Karl Matthew Alvarez (born March 10, 1964) is an American

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

for both

the Descendents The Descendents are an American punk rock band formed in 1977 in Manhattan Beach, California, by guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo and drummer Bill Stevenson. In 1979, they enlisted Stevenson's school friend Milo Aukerman as a si ...

and

All All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All al ...

, the band that resulted after the Descendents disbanded again in 1987. Alvarez joined the Descendents after the '' Enjoy!'' album from his previous bands The Massacre Guys and Bad Yodelers, and played on all of the All albums, and the Descendents albums ''All'', ''Everything Sucks'', ''Cool To Be You'' and ''Hypercaffium Spazzinate''. Unlike previous Descendents bassists

Tony Lombardo Tony Lombardo (born c. 1945) 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 Ride the Wild / It's a Hectic World, their debut single, the ''Fat (EP), Fat EP'' (1 ...

and

Doug Carrion Doug Carrion (born November 9, 1964) is an American musician, audio engineer, record producer, and music editor. He played bass guitar in the punk rock bands the Descendents and Dag Nasty during the 1980s, and in the hard rock band For Love Not ...

, who both used a pick, Alvarez plays finger style bass, and he also provides backing vocals when live (and lead vocals as heard in "Cause" on the All ''

Live Plus One ''Live Plus One'' is a live album by the American punk rock bands All and the Descendents, released in 2001 through Epitaph Records. A double album, it includes one disc by All recorded in 2001 on their '' Problematic'' tour, and a second disc by ...

'' album). Since joining the band he has been a major songwriter contributing many songs to All (both the album and the band), '' Everything Sucks'' and ''

Cool To Be You ''Cool to Be You'' is the sixth studio album by the American punk rock band the Descendents, released in 2004 through Fat Wreck Chords. It was their first album of new studio material since 1996's '' Everything Sucks'', which had been released t ...

''. In the summer of 2006 he joined Gypsy Punk band

Gogol Bordello Gogol Bordello is an American punk rock band from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, formed in 1999 by musicians from all over the world and known for theatrical stage shows and persistent touring. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Ro ...

for part of the Van's

Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touring ...

and the

Reading and Leeds Festivals The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...

. Alvarez currently plays guitar and sings in Endless Monster and the Vultures. Since 2004 Alvarez has played with

The Last The Last may refer to: *The Last (band) The Last is an American, Los Angeles-based, early pop/punk band, formed in 1976 by Joe Nolte with high school bandmates Vitus Matare and Dave Harbison. By 1978 the band included three brothers: Joe (guitar ...

along with Descendents/All drummer Bill Stevenson. He is currently a singer in a band called Endless Monster. In 2006 Alvarez played on

The Lemonheads The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1986 by Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz. Dando has remained the band's only constant member. After their initial punk-influenced releases and tour ...

self-titled comeback album which was released on Los Angeles'

Vagrant Records Vagrant Records is an American record label based in California. It was founded in 1995 by Rich Egan and Jon Cohen. The label focuses on rock, but features artists in a variety of other genres including folk, soul, electronic, and pop. It is home ...

. During their last two Canadian tours (in 2007 and 2009), Alvarez filled in on bass for Canadian celtic-punk group

The Real McKenzies The Real McKenzies is a Canadian Celtic punk band founded in 1992 and based in Vancouver, British Columbia. They are one of the founders of the Celtic punk movement, albeit 10 years after The Pogues. In addition to writing and performing origin ...

. Australian punk band

Frenzal Rhomb Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: ''A Man's Not a Camel'' (1999), '' Hi-Vis High Tea'' (2017) and ''Smoko at the Pe ...

wrote a song about Karl, on their 2011 album, ''Smoko At The Pet Food Factory'', called "Alvarez". Alvarez suffered a mild heart attack on August 11, 2007.

References

1964 births Living people American punk rock bass guitarists American male bass guitarists Descendents members All (band) members The Lemonheads members Gogol Bordello members Guitarists from California 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists {{US-bass-guitarist-stub