"She's My Ex" is a song by the American

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band

All All or ALL may refer to: عرص Biology and medicine * Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer * Anterolateral ligament, a ligament in the knee * ''All.'', taxonomic author abbreviation for Carlo Allioni (1728–1804), Italian physician and pro ...

, released as a single from their 1989 album '' Allroy's Revenge''. Written by drummer Bill Stevenson, the song describes an ex-girlfriend with whom he had a tumultuous romance. The B-side track "Crazy?", written by bassist Karl Alvarez, is from the ''Allroy's Revenge'' recording sessions but was not included on the album.

Background

Several of Stevenson's songs on ''Allroy's Revenge'' describe a tumultuous romance, including "Scary Sad", "She's My Ex", and "Net". The songs were written about an ex-girlfriend of Stevenson's who had problems with drugs and was placed on

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offence (law), offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incar ...

. "She's My Ex" describes how he "can't expect she'll change her ways, can't accept the things she done / She's just my ex / Nothing more, nothing less / She'll always be my ex".

Recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproducti ...

Richard Andrews remarked that "It seems like on every album, Bill would have the song that he knew was gonna bring people to the band and bring people to the record, and 'She's My Ex' was one of them." "She's My Ex" was recorded with the rest of ''Allroy's Revenge'' in December 1988 at Third Wave Recording in

Torrance, California Torrance is a coastal city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the metropolitan ...

, with Stevenson as

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

. It was singer Scott Reynolds' first recording session with All, and recording "She's My Ex" taught him how meticulous Stevenson could be during the recording process. "That was where Scott got his first taste of how absolutely particular Bill was", remembered guitarist Stephen Egerton. Reynolds later recalled:

I've never been in a band where phrasing was so fucking important as this band. Karl would do some of that too. Not as bad as Bill. Oh god, Bill, he'd just stop the tape, and it's terrible because you're going "She'll always be..." and then all of a sudden the tape stops, and you're like "What?" and he's like "You’re flat", and he goes back. So we got all done with this thing after days on one song, and he goes "That’s awesome. We're done", and I'm like "Phew!" and he goes "Okay, let's
double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...
it."

"Crazy?", written by Alvarez, was also recorded during the ''Allroy's Revenge'' sessions but was left off of the album. Several performers sang backing vocals on the track, including

Milo Aukerman Milo Jay Aukerman (; born January 1, 1963) is an American singer, songwriter, and former research molecular biologist. Aukerman is most widely known for being the lead vocalist of the punk rock band the Descendents, a group widely considered to be ...

of All's precursor band the

Descendents The Descendents are an American punk rock band formed in Manhattan Beach, California, in 1977, by guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo and drummer Bill Stevenson (musician), Bill Stevenson as a power pop/surf music, surf punk band. I ...

. "She's My Ex" was released through

Cruz Records Cruz Records was an offshoot record label of SST Records, owned by the Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. The label was founded in 1987. Its roster consisted mainly of pop punk and grunge bands, along with Ginn's solo records. The label has rem ...

in 1989 as a 10-inch and

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a "single" or a few related sound tracks on each surface, compa ...

cassette single A cassette single (CS), also known by the trademark cassingle, or capitalised as the trademark Cassette Single, is a music single (music), single supplied in the form of a Compact Cassette. The cassette single was introduced in 1980 in music, 1 ...

, and

CD single A CD single is a single (music), music single in the form of a compact disc (CD). Originally the ''CD single'' standard (as defined in the Rainbow Books, Red Book) was an 8 cm (3-inch) "mini CD" (''CD3''); later on the term referred to any si ...

. Ilisa Katz provided the cover photograph, while Alvarez and Reynolds drew the illustrations for the back cover. Live recordings of "She's My Ex" were later released on All's live albums '' Trailblazer'' (1990) and '' Live Plus One'' (2001), the latter sung by Reynolds' successor

Chad Price Chad Price is the lead singer for the melodic punk band ALL and alt-country band Drag the River. As of 2018, he is the lead singer for A Vulture Wake. He joined ALL in 1993 as the band's third singer, after Dave Smalley and Scott Reynolds. H ...

. The studio versions of "She's My Ex" and "Crazy?" were later

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

ed by Stevenson, Egerton, and Jason Livermore for All's best-of compilation album ''

'' (1999).

Track listing

Personnel

;Band * Karl Alvarez –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, cover illustrations * Stephen Egerton –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, assistant

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

* Scott Reynolds – lead

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Bill Stevenson –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, producer, additional engineer ;Additional performers *

– backing vocals on "Crazy?" *Bub – backing vocals on "Crazy?" *Chris – backing vocals on "Crazy?" *Jovi – backing vocals on "Crazy?" *Sarina Matteucci – backing vocals on "Crazy?" *Ward – backing vocals on "Crazy?" ;Production *Richard Andrews – engineer *James B. Mansfield – additional engineer *Ilisa Katz – front cover photograph

References

{{Authority control All (band) songs 1989 singles 1989 songs Songs written by Bill Stevenson (musician)