Karl Matthew Alvarez (born March 10, 1964) is an American

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

for both the Descendents and All, the band that resulted after the Descendents disbanded again in 1987. Alvarez joined the Descendents after the '' Enjoy!'' album from his previous bands The Massacre Guys and Bad Yodelers, and played on all of the All albums, and the Descendents albums ''All'', ''Everything Sucks'', ''Cool To Be You'' and ''Hypercaffium Spazzinate''. Unlike previous Descendents bassists

Tony Lombardo Tony Lombardo (born 1945) is an American musician who was the original bassist in the punk rock band the Descendents. He joined the band in 1979 and played on their debut single, the '' Fat EP'' (1981), and the albums '' Milo Goes to College'' ( ...

and Doug Carrion, who both used a pick, Alvarez plays finger style bass, and he also provides backing vocals when live (and lead vocals as heard in "Cause" on the All '' Live Plus One'' album). Since joining the band he has been a major songwriter contributing many songs to All (both the album and the band), '' Everything Sucks'' and '' Cool To Be You''. In the summer of 2006 he joined Gypsy Punk band Gogol Bordello for part of the Van's

Warped Tour The Warped Tour is a Concert tour, touring Rock music, rock music festival that toured the United States and Canada each summer from 1995 until 2019, and returned in 2025 for its 30th anniversary. By 2015, Warped was the largest traveling music ...

and the

Reading and Leeds Festivals The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Fest ...

. Alvarez currently plays guitar and sings in Endless Monster and the Vultures. Since 2004 Alvarez has played with The Last along with Descendents/All drummer Bill Stevenson. He is currently a singer in a band called Endless Monster. In 2006 Alvarez played on

The Lemonheads The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston in 1986 by Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz. Dando has remained the band's only constant member. After their initial punk-influenced releases and tours as an indep ...

self-titled comeback album which was released on Los Angeles'

Vagrant Records Vagrant Records is an American record label based in California. It was founded in 1995 by Rich Egan and Jon Cohen. The label focuses on rock music, rock, but features artists in a variety of other genres including folk music, folk, soul music, so ...

. During their last two Canadian tours (in 2007 and 2009), Alvarez filled in on bass for Canadian Celtic-punk group

The Real McKenzies The Real McKenzies is a Canadian Celtic punk band founded in 1992 and based in Vancouver, British Columbia. They are considered the founders of the Canadian Celtic punk movement, and were one of the first Celtic punk bands, albeit 10 years af ...

. Australian punk band Frenzal Rhomb wrote a song about Karl, on their 2011 album, ''Smoko At The Pet Food Factory'', called "Alvarez". Alvarez suffered a mild heart attack on August 11, 2007.

References

1964 births Living people American punk rock bass guitarists American male bass guitarists Descendents members All (band) members The Lemonheads members Gogol Bordello members Guitarists from California 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists Rock musicians from California {{US-bass-guitarist-stub