ALBUM REVIEW: 9th & Walnut – Descendents

For the last four decades, DESCENDENTS have (albeit intermittently) released some of the most energetic, vibrant and above all catchy punk rock ever committed to wax. With their last album, the brilliant and well received Hypercaffium Spazzinate, the band blasted back after a 12 year absence and proved without a doubt that it didn’t matter that how much time has passed between releases, they still had what it takes to make their anthemic and vital music.

Now DESCENDENTS are back again with 9th & Walnut (named after the area where the band practiced early on in their career) and this is a gem of an album that harks back to those earliest days. 9th & Walnut is a collection of songs that first emerged in the band’s formative years (1977 -1980) but mostly never released. Fast forward to 2002 and the band’s original line-up (bassist Tony Lombardo, drummer Bill Stevenson and guitarist Frank Navetta, who sadly died in 2008) got back together to bring those early songs to life but the project lay in limbo until recently when vocalist Milo Aukerman added his unmistakable voice to bring the songs back to life. The results are both stunning and a great lesson in the history of the music of DESCENDENTS, as well as acting as a fitting tribute to the memory of Navetta.

With 18 sub two and a half minutes blasts of pure melodic punk rock on show here, it’s a must listen for any punk rock fan and the songs on 9th & Walnut sound just as vital as they undoubtedly would have done in those early days, which is a testament to the band’s longevity and energy.

From the opening salvo of Sailors Choice, it’s a nonstop blur of what makes the DESCENDENTS such a special band and as it takes in the likes of the berserk You Make Me Sick, the passionate Nightage, the anthemic Mohicans and the manic It’s A Hectic World before finishing with a re-recording of the band’s very first single Ride The Wild and a very fun cover of THE DAVE CLARK FIVE‘s Glad All Over that sums up the band’s poppy punk sound. It’s a wild ride indeed and one that fizzes with energy all the way through.

9th & Walnut is a special album and one that encapsulates and brings together not only a whole chunk of the history of DESCENDENTS but just what it is about the band’s music that makes it sound so special and why it is treasured by a whole host of fans and bands alike.

Rating: 9/10

9th & Walnut is out now via Epitaph Records.

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