The Descendents are kind of known for their on-again, off-again playing and every now and then teasing new music, but only to not release anything substantial. That is, until now.
The pop-punk progenitors have announced the band’s first new album in 12 years, Hypercaffium Spazzinate. Coming July 29, the album will be the band’s first release on Epitaph Records since 1996’s Everything Sucks, and the 16-track record will be paired with the release of a five-song companion EP, Spazzhazard. The album came to life over three years as the band sent tracks back and forth to each other from their respective new homes (Milo Aukerman was living in Delaware, bassist Karl Alvarez and founder and drummer Bill Stevenson were in Colorado, and guitarist Stephen Egerton had settled in Oklahoma), occasionally meeting up in Karl and Bill’s adopted hometown of Fort Collins. Adopting such a protracted process means not having to rush things, which seems like it allowed for some of the group's sharpest songwriting yet.
Along with the announcement of Hypercaffium Spazzinate comes the first new Descendents song since 2004’s Cool To Be You, “Victim Of Me”. The track shows that, even with its members now in their 50s, the band can still offer up hyper-caffeinated punk with the best of them.