page_title: The Vandals
section_title: Quackenbush, Fitzgerald, and Freese join (1984–1989)
hierarchical_section_title: The Vandals / History / Quackenbush, Fitzgerald, and Freese join (1984–1989)
caption_attribution_description: Joe Escalante, bassist of the American punk rock band The Vandals, performing on the 2004 Warped Tour in Noblesville, Indiana.
context_page_description: The Vandals are a punk rock band from the United States established in 1980 in Orange County, California. They have released ten full-length studio albums, two live albums, and have toured the world extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour. They are well known for their use of humor, preferring to use their music as a vehicle for comedy and sarcasm rather than as a platform for more serious issues. As of 2000, they are signed to Kung Fu Records.
  The band's lineup fluctuated significantly over their first nine years, though founding members Steven Ronald Jensen, guitarist Jan Nils Ackermann, and first consistent drummer Joe Escalante remained regular fixtures. Of the early members, only Escalante has remained through all subsequent incarnations of the band. The current lineup of Escalante, Dave Quackenbush, Warren Fitzgerald, and Josh Freese has remained intact since 1990 and is generally considered far removed from the band's early 1980s incarnation. Since 2002 Escalante has released all of the band's albums through his Kung Fu Records label, with Fitzgerald generally producing.
context_section_description: By 1989 Lumary had left the band and Robbie Allen joined them in the studio to play bass on the album Slippery When Ill. The album was something of a departure from the punk rock formula of their previous releases, fusing country and western styles with their humorous brand of punk into a sound the band called "cow punk," somewhat mocking the resurgence in popularity of country music in their native Huntington Beach. The joking style confused many of their fans and the album would remain in obscurity until its 1999 re-release as The Vandals Play Really Bad Original Country Tunes. By the time of the album's release the band had recruited new drummer Doug MacKinnon and Escalante had moved to bass, a position he would remain in for the rest of the band's career.
  Following the release of Slippery When Ill the band went through several lineup changes, as drummer MacKinnon and founding-guitarist Ackermann both left the group.
  With Escalante asserting control over the band, Stevo, Ackermann, Lumary, and T.S.O.L. drummer Todd Barnes played a show billed as The Vandals, later as S.N.I.V. (Stevo's New and Improved Vandals). Escalante has stated that the older members relinquished control of the band's name and rights to him in exchange for permission to play the show, but the others deny this claim and point out that Escalante served an injunction against them during the performance preventing them from further use of the name and music.
  The departure of Ackermann and MacKinnon left Escalante and Quackenbush searching for a new guitarist and drummer. The Vandals had previously played shows with a band called Doggy Style and had been intrigued by the wacky antics of their guitarist Warren Fitzgerald, and they soon recruited him as their new permanent guitarist. Also around this time Escalante and Quackenbush made many visits to Disneyland, where they witnessed Josh Freese playing electronic drums in the children's cover band Polo on the Tomorrowland Terrace stage. They persuaded him to join, solidifying the Vandals lineup of Quackenbush, Fitzgerald, Escalante, and Freese which would remain constant throughout the rest of their career (with occasional substitutes filling in for Freese).
caption: After the departure of the band's early members, bassist Joe Escalante retained rights to The Vandals' name and catalogue.
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