Frank Navetta (March 6, 1962 – October 31, 2008) was an American musician who was the original guitarist of the punk rock band the Descendents, which he co-founded.
He formed the band in Manhattan Beach, California with Dave Nolte in the late 1970s and played on their 1979 debut single, the Fat EP (1981), and their first album, Milo Goes to College (1982).
Frank Navetta and Dave Nolte met as sixth graders at American Martyrs Catholic School in Manhattan Beach, California.
[1] In mid-1977 they befriended Bill Stevenson, who impressed them by overdubbing his own backing vocals onto a demo tape Navetta had recorded.
I was in awe of all these great songs he'd written, and he would play them on the acoustic guitar really hard, Johnny Ramone style, all six strings.
[2]While rehearsing in Navetta's brother's garage in Long Beach, California in 1979, the trio heard Tony Lombardo practicing bass guitar nearby and recruited him into the band.
[3] Nolte soon bowed out to join his brothers in The Last, and the power trio lineup of Navetta, Lombardo, and Stevenson released the Descendent's debut single, "Ride the Wild" / "It's a Hectic World" (1979).
[5] Stevenson's classmate Milo Aukerman joined the band in 1980 as lead singer, solidifying the early Descendents lineup.
[6] The Fat EP (1981) included two Navetta compositions, "My Dad Sucks" (co-written with Lombardo) and the fishing-themed "Mr.
[5] The Descendents' debut album Milo Goes to College (1982), so named because Aukerman was leaving the band to study biology, included five more of Navetta's songs: "I Wanna Be a Bear" (co-written with Lombardo), "I'm Not a Loser", "Parents", "Statue of Liberty", and "Marriage" (co-written with Stevenson).
"[8] Navetta ultimately quit the band by setting all of his musical equipment on fire and moving to Oregon, where he became a full-time fisherman.
It's hard for me to listen to his guitar playing and not hear the madness at work, and that's why his style is so absolutely impossible to imitate, because it's driven by genuine insanity.
[20] Greg Cameron of SWA recalled seeing Navetta perform: The second show I ever saw of the Descendents was at the Dancing Waters in San Pedro.
I can remember standing in line at a Misfits show and all of a sudden he just sat down on the ground and started holding his head like his ears were ringing or something, and said something to the effect of "What am I doing here?
"[19] Navetta's writing credits with the Descendents include the songs "Ride the Wild", "Mr. Bass", "Global Probing", "I'm Not a Loser", "Parents", "Statue of Liberty", and "Doghouse".
[5][15] He also co-wrote "My Dad Sucks", "I Wanna Be a Bear", and "Rockstar" with Tony Lombardo, and "Marriage" with Bill Stevenson.