Frank Navetta

Who was Frank Navetta?

Frank Navetta was co-founder and original guitarist of the Southern California punk rock band Descendents. He formed the Descendents with Tony Lombardo and Bill Stevenson in 1979 and released the single "Ride the Wild"/"It's a Hectic World". The Descendents were then joined by vocalist Milo Aukerman, and recorded the Fat EP in 1981 and the band's debut album Milo Goes to College in 1982. The band took a hiatus when Aukerman went to college before they began recording their second album I Don't Want to Grow Up in 1985. He moved to Eugene, Oregon to become a full-time fisherman and was replaced by Ray Cooper.

Navetta joined Tony Lombardo and Bill Stevenson in the spring of 2002 for a reunion of sorts at ALL's quasi-annual festival Stockage in Fort Collins, Colorado. The group played songs as the original three-piece line-up that briefly existed before Aukerman joined the group. His early guitar style was heavily rooted in surf music, somewhat similar to that of East Bay Ray, but as time went on, came to resemble the heavier sound of Greg Ginn's more, but with more full and open chords and less, if any, soloing.