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). Navetta then quit the band and moved to Oregon to become a fisherman. He collaborated with the Descendents again on the 1996 album Everything Sucks, and prior to his death in 2008 had been working on new material with original Descendents members Bill Stevenson and Tony Lombardo. In 2021, the band released this material on the album 9th & Walnut, which has been critically lauded for Frank's songwriting and playing.

Biography

1977–83: Descendents

Frank Navetta and Dave Nolte met as sixth graders at American Martyrs Catholic School in Manhattan Beach, California. "I was friends with him straight away", Nolte later recalled, "We both had interest in music, we both started playing guitar at the same time."</blockquote>

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. 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). Navetta wrote and sang on the A-side track. Stevenson's classmate Milo Aukerman joined the band in 1980 as lead singer, solidifying the early Descendents lineup. The Fat EP (1981) included two Navetta compositions, "My Dad Sucks" (co-written with Lombardo) and the fishing-themed "Mr. Bass". They performed with this lineup, and occasionally as a quintet when Aukerman would make return visits to Los Angeles. Navetta, Lombardo, and Cooper tried to start a new band, the Ascendants. "We played one show", said Lombardo. "Frank played in his underwear, and I don't mean boxers. It was all a disaster, it was sad, for me anyway."

1984–2008: Post-Descendents

Although Navetta had left the Descendents, one song he had written with Lombardo, "Rockstar" (lyrics by Navetta, music by Lombardo), was used for their 1985 album I Don't Want to Grow Up. Lombardo subsequently left the band as well, and the Descendents experienced more lineup changes and released two more albums before Aukerman left the band in 1987. Stevenson changed the band's name to All, and they continued to tour and release albums. When Aukerman reunited with the band as the Descendents for the 1996 album Everything Sucks, Navetta and Lombardo both participated. Navetta wrote and played guitar on the song "Doghouse", and also played on the song "Eunuch Boy".

In 2002 Navetta and Lombardo joined Stevenson for a reunion performance by the Descendents' original power trio lineup at Stevenson's Stockage festival in Fort Collins, Colorado. According to Lombardo, they also recorded some songs for a potential future release: "We recorded some of my songs in 2006 at The Blasting Room. In 2002 we recorded a whole bunch of songs, mostly Frank's songs. He was a great songwriter. He had such a unique EQ out of his amp. When we recorded later in 2008, we did some more of my songs, but Frank wasn't there for that. We tried to recreate that unique Frank sound. I'd like to think of these as songs that if the Descendents had stayed together, this is what we would have sounded like. Those are in Bill's hands. Milo has said from the get-go that he would record it, but he hasn't yet." This project would finally be realized over a decade after Navetta's death in 2021 in the form of the album 9th & Walnut.

Death

Navetta died October 31, 2008, after becoming ill over the course of a few days. "I know he had a rough familial thing growing up," recalled Stevenson, "just a lot of familial discord, and I think that can fuel a fire pretty well. I never sat there and went ‘wow, what made this guy so weird?

Mike Watt of the Minutemen remembered that "Frank's image was kinda neat. It was kinda A-frame, with his legs [spread] and his guitar [held] up high. He was kind of a shorter man, but he was a hard-charger. All singer Scott Reynolds called him "a very genuine person, crazy in a way that was interesting."

  • 9th & Walnut (2021) – guitar (posthumous release, recorded in 2002)

Songs

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".