All - Pummel

Back in the early nineties I intended to do a fanzine and wrote to Bill Stevenson, the drummer from this US pop-punk band, The Descendents and ex-Black Flag asking if he would do an interview). I didn't really expect a reply however Bill wrote back saying to write back with a list of questions and to get them details of a New Zealand promoter so they could tour New Zealand. A year or two late Brian Wafer brought ALL to New Zealand to tour their Breaking Things album and they played a few of the smaller towns. It was fairly shameful that only about twenty people turned up to the Stomach on a Monday night in Palmerston North.

After ALL's Breaking Thing's album which was released on Cruz records in 1993. ALL were signed to Interscope records due to the commercial breakthrough of pop-punk (The Offspring and Green Dayhad become fairly big due to the Dookie and Smash albums. I guess Interscope records had thought something like having a band with three Descendents (one of the originators of the pop-punk sound would become highly successful a decade later). ALL released the album Pummel in 1995. The album wasn't as sucessful commercially as Interscope records had hoped. So ALL were dropped from their roster and moved to the Epitaph records label which specialized in pop punk during the nineties and their next album Mass Nerder was more successful.

Pummel is now out of print. The song opens with a song called Self Righteous which has a SexPistols type riff with melodic vocals and lyrics about how preachers of straight edge annoy ALL.
Million Bucks is a rocking pop punk love song(which is what this band do best).
Miranda is a cool song about a one night stand. Uncle Critic is ALL's reply to music critics. The song Stalker sounds like ALL had been listening to Pantera with its screamed vocals.

All the other songs are cool too except On Foot wouldn't have sounded out place on a glam metal album. A few of the songs are lyrically depressing. The song hetero comes across as homophobic which is at odds with the 'Don't call me homophobic' line
in Uncle Critic.

Pummel is being reissued sometime without the song Hetero and three extra songs. The new cover will feature Chris Shary artwork with ALL's mascot driving a monster truck and a music note car getting obliterated.
Download the original version of Pummel here. Then buy the re-released version when it comes out.



ALL/Descendents guitar player, Stephen Egerton has recently started his own webpage which features projects he is currently working on, produced and has worked on and produced. The 40 Engine material and some of the other stuff he has written with former ALL vocalist Scott Reynolds is great. Click here for Stephen's website