Post by Anacrusis on Mar 13, 2022 2:15:02 GMT
Milo Jay Aukerman
Years Active: 1981 - Present
Associated Acts: Descendents, All
Recorded Range: A2 - A5
Voice Type: Capricorn
{Bio and Analysis}
When you sit down with your family at the local tavern or nightclub, and it’s time to order some delicious food, chances are you wouldn’t even think to order Descendents like you would casually order hot Sex Pistols or a heaping plate of Buzzcocks. And that’s because, like the Jets and the Sharks, the Brits and the Muricans are always quarreling over what to name things, such as fish-and-fries and punk rock bands. As you can see by these band names, while Brits are focused on the subject of anatomy, Muricans are much more concerned with evolutionary biology, a relatively underrated subject (fun fact: Milo Aukerman, the dude I’m supposed to be writing about, is a biologist IRL). And though it may have cost them more mainstream success, the Descendents stayed true to their Murican roots by reminding those hot-and-bothered Brits about the importance of protection, through their branding, their mascot (a poorly drawn caricature of the frontman Milo), and their abrasive “melodic hardcore” music (hardcore punk with a clearer focus on melodies), all of which combine to symbolize the spirit of angsty ‘80s California youth in the summertime.
With all this said, Milo Aukerman is what you’d expect from a hardcore punk singer: high, loud, fast, boom, and crash. And on top of all that, he adds some rasp. In fact, in his younger years, with his compression, distortion, and 4th-octave agility, Aukerman sounded a lot like a young Henry Rollins. He held a tireless, commanding presence that fit perfectly over such visceral music, which began coincidentally in the same year (1981) that Rollins joined Black Flag. Although, Descendents’ lyrics involved less politics and more food, coffee, lust/romance, general teen angst (“Parents - why won’t they shut up?”), and an occasional social commentary piece; in other words, a traditional punk curriculum with an underlying lightheartedness well-suited for the band’s upbeat take on hardcore. After all, it is because of their upbeat chord progressions and relatable subject matter that Descendents are often cited as one of the major pioneers of pop-punk along with bands like The Ramones, Buzzcocks, and The Misfits.
Regarding Aukerman’s technique, his Wikipedia brands him as a tenor, or at least acknowledges that he “sings in a mid-range tenor.” This is true to an extent. But while his stamina for navigating higher notes is undisputable, his low range, though rare, has far more natural ease than his typical G3 - G4 melodic punk range, and his Significant High Notes are often strained or crackled if sustained. Not that belting purity should matter anyway, for as a punk frontman, Aukerman sells his craft with an impressive ability to deliver entire two-minute songs above C4 through an unrelenting rasp, even when he was just 19 and brand-new to singing (e.g. “Myage”, “Parents”, “Can’t Go Back”).
What’s really surprising is that this young, angsty kid decided to leave the Descendents right as they were releasing their studio debut so that he could attend university and start what eventually led to a PhD in Biology about twelve years later. As it turns out, for most of his career, Aukerman led a dual life between academia and music. Because while Descendents has a fair repertoire of studio releases by now, these releases came out sporadically over their 40+ years together, and much of that time was spent in hiatus with singer Milo either studying for his PhD or conducting subsequent research (both things I cannot personally fathom having the discipline to do in life…).
Over this timeline, sessions/releases have come in clusters, and each cluster offers some interesting changes between them, even with punk as their prevailing theme. Going from 1981-‘82 to ‘85-‘87 (teenage years to early 20s), we see Aukerman expand his initial raspy hardcore template with some clean singing, melodic chord arpeggios, longer fifth-octave screams, and a few deliberate low notes (as opposed to no lows); from the late ‘80s to the 2000s (young adulthood to full adulthood), we see an admirable retention of brightness, quick phrasing, and upper-range agility, but now enhanced by a greater amount of deliberate lows (finally!) and a new layer of gruffness that seems to have come with age though also at the cost of screaming, sadly; and finally, in recent years (2016 - now), he’s become stronger than ever, smoothing out his tone on higher notes, sustaining them for longer, and incorporating higher belts into his melodies (up to A4 consistently now). Also, on the latest record (2021’s 9th & Walnut), Aukerman now inexplicably sounds like Roger Daltrey. I think it’s something with the tone and the way he draws out some vowels. The change is abrupt but kinda cool.
And while we’re at it, over time, the band has also thankfully moved on from some of the questionable themes present on earlier records (i.e. misogyny and homophobic language), with Aukerman replacing or removing these lyrics from live shows and including direct calls against sexism and bigotry in more recent songs (e.g. “‘Merican”, “Who We Are”, “Grudge”, “Hindsight 2020”).
