"All" you could ever need are good friends, a little peace and quiet, and a good fishing hole, according to the most famous of the punk-pop bands playing in the "emo-core" style.
All, a four-piece spinoff of onetime L.A. punk band the Descendants, moved to its isolated Midwest home in Brookfield, Mo., two years ago to get away from the West Coast, drummer Bill Stevenson said."Things were just too hectic there," Stevenson said in a recent telephone interview. "That, and things were too expensive. If we had stayed we might have needed other jobs or sell out our music, which we're not going to do."
The band's unique sound is the perfect fusion of poppy, near-bubblegum hooks with punky guitar riffs. While their 1990 album "Allroy Saves" may have overreached a bit - incorporating funk, metal and jazz into their musical stew - All has returned to familiar territory with the recently released "Percolater" (sic), which features the superb single "Dot."
"We may have been trying too hard, but we're still satisfied with `Saves,' " said bass guitarist Karl Alvarez. " `Percolater' sounds like what we're listening to right now."
Alvarez and guitarist Stephen Egerton have Salt Lake roots (both played in the seminal Utah punk outfit the Massacre Guys, and Alvarez sang in an early version of Salt Lake's best-ever punk band, the Bad Yodelers).
Both Egerton and Alvarez, as well as their bandmates, will return to Salt Lake for a Sunday, May 31, show at the Utah State Fairpark Fair Fowl Building.
Opening the concert are local Iceburn and L.A.'s the Leaving Trains, the latter coming fresh off a terrific 1991 EP ("Loser Illusion, Pt. 0," a parody of Guns N' Roses' two 1991 releases) and "The Lump in My Forehead," which sees the quartet retreating from the late-'60s garage-rock sound and moving into the early '70s punk sound.
The Leaving Trains are also picking up a reputation for their unpredictable live shows, in which singer Falling James (Moreland) appears in drag.
Tickets for the show, which starts at 7 p.m., are $8 and are available at Raunch Records, Smokey's Records and Crandall Audio in Provo.