''New Girl, Old Story'' is collaborative album between the American

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band All and

Tony Lombardo Tony Lombardo (born 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 their debut single, the '' Fat EP'' (1981), and the albums '' Milo Goes to College'' ( ...

, the original

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

of All's precursor band the

Descendents The Descendents are an American punk rock band formed in Manhattan Beach, California, in 1977, by guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo and drummer Bill Stevenson (musician), Bill Stevenson as a power pop/surf music, surf punk band. I ...

. Credited to "TonyAll", it consists of twelve songs written by Lombardo between 1979 and 1989. Lombardo played bass guitar on the entire album, with the members of All playing the rest of the instrumentation. Vocals were split between Lombardo and All singer Scott Reynolds, with All bassist Karl Alvarez also singing one song. Along with their 1990 album '' Allroy Saves'', recorded at the same time, ''New Girl, Old Story'' was the last album recorded by All before their relocation from

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Brookfield, Missouri Brookfield is a city in Linn County, Missouri, United States. The population was 4,111 at the 2020 census. History Brookfield was surveyed in 1859 by John Wood Brooks, a native of Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in t ...

Background

Lombardo was the original bassist in the

, joining founding members Frank Navetta and Bill Stevenson in 1979 while the group was still in its formative stages. He played on the band's debut single "Ride the Wild" / "It's a Hectic World" (1979), the '' Fat EP'' (1981), and the albums '' Milo Goes to College'' (1982) and ''

I Don't Want to Grow Up ''I Don't Want to Grow Up'' is the second studio album by the American punk rock band the Descendents (band), Descendents, released on May 15, 1985 through New Alliance Records. It marked the end of a two-year hiatus for the band, during which ...

'' (1985), but left the group in 1985 because he did not want to go on tour."The Lombardo Short". ''Filmage:The Story of Descendents/All''. Event occurs at 0:10. The Descendents experienced several lineup changes and in 1987, when singer

Milo Aukerman Milo Jay Aukerman (; born January 1, 1963) is an American singer, songwriter, and former research molecular biologist. Aukerman is most widely known for being the lead vocalist of the punk rock band the Descendents, a group widely considered to be ...

left the band to attend

graduate school Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachel ...

, the remaining members—Stevenson, bassist Karl Alvarez, and guitarist Stephen Egerton—relaunched the band as All with singer

Dave Smalley Dave Smalley is an American musician, best known as the lead singer for the hardcore punk bands DYS and Dag Nasty, and skate punk band All as well as lead singer/guitarist with Down by Law. He is known for his influence on pop punk music an ...

. Lombardo, meanwhile, performed with singer Scott Reynolds in the bands Boxer Rebellion, Nuclear Bob, and Three Care Pileup. Reynolds replaced Smalley as All's singer in 1988, and Lombardo contributed two songs to Reynolds' first album with the band, '' Allroy's Revenge'' (1989), "Man-O-Steel" and the instrumental "Gnutheme".''Filmage'': The Story of Descendents/All". Event occurs at 44:10.

Recording

According to Lombardo, the idea to record an album with All was Stevenson's: "Bill owed me some money, and I think he suggested that he would record an album for me in lieu of paying me some money at that particular point in time. I thought it was a great idea." The songs were ones Lombardo had written and arranged between 1979 and 1989. "They were songs of a different nature", he later recalled. According to Stevenson, some of the songs dealt with a relationship Lombardo had been in with a younger woman:

"Special to Me" is one of my all time favorite songs of Tony's. He was so sad about all that with his younger girlfriend, and I swear nothing has ever been more heartfelt. I get teary just thinking about it. It's so positive and so negative. When it goes into "I love you, even though I know, too hat our love is taboo, it's like the saddest thing I've ever heard. But there really was a tremendous age difference.

The album was recorded in March 1990 at Third Wave Recording in

Torrance, California Torrance is a coastal city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the metropolitan ...

and

Westbeach Recorders Westbeach Recorders was a recording studio in Hollywood, California famous for recording punk rock groups, such as Bad Religion, Avenged Sevenfold, NOFX, Rancid, the Offspring and Pennywise. History It was established in 1985 by Bad Religion g ...

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

. Stevenson and Egerton produced and engineered the recording, with additional engineering at Westbeach done by Donnell Cameron. Lombardo played

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

on the entire record and sang on five of its twelve tracks. Reynolds sang on five tracks, while Alvarez sang "Guitar Case" (the remaining track, "Son-O-Theme", is an

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

). "We got Karl to sing, Scott sang", Lombardo later remembered. "I sang, if you want to call it singing. My voice is very shaky, iffy." Along with their third studio album '' Allroy Saves'' (1990), recorded the same month, ''New Girl, Old Story'' was All's last release to be recorded in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Seeking a more affordable cost of living and centralized location from which to tour, the band relocated to

following the recording sessions.''Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All''. Event occurs at 47:15.

Release

''New Girl, Old Story'' was released August 6, 1991, through

Cruz Records Cruz Records was an offshoot record label of SST Records, owned by the Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. The label was founded in 1987. Its roster consisted mainly of pop punk and grunge bands, along with Ginn's solo records. The label has rem ...

in LP, cassette, and CD formats under the band name "TonyAll". With All having moved to Missouri, there were no live shows or touring to support the album, though Lombardo made an attempt to get local radio airplay: "I actually sent one song to

KROQ KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The sta ...

under the band name Larger Than Life. Oh, what a joke. I thought it was pretty good. It was fun. I don’t regret anything. Those were pretty good songs."

Track listing

Personnel

;Band * Karl Alvarez –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

on "Guitar Case" * Stephen Egerton –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, producer *

–

; vocals on "U R Super" , "Keep It", "Face 2 Face", "Last Refuge", and "Special to Me" * Scott Reynolds – vocals on "Telltale Signs", "This Is Not a Dream", "Casual Girl", "New Girl, Old Story", and "At the Party" * Bill Stevenson –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, engineer, producer ;Production * Donnell Cameron – additional engineering

References

{{Authority control All (band) albums Cruz Records albums 1991 albums