The Vandals

The Vandals are a wonderfully zany and dynamic tongue-in-cheek punk rock group from Orange County, California. The band was formed by guitarist Jan Nils Ackermann in Huntington Beach, California in 1980. The other original members were singer Steven 'Stevo' Jensen, bassist 'Steve Pfauter' and drummer Joe Escalante. The Vandals are well-known for their insanely catchy and energetic melodies, rousing live shows, and often cheerfully juvenile, yet still sidesplitting humorous lyrics. They released their debut EP "Peace Thru Vandalism" in 1982. This was followed by their first full-length album "When in Rome Do as the Vandals" in 1984. The group's other albums include the country music parody "Slipper When III", the raucous yuletide outing "Oi to the World! Christmas With the Vandals" and the live albums "Sweatin' to the Oldies: The Vandals Live" and "Live at the House of Blues". The Vandals appear as themselves in the movies Suburbia (1983) and Dudes (1987), both of which were directed by Penelope Spheeris. Their songs have been featured on the soundtracks to such films as Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge (1989) (they do the hilarious ending credits theme song), Glory Daze (1995), SLC Punk! (1998), Saving Silverman (2001), That Darn Punk (2001) and Run Ronnie Run (2002). Despite several line-up changes throughout the years, the Vandals still continue to record the occasional album as well as tour and perform in concert on a regular basis.