Tony Lombardo

Tony Lombardo (born 1945)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is an American musician who was the original bassist in the punk rock band the Descendents. He joined the band in 1979 and played on their debut single, the Fat EP (1981), and the albums Milo Goes to College (1982) and I Don't Want to Grow Up (1985). After leaving the band, he performed in other acts and worked for the United States Postal Service until 2005. He collaborated with the Descendents' successor band, All, writing two songs for their album Allroy's Revenge (1989) and teaming up with them for an album of his own songs, New Girl, Old Story (1991), credited to "TonyAll". He also collaborated with the reunited Descendents on their 1996 album Everything Sucks, and the 2021 album 9th and Walnut.

Biography

Early life

Lombardo is originally from the South Bay, Los Angeles, but later moved to Long Beach, California to attend California State University, Long Beach.<ref name="Ritchie">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

1979–85: Descendents

Lombardo joined the Descendents in 1979, while the band was still in its formative stages.<ref name="Filmage">Template:Cite AV media</ref> Frank Navetta, David Nolte, and Bill Stevenson were rehearsing in Navetta's brother's garage in Long Beach.<ref name="Filmage"/> Hearing Lombardo practicing the bass guitar in his own garage up the street, they approached him and asked him to join the band.<ref name="Ritchie"/><ref name="Filmage"/> There was a significant age difference between Lombardo and the other band members: He was 34, while they were in their mid-teens.<ref name="Ritchie"/><ref name="Filmage"/> "He appeared to be somewhat older than us," Stevenson later recalled, "but I have to say he looked and acted very young for his age. It all worked out. There's me and Frank just being completely ridiculous and asinine, and Tony was in some ways the voice of reason or elder ambassador that would yield a modicum of propriety or reasonableness to our stupid arguments."<ref name="Filmage"/>

Nolte soon bowed out to join his brothers in The Last, and the power trio lineup of Navetta, Lombardo, and Stevenson released the Descendent's debut single, "Ride the Wild" / "It's a Hectic World" (1979).<ref>Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All. Event occurs at 12:55.</ref> Lombardo wrote and sang on the B-side track.<ref name="Two Things at Once">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Stevenson's classmate Milo Aukerman joined the band in 1980 as lead singer, solidifying the early Descendents lineup.<ref>Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All. Event occurs at 13:50.</ref> The Fat EP (1981) included two Lombardo compositions, "Hey Hey" and "My Dad Sucks", the later co-written with Navetta.<ref name="Two Things at Once"/> For the Descendents' debut album Milo Goes to College (1982), so named because Aukerman was leaving the band to study biology, Lombardo wrote "I'm Not a Punk", "Suburban Home", and "Kabuki Girl", and shares co-author credit on "I Wanna Be a Bear", "Tonyage", "Catalina", and "M-16".<ref name="Two Things at Once"/>

With Aukerman away at college, the Descendents added Ray Cooper as both singer and second guitarist.<ref name="Bonus Cut: Milo at college">"Bonus Cut". Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All. Event occurs at 4:10.</ref> They performed with this lineup, and occasionally as a quintet when Aukerman would make return visits to Los Angeles.<ref name="Bonus Cut: Milo at college"/> Stevenson pushed for the band to tour, which Navetta and Lombardo were against: "Bill kind of sat down with me and Frank and said something to the effect of we were at a point where we needed to grow by going on the road", Lombardo later said. "Frank said no, and I had to say no also, so he said he had to leave the band and we were both kind of bummed out. I don't think Frank even believed him at first. That was a bad scenario."<ref name="Lombardo Short">"The Lombardo Short". Filmage:The Story of Descendents/All. Event occurs at 0:10.</ref> Navetta, Lombardo, and Cooper tried to start a new band, the Ascendants.<ref name="Lombardo Short"/><ref name="All">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref><ref name="Shrub">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "We played one show", said Lombardo. "Frank played in his underwear, and I don't mean boxers. It was all a disaster, it was sad, for me anyway."<ref name="Lombardo Short"/>

Navetta ultimately quit the band and moved to Oregon, but Lombardo remained for the recording of the Descendents' 1985 album I Don't Want to Grow Up, which includes three of his compositions: the title track, "GCF", and the instrumental "Theme".<ref>Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All. Event occurs at 27:22.</ref><ref name="I Don't Want to Grow Up">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> He also shares co-author credit on "Descendents", "Pervert", and "Rockstar".<ref name="I Don't Want to Grow Up"/> Stevenson prepared a tour to support the album, but Lombardo declined due to his personal and professional commitments, thus quitting the band:

