with bassist Tony Lombardo, and guitarist Frank Navaretta for the Ride the Wild EP7 but became better known with the addition of vocalist Milo Auckerman, who recorded the classic Fat EP. [...] The band had several length hiatuses, the first when Milo Auckerman left for college (to pursue a career as a scientist, as immortalized in the classic album Milo Goes to College) and another when he pursued a Ph.D. in biochemistry." 
  3. ^ a b c Shapiro, Peter. Buckley, Peter. ed. The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. pp. 286–287. ISBN 9781843531050. http://books.google.com/books?id=haEfq-nKqjgC&pg=PR7-IA233&dq=%22Tony+Lombardo%22+descendents&hl=en&ei=TFqaTeHvO8rp0gH5_ezkCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22Tony%20Lombardo%22%20descendents&f=false. Retrieved April 4, 2011. "The next year, they released one of hardcore's definitive moments, Milo Goes to College. [...]" 
  4. ^ Quint, Al, ed (Fall 1985). "Suburban Voice Interviews Descendents". Suburban Voice (17). Archived from the original on n.d.. http://homepages.nyu.edu/~cch223/usa/info/descendents_SVinter.html. Retrieved April 4, 2011. "Drummer Bill Stevenson subsequently joined Black Flag until earlier this year, when the band reformed with Milo and Bill joined by original bassist Tony Lombardo and Ray Cooper, who had been with the band as a second guitarist in '82. This lineup recorded the comeback album, "I Don't Wanna Grow Up," before Tony left, unable to commit himself to a tour. Tony was replaced by Doug, formerly of Incest Cattle." 
  5. ^ Gugliemi, Federico, ed (October 2000) (in Italian). Enciclopedia Della Music Rock [Encyclopedia of Rock Music]. 3. Cesare Rizzi. Giunti Gruppo Editoriale. pp. 148–149. ISBN 9788809017962. http://books.google.com/books?id=G3Bb4LYafKsC&pg=PA148&dq=carrion+tony-lombardo&hl=en&ei=f2eaTbT5Ic7SgQe7uKnWCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CE0Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=carrion%20tony-lombardo&f=false. Retrieved April 4, 2011. "1986-1988 Pur non distaccandosi sostanzialmente dal passato, Enjoy! (inciso con il bassista Doug Carrion) [...] deludono un po'le attese [...]" 
  6. ^ Thompson, Paul (November 2008). "R.I.P. Frank Navetta, Founding Descendents Guitarist". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on April 4, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5xhrQp5e6. Retrieved April 4, 2011. "Navetta also played on the band's 1996 effort Everything Sucks, and joined the band onstage at Fort Collins, Colorado's Stockage Festival in 2002." 
Descendents
Bill Stevenson • Milo Aukerman • Karl Alvarez • Stephen Egerton
Frank Navetta • Tony Lombardo • Ray Cooper • Doug Carrion
Studio albums
Live albums
Compilation albums
EPs
Singles
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