In more ways than one, the Descendents timeline has watched Aukerman develop from a young, naive performer with plenty of raw talent to a mature artist with sharper technique and good social conscience. Oh, it’s really been such a pleasure watching my little Milo grow up. It’s true what they say: They grow up so fast!
When you sit down with your family at the local tavern or nightclub, and it’s time to order some delicious food, chances are you wouldn’t even think to order Descendents like you would casually order hot Sex Pistols or a heaping plate of Buzzcocks. And that’s because, like the Jets and the Sharks, the Brits and the Muricans are always quarreling over what to name things, such as fish-and-fries and punk rock bands. As you can see by these band names, while Brits are focused on the subject of anatomy, Muricans are much more concerned with evolutionary biology, a relatively underrated subject (fun fact: Milo Aukerman, the dude I’m supposed to be writing about, is a biologist IRL). And though it may have cost them more mainstream success, the Descendents stayed true to their Murican roots by reminding those hot-and-bothered Brits about the importance of protection, through their branding, their mascot (a poorly drawn caricature of the frontman Milo), and their abrasive “melodic hardcore” music (hardcore punk with a clearer focus on melodies), all of which combine to symbolize the spirit of angsty ‘80s California youth in the summertime.
With all this said, Milo Aukerman is what you’d expect from a hardcore punk singer: high, loud, fast, boom, and crash. And on top of all that, he adds some rasp. In fact, in his younger years, with his compression, distortion, and 4th-octave agility, Aukerman sounded a lot like a young Henry Rollins. He held a tireless, commanding presence that fit perfectly over such visceral music, which began coincidentally in the same year (1981) that Rollins joined Black Flag. Although, Descendents’ lyrics involved less politics and more food, coffee, lust/romance, general teen angst (“Parents - why won’t they shut up?”), and an occasional social commentary piece; in other words, a traditional punk curriculum with an underlying lightheartedness well-suited for the band’s upbeat take on hardcore. After all, it is because of their upbeat chord progressions and relatable subject matter that Descendents are often cited as one of the major pioneers of pop-punk along with bands like The Ramones, Buzzcocks, and The Misfits.
Regarding Aukerman’s technique, his Wikipedia brands him as a tenor, or at least acknowledges that he “sings in a mid-range tenor.” This is true to an extent. But while his stamina for navigating higher notes is undisputable, his low range, though rare, has far more natural ease than his typical G3 - G4 melodic punk range, and his Significant High Notes are often strained or crackled if sustained. Not that belting purity should matter anyway, for as a punk frontman, Aukerman sells his craft with an impressive ability to deliver entire two-minute songs above C4 through an unrelenting rasp, even when he was just 19 and brand-new to singing (e.g. “Myage”, “Parents”, “Can’t Go Back”).
What’s really surprising is that this young, angsty kid decided to leave the Descendents right as they were releasing their studio debut so that he could attend university and start what eventually led to a PhD in Biology about twelve years later. As it turns out, for most of his career, Aukerman led a dual life between academia and music. Because while Descendents has a fair repertoire of studio releases by now, these releases came out sporadically over their 40+ years together, and much of that time was spent in hiatus with singer Milo either studying for his PhD or conducting subsequent research (both things I cannot personally fathom having the discipline to do in life…).
Over this timeline, sessions/releases have come in clusters, and each cluster offers some interesting changes between them, even with punk as their prevailing theme. Going from 1981-‘82 to ‘85-‘87 (teenage years to early 20s), we see Aukerman expand his initial raspy hardcore template with some clean singing, melodic chord arpeggios, longer fifth-octave screams, and a few deliberate low notes (as opposed to no lows); from the late ‘80s to the 2000s (young adulthood to full adulthood), we see an admirable retention of brightness, quick phrasing, and upper-range agility, but now enhanced by a greater amount of deliberate lows (finally!) and a new layer of gruffness that seems to have come with age though also at the cost of screaming, sadly; and finally, in recent years (2016 - now), he’s become stronger than ever, smoothing out his tone on higher notes, sustaining them for longer, and incorporating higher belts into his melodies (up to A4 consistently now). Also, on the latest record (2021’s 9th & Walnut), Aukerman now inexplicably sounds like Roger Daltrey. I think it’s something with the tone and the way he draws out some vowels. The change is abrupt but kinda cool.