Template:ErrorTemplate:Main other{{#if:|

|}}{{#if:|

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}

Stevenson later regretting not being more accommodating: "Looking back on it, I should have been more sensitive to Tony's time limitations and maybe tried to limit the touring to if he had a week or two off. That would have been the compassionate thing to do as a band of friends, but I think I was too hell-bent on charging it and going for it. The band was just too good to be 'Let's practice four days a week and do two shows a month.' We were just too good of a band for that to be the end of our story."<ref name="Lombardo Short"/> Lombardo was replaced in the lineup by Doug Carrion.<ref name="All"/><ref name="Shrub"/><ref>Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All. Event occurs at 29:38.</ref>

1985–present: Post-Descendents

After leaving the Descendents, Lombardo continued to work for the United States Postal Service until his retirement in 2005.<ref name="Ritchie"/> He has lived in Lakewood, California since the early 1980s.<ref name="Ritchie"/> Over the years he has played in several other bands including Nuclear Bob, Boxer Rebellion, and Launch Pad.<ref name="FAQ">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Descendents experienced more lineup changes and released two more albums before Aukerman left the band in 1987. Stevenson changed the band's name to All, and they continued to tour and release albums. Lombardo wrote two songs for All's 1989 album Allroy's Revenge, "Man-O-Steel" and the instrumental "Gnutheme".<ref name="Allroy's Revenge">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> In 1990 he collaborated with All to record New Girl, Old Story, an album of songs he had written between 1979 and 1989.<ref name="New Girl, Old Story">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Lombardo played bass on the entire record, which was released under the band name "TonyAll", and sang on five of its twelve tracks:<ref name="New Girl, Old Story"/>

Template:ErrorTemplate:Main other{{#if:|

|}}{{#if:|

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}

When Aukerman reunited with the band as the Descendents for the 1996 album Everything Sucks, Lombardo and Navetta both participated. Lombardo played bass on "Doghouse" and received co-writer credit on "Eunuch Boy", a song he and Aukerman had written fifteen years earlier.<ref name="FAQ"/><ref name="Everything Sucks">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> He also wrote and played on the song "Gotta" from the album's recording sessions, which was released on the "When I Get Old" single.<ref name="When I Get Old">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Lombardo also joined former Descendents guitarist Ray Cooper in the band Spiffy, who released two singles in 1996.Template:Citation needed

In 2002 Lombardo and Navetta joined Stevenson for a reunion performance by the Descendents' original power trio lineup at Stevenson's Stockage festival in Fort Collins, Colorado.<ref name="Sutherland">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Lombardo, they also recorded some songs for a potential future release: "We recorded some of my songs in 2006 at The Blasting Room. In 2002 we recorded a whole bunch of songs, mostly Frank's songs. He was a great songwriter. He had such a unique EQ out of his amp. When we recorded later in 2008, we did some more of my songs, but Frank wasn't there for that. We tried to recreate that unique Frank sound. I'd like to think of these as songs that if the Descendents had stayed together, this is what we would have sounded like. Those are in Bill's hands. Milo has said from the get-go that he would record it, but he hasn't yet."<ref name="Ritchie"/> Navetta died in 2008.<ref name="Bonus Cut: Frank's death">"Bonus Cut". Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All. Event occurs at 44:40.</ref><ref name="Thiessen">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Punknews">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Lombardo joined All onstage for two performances in Southern California in July 2009.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Lombardo participated in the making of Filmage, a 2013 documentary film chronicling the history of the Descendents and All, in which he is featured in interview footage discussing his time with the band.<ref>Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All.</ref> In September 2014 he joined the Descendents to perform Milo Goes to College in its entirety at the Riot Fest in Chicago and Denver.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Frey">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Playing style

Template:Quote box Lombardo's bass playing with the Descendents was marked by his use of eighth note chord progressions, played in runs using down strokes rather than alternate picking.<ref name="Filmage: Tony's bass style">Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All. Event occurs at 16:30.</ref> "Tony brings a unique style of bass playing," said Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowski, "Every time they're on a chord, it's a run."<ref name="Filmage: Tony's bass style"/> Karl Alvarez, bassist for the Descendents and All since 1986, said of Lombardo's playing: "Without being a technical player, he can play some stuff that's flat-out impossible, and to him it's not weird. That's the best part. It's not 'I'm going to impress you with my virtuosity by playing this incredibly difficult line', it's just 'that's how the song goes.' The song just happens to do this ornate, complex, crazy thing on the bass because that's just how it goes."<ref name="Lombardo Short"/>

