Acne-faced rejects who can’t get girls — that’s what the guys in All were when they started their first punk band in 1980.

Playing in friends’ backyards, garages and basements and charging four of five bucks at the door, punk was fresh, rebellious and uninhibited when these guys began.

It didn’t matter what anyone said, punks could do what they wanted; they flipped the middle finger up to major labels and commercial radio and figured out they didn’t have to conform to any pre-established mold.

The setting was southern California. The band was called the Descendants, and when it played its first show, with the then not-so well-known punk bands Black Flag, the Minutemen, The Alleycats, The Plugs and The Last, they didn’t know they’d still be playing music 18 years later — or that they would in fact be the prototype for a hundreds of other bands.

But that is exactly what happened.

Then in 1987, Descendants vocalist and self proclaimed science nerd Milo Auckerman left the band to pursue his passion for biochemistry, leaving the rest of the group with no singer.

So what did they do? They decided to form a new band called All.

All is just the Descendants, minus Milo. When Milo resurfaces, the band transforms into the Descendants … it’s that simple.

All/Descendants drummer Bill Stevenson knows just about everything there is to know about punk, and he was prepared to share his punk-rock wisdom when he called during sound check at a venue in Columbus, Ohio.

Currently touring with Less Than Jake, All will make a stop in Ames this Monday.

After all these years, Stevenson says the climate of punk rock hasn’t really changed too much since the early ’80s when he began.

“It used to be really violent at shows,” Stevenson says between bursts of feedback. “People get really into it now, but they don’t kill each other.

“Now I feel like I’m amidst normal people more at shows as opposed to the outcasts of the world,” he says. “Back in 1980, I felt like I was with all the freakoids of the world.”

Stevenson got into punk when he was working at a fishing tackle store with a friend of his named Keith, who was in a band called the Circle Jerks.

“Listening to the Stooges or Iggy Pop or the Sex Pistols it was like wow, this is paranoid. It’s punk rock! — super, super on edge,” he explains.

Another aspect of the music that appealed to Stevenson was its in-your-face sound and anti-establishment ideology.

“Rebellion is something that’s kind of intangible,” he says. “Our music has an uplifting kinetic energy to it, and the politics behind that are much more powerful than any lyric. I mean, look at ‘Good Golly Miss Molly.’ It’s just a song about gettin’ laid, but when you hear it, it makes you want to destroy things.”

It’s the sound of the music that means most to Stevenson rather than the message.

“Folk music may be liberal sometimes but which is more rebellious, the one with folk guitar or ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’?” he asks.

After putting out a series of independent albums in the ’80s, All moved on for a short stint with major label Interscope Records in 1993 with the release of “Pummel.”

Signing to a major ticked off some fans, who accused All of selling out.

Stevenson says when the group signed to Interscope, it made absolutely no artistic compromises, and the one CD it did for the label “clearly has the most profanity” out of all its records.

“Sometimes something will happen, and the punks will be pointing their fingers at you. You never know until they tell you you’ve sold out,” he says. “Punkers are kinda weird that way. I don’t think they really understand the politics of what they’re preaching — especially when they talk about economics and corporations.”

Some have gone so far as to condemn Stevenson because he owns a small T-shirt-printing business.

“People throw out terms like corporate this or corporate that, well what does that mean? Are they just sayin’ it cause they hear it in Maximum Rocknroll or something.”

Another criticism of current punk rock is that it is just as homogenous as the music played on commercial radio and MTV.

“The MTV listener is a spoon-fed listener whereas an indie listener is someone who is willing to speak out and listen to different things,” Stevenson says.

All returns to the DIY world of independent labels with its new album, “Mass Nerder,” released on the indie Epitaph records.

Although, Epitaph has seen financial success, such as in 1994 when the Offspring smashed into the mainstream selling over four million records. Stevenson says the label is still run in a way that gives artists the same freedom and individual attention as always.

It is bands like the Offspring and fellow Californians Green Day, that have caused many to declare punk rock to be dead.

“They’ve been telling me that my cock is obsolete at this point. I don’t think punk or the guitar or my cock are obsolete,” Stevenson says. “There’s always gonna be acne-faced kids out there who can’t get girls, and they’re gonna keep punk music alive. They don’t have anything else … I didn’t.”

All plays with Less Than Jake, the Mad Caddies and Ann Beretta Monday at 7 p.m. at The M-shop. Tickets cost $9 for students and $11 general admission.