And while we’re at it, over time, the band has also thankfully moved on from some of the questionable themes present on earlier records (i.e. misogyny and homophobic language), with Aukerman replacing or removing these lyrics from live shows and including direct calls against sexism and bigotry in more recent songs (e.g. “‘Merican”, “Who We Are”, “Grudge”, “Hindsight 2020”).
In more ways than one, the Descendents timeline has watched Aukerman develop from a young, naive performer with plenty of raw talent to a mature artist with sharper technique and good social conscience. Oh, it’s really been such a pleasure watching my little Milo grow up. It’s true what they say: They grow up so fast!
Significant High Notes:
A5 ("Veni Vidi Vici")
G♯5 ("Enjoy")
G5 ("Days Are Blood", "Sour Grapes")
E5 ("Hürtin' Crüe", "Iceman")
E♭5 ("Van")
D5 ("Maddie", "Sour Grapes")
C♯5 ("I Don’t Want to Grow Up", "I Wanna Be a Bear", "Van")
C5 ("All-O-Gistics", "Hindsight 2020", "Hürtin' Crüe")
B4 ("I Quit", "Iceman", "Kids", "That’s the Breaks")
B♭4 ("Days Are Blood", "Enjoy", "Grindstone", "Human Being", "On You")
A4 ("All-O-Gistics", "Anchor Grill", "Beyond the Music", "Business AU", "Cameage", "Can’t Go Back", "Christmas Vacation", "Clean Sheets", "Descendents", "Everything Sux", "Feel This", "Global Probing", "Green", "Grudge", "Hey Hey", "Hindsight 2020", "I Need Some", "In Love This Way", "Jean Is Dead", "Lullaby", "Mohicans", "My World", "Nothing with You", "Pep Talk", "Shameless Halo", "Smile", "Suburban Home", "Thinkin’", "This Place Sucks", "Tired of Being Tired", "Victim of Me", "Yore Disgusting", "You Make Me Sick")
G♯4 ("‘80s Girl", "All", "Comeback Kid", "Fighting Myself", "Green", "Hey Hey", "I Don’t Want to Grow Up", "‘Merican", "My Dad Sucks", "Nightage", "No FB", "On Paper", "On You", "Pep Talk", "Unchanged", "Victim of Me", "Who We Are")
G4 ("Ace", "Anchor Grill", "Baby Doncha Know", "Bikeage", "Cameage", "Catalina", "Caught", "Clean Sheets", "Coffee Mug", "Coolidge", "Days Are Blood", "Dreams", "Dry Spell", "Everything Sux", "Feel This", "Fighting Myself", "Full Circle", "GCF", "Get the Time", "Good Good Things", "Gotta", "Hateful Notebook", "Hindsight 2020", "Hürtin' Crüe", "I Like Food", "I Quit", "I Won’t Let Me", "I’m Shaky", "I’m the One", "In Love This Way", "It’s a Hectic World", "It’s My Hair", "Just Like Them", "Like the Way I Know", "Lucky", "M-16", "‘Merican", "Mr. Bass", "My World", "Myage", "Nothing with You", "Original Me", "Pavlov’s Cat", "Pervert", "Ride the Wild", "Sailor’s Choice", "Shameless Halo", "Shattered Milo", "She Don’t Care", "She Loves Me", "Silence", "Smile", "Sour Grapes", "Spineless and Scarlet Red", "Statue of Liberty", "Suburban Home", "Tack", "Testosterone", "Thank You", "Thinkin’", "This Place", "To Remember", "Tonyage", "Van", "Veni Vidi Vici", "We Got Defeat", "When I Get Old", "Yore Disgusting", "Your Face")
F♯4 ("‘80s Girl", "Blast Off", "Can’t Go Back", "Catalina", "Cheer", "Comeback Kid", "Cool to Be You", "Crepe Suzette", "Days Are Blood", "Days of Desperation", "Dog and Pony Show", "Doug Rides a Skateboard", "Feel This", "Full Circle", "Get the Time", "Global Probing", "Gotta", "Hey Hey", "Hope", "Hürtin' Crüe", "I Don’t Want to Grow Up", "I Wanna Be a Bear", "Iceman", "I’m Not a Loser", "Jealous of the World", "Jean Is Dead", "Maddie", "Marriage", "Mohicans", "Myage", "On Paper", "One More Day", "Rotting Out", "Sad State of Affairs", "Sick-O-Me", "Spineless and Scarlet Red", "Suburban Home", "Veni Vidi Vici", "Wendy", "Wienerschnitzel", "Without Love", "You Make Me Sick")