To help increase his playing speed, Lombardo made a strap out of duct tape and fishing weights that he would wrap around his right wrist while practicing: "I used to wrap this around my wrist, and I would play—all down strokes, mind you. After you took those weights off, you felt lighter, you felt faster. It might have been psychological, might've been a little bit to it."<ref name="Filmage: Tony's bass style"/> He would frequently play so fast and with such hard strokes that his right arm would begin to cramp.<ref name="Lombardo Short"/> "I called it 'Lombardo ArmTemplate:' ", said SWA's Greg Cameron, "because [his] arm would start to cramp up and you could just see the veins popping out, he was playing so hard."<ref name="Lombardo Short"/>

Template:Listen Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus cites Lombardo as a major influence on his own playing style: "His bass playing on those albums of the Descendents is only entirely influential on my playing. Just that eighth note down stroke powerful foundation of the melody that allows the guitars to do all kinds of other things. His playing is phenomenal."<ref name="Lombardo Short"/><ref name="Filmage: Tony's bass style"/>

Songwriting

Lombardo's songwriting credits with the Descendents include the songs "It's a Hectic World", "Hey Hey", "I'm Not a Punk", "Suburban Home","Kabuki Girl", "I Don't Want to Grow Up", "GCF", "Theme", and "Gotta".<ref name="Two Things at Once"/><ref name="I Don't Want to Grow Up"/><ref name="When I Get Old"/> He shares co-writer credit on "My Dad Sucks", "I Wanna Be a Bear", "Tonyage", "Catalina", "M-16", "Descendents", "Pervert", "Rockstar", and "Eunuch Boy".<ref name="Two Things at Once"/><ref name="I Don't Want to Grow Up"/><ref name="Everything Sucks"/> He wrote "Gnutheme" and "Man-O-Steel" for All, as well as all twelve tracks on New Girl, Old Story.<ref name="Allroy's Revenge"/><ref name="New Girl, Old Story"/> For Spiffy he wrote the songs "In the Mall" and "Make It".Template:Citation needed "Most of my songs are about girls, and usually how they break boys' hearts", he said in an interview for the 2013 documentary Filmage.<ref name="Lombardo Short"/>

Some of Lombardo's early songs with the Descendents dealt with his desire for stability and individuality.<ref name="Ritchie"/> "I would write a song like 'I Don't Want to Grow Up' like, 'I don't want to grow up because I don't want to be like certain adults that were negatively influencing the worldTemplate:' ", he said, "Not just I want to be a kid and live like a kid. I don't want to grow up to be like you."<ref name="Ritchie"/> "I'm Not a Punk" reflected his disinterest in being part of the punk scene: "I remember playing this one show in Redondo Beach, there was something about punkers destroying the bathroom. That whole thing turned me off. I just wanted to play the music and do it as best I could and I had a lot of fun doing that [...] It's like 'I'm Not a Punk'. I want to be my own person."<ref name="Ritchie"/> "Suburban Home" was quite literal, expressing his desire for "a house just like mom and dad's":<ref name="Two Things at Once"/><ref name="Lombardo Short"/>

Template:ErrorTemplate:Main other{{#if:|

|}}{{#if:|

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}

Discography

With the Descendents

• "Ride the Wild" / "It's a Hectic World" (1979) – bass guitar; lead vocals on "It's a Hectic World"<ref name="Two Things at Once"/>
• Fat EP (1981) – bass guitar<ref name="Two Things at Once"/>
• Chunks compilation (1981) – bass guitar on "Global Probing"<ref name="Two Things at Once"/>
• Milo Goes to College (1982) – bass guitar<ref name="Two Things at Once"/>
• I Don't Want to Grow Up (1985) – bass guitar<ref name="I Don't Want to Grow Up"/>
• Everything Sucks (1996) – bass guitar on "Doghouse"<ref name="Everything Sucks"/>
• "When I Get Old" (1997) – bass guitar on "Gotta"<ref name="When I Get Old"/>
• The Blasting Room compilation (2000) – bass guitar on "Like the Way I Know" (outtake from the Milo Goes to College sessions)<ref name="The Blasting Room">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>
• 9th & Walnut (2021) – bass guitar (recorded in 2002)

With TonyAll

• New Girl, Old Story (1991) – bass guitar; lead vocals on "U R Super", "Keep It", "Face 2 Face", "Last Refuge", and "Special to Me"<ref name="New Girl, Old Story"/>

With Spiffy

• "Secret" (1996) – bass guitarTemplate:Citation needed
• "Didn't Know" (1996) – bass guitarTemplate:Citation needed