Punk icons Descendents have announced a new album, 9th & Walnut, which will be out July 23 via Epitaph Records. It’s their first album in five years, but 9th has been in the works for a long time. They started recording it in 2002 and finished in the pandemic, and it features songs written in the band’s earliest days (1977-1980), including their debut songs “Ride the Wild” and ”It’s a Hectic World,” recorded here for the first time with vocals by Milo. It also features guitarist Frank Navetta, who died in 2008.

“If you were to listen to the Fat EP and go, ‘Hey, what’d they do before?’ and you go to ‘Ride the Wild’ and you go, ‘What the hell?! They’re like two separate bands,’” Milo told Rolling Stone. “That’s where this record can help bridge some of this hardcore stuff with the basically Sixties songs that were being done by Frank back in that time.”

The first single from the album is “Baby Doncha Know,” which drummer Bill Stevenson says “was maybe the 5th song we learned,” adding, “We would go out to 9th & Walnut every weekend and practice all day. I mainly just remember being in awe of how ‘a kid my age, who goes to my high school’ could have written all these cool songs. Frank seemed to have a maturity beyond his years. I never asked him who or what it was about. I was just happy to be there with him and Tony.” You can listen to “Baby Doncha Know” below.

Descendents will play Punk Rock Bowling in September, replacing NOFX on the bill, and their sister band ALL are playing too.

You can also pick up a copy of Descendents’ Everything Sucks on vinyl, and a matching t-shirt, in our shop.

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9TH & WALNUT TRACK LISTING
1. Sailor’s Choice
2. Crepe Suzette
3. You Make Me Sick
4. Lullaby
5. Nightage
6. Baby Doncha Know
7. Tired of Being Tired
8. I’m Shaky
9. Grudge
10. Mohicans
11. Like the Way I Know
12. It’s A Hectic World
13. To Remember
14. Yore Disgusting
15. It’s My Hair
16. I Need Some
17. Ride the Wild
18. Glad All Over​ (Dave Clark Five cover)