Significant Low Notes:
E3 ("Alive", "Clean Sheets", "Days of Desperation", "Descendents", "Dog and Pony Show", "Everything Sucks", "Fighting Myself", "Gotta", "Green", "Here with Me", "I Won’t Let Me", "Impressions", "Jealous of the World", "Maddie", "Mass Nerder", "One More Day", "Pavlov’s Cat", "Sad State of Affairs", "Schizophrenia", "She Loves Me", "Sour Grapes", "Tonyage", "Unchanged", "Veni Vidi Vici", "When I Get Old", "Without Love")
E♭3 ("Catalina", "Fighting Myself", "Here with Me", "Pep Talk")
D3 ("Alive", "Days Are Blood", "Good Good Things", "I Need Some", "Impressions", "Maddie", "One More Day", "Spineless and Scarlet Red", "We")
C♯3 ("Iceman", "One More Day")
C3 ("Parents")
B2 ("All-O-Gistics", "Cameage", "Spineless and Scarlet Red", "Uranus", "Who We Are")
B♭2 ("Enjoy", "Schizophrenia", "Suburban Home")
A2 ("All-O-Gistics")
{Questionable Notes}
A5 ("Descendents" [1])
G5 ("On You" [5] Sounds like an inhale, and the tone is quite weak)
E♭5 ("Catalina" [1], "Comeback Kid" [2], "My World" [1, 3])
D5 ("Pervert" [1])
C5 ("GCF" [1])
A2 ("Van" [1])
F♯2 ("All-O-Gistics" [1], "Iceman" [2, 3])
E2 ("All-O-Gistics" [2, 4])
..................................................
1. Brief jumps into high or low range (eg. Yelps, trills, anacrusis, etc.).
2. Notes whose singer is unclear.
3. Non-melodic (ie. Spoken or off-key) notes that also lack a clear pitch.
4. Possibly pitch-shifted notes.
5. Notes that do not fit the labels above but whose quality is still unrepresentative of the singer's usual work (eg. excessively distorted screams or sustained, but non-projected vocal fry).
A5 ("Descendents" [1])
G5 ("On You" [5] Sounds like an inhale, and the tone is quite weak)
E♭5 ("Catalina" [1], "Comeback Kid" [2], "My World" [1, 3])
D5 ("Pervert" [1])
C5 ("GCF" [1])
A2 ("Van" [1])
F♯2 ("All-O-Gistics" [1], "Iceman" [2, 3])
E2 ("All-O-Gistics" [2, 4])
..................................................
1. Brief jumps into high or low range (eg. Yelps, trills, anacrusis, etc.).
2. Notes whose singer is unclear.
3. Non-melodic (ie. Spoken or off-key) notes that also lack a clear pitch.
4. Possibly pitch-shifted notes.
5. Notes that do not fit the labels above but whose quality is still unrepresentative of the singer's usual work (eg. excessively distorted screams or sustained, but non-projected vocal fry).
{Range Timeline}
With Descendents:
Milo Goes to College (1982): B♭2 - A4 - C♯5
I Don’t Want to Grow Up (1985): D3 - A4 - C♯5
Enjoy! (1986): B♭2 - C5 - G♯5 - A5 (mix)
All (1987): A2 - C5 - E♭5 - E5
Everything Sucks (1996): D3 - A4
Cool to Be You (Recorded 2002; released 2004): C♯3 - A4 - D5
Hypercaffium Spazzinate (2016): B2 - B♭4
9th & Walnut (2021): D3 - A4
With Descendents:
Milo Goes to College (1982): B♭2 - A4 - C♯5
I Don’t Want to Grow Up (1985): D3 - A4 - C♯5
Enjoy! (1986): B♭2 - C5 - G♯5 - A5 (mix)
All (1987): A2 - C5 - E♭5 - E5
Everything Sucks (1996): D3 - A4
Cool to Be You (Recorded 2002; released 2004): C♯3 - A4 - D5
Hypercaffium Spazzinate (2016): B2 - B♭4
9th & Walnut (2021): D3 - A4
..................................................
• Blue: Falsetto, head voice, and/or whistle register (projected mixed voice is kept in black).
• Green: Distorted screams.
• Bold: Some of the singer's arguably most impressive notes within a given register. Click on a bolded song title to hear audio of that note.
• Italics: Non-melodic notes (ie. Spoken or off-key).
• Underlines: Notes that are buried in the song's mix or which blend together with the other voice(s) in a harmony.