Milo Goes Back to ‘87: Descendents' Vocalist Talks Re-Releases of ‘ALL’ and ‘Liveage!'
This is Punk Rock Bach for July 23, 2026.
Long ago, the Descendents earned their place in punk rock history. Audiences have been rocking out to their songs since the ‘80s.
Who can forget the album “Milo Goes to College?” Well, recently, Punk Rock Bach spoke with Milo himself — Milo Aukerman, the band’s vocalist — about the upcoming re-issues of the albums “ALL” and “Liveage!”
Onward!
When considering the realm of quantum physics, there could be a parallel Earth somewhere in existence where the Descendents’ 1987 studio album might be called “Milo Goes to Grad School.”
But Milo Aukerman, the long-time Descendents vocalist, seems content on where the band landed on the name in this universe.
“I went up to grad school,” Aukerman said. “So, instead of calling the record ‘Milo Goes to Grad School,’ which would be stupid because we’ve already done ‘Milo Goes to College,’ we decided to go with ‘ALL.’”
The Descendents, the storied and foundational punk band that has been captivating audiences for decades, is set to release its 1987 albums “ALL” and “Liveage!” on Aug. 14 via Org Music.
The releases are part of the band’s recent re-issues via the label. Previously the band released re-issues of “I Don’t Want to Grow Up,” “Milo Goes to College,” and “Enjoy!”
Aukerman said the 1987 albums are set to be the last of the re-issues.
“It’s nice to get to the end of all of it,” Aukerman said in an interview with Punk Rock Bach. “We’ve been working with Org Music doing the ‘punk notes’ stuff. And it’s been fun to see how they can kind of have a new presentation of the record in this kind of jazzy format or whatever it is.”
“So that’s been kind of fun to watch it happen,” he continued. “And just to have the music be back out there that people can get is a great thing, too.”
Aukerman said that while some songs have stood the test of time, others — maybe not so much.
“I mean, we still play ‘Coolidge’ and ‘Clean Sheets,’ will occasionally play ‘Pep Talk.’ Some of them we will never hopefully have to play ever again, like ‘Schizophrenia,’ maybe,” he said.
Not that it’s a song to skip, Aukerman said, but the band doesn’t play it live.
“Just one of those songs that was more of an artistic statement than an actual, you know, something that people would want to come see us,” he said.
A record of experiments
Aukerman said ‘ALL’ is “probably the most experimental” record in the band’s catalog.
“We had two new song writers come in, and especially with Stephen [Egerton], the guitar player, are coming in and bringing in these songs that were just, you know, way, way influenced by prog,” he said.
Aukerman said he tried to write some lyrics for the new songs, but said now he can appreciate those songs as “basically an attempt to assimilate this whole other faction of music into what we were doing.”
That experimentation on the album “ALL” helped the Descendents transition to its second iteration, when the band members changed the group’s name to ALL.
Aukerman told Punk Rock Bach that he believes “once they formed ALL, they were able to fully explore… as the band ALL, they were able to fully explore more of that type of stuff, of you know, very prog, very intricate kind of stuff.”
From punk to academia
The album “ALL” was Aukerman’s final studio album with the band before he went to graduate school — leaving the band for most of the late 1980s and early ‘90s. He would go on to earn a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from UC San Diego.
But Aukerman returned to music in 1996 for the Descendents’ album “Everything Sucks.”
“For me, it wasn’t a pivot because I actually wanted to do these things in parallel for many years,” Aukerman said of his decision to pursue academia.
He said in 1982, when he went off to college, he always thought he could find a way to do both science and music.
“Because even when I left the band in ‘82, it wasn’t because I hated playing music, I love playing music, but it was just, I thought, well, I never felt like I wanted to kind of have the science stuff take a back seat. I always wanted science to be driving [the] car, as well as music, and so, as you can imagine, that’s a difficult prospect to try to do two things at once.”
Looking back, Aukerman said he was always interested in a musical career — but a career in which he wouldn’t need a side gig.
“I wanted there just to be music,” he said. “And even in ‘87, music wasn’t really paying the bills.”
He said back then the band could make a few thousand dollars playing and doing tours.
“But, you know, then, is that a career? I don’t know,” Aukerman said. “So, I kind of felt like in the decision-making part of my part was to decide, you know, when could music actually be something where I’m actually made it an actual living at, and that didn’t happen really until ‘96 […] and even then, we weren’t getting rich or anything like that.”
Aukerman said he wouldn’t have deviated from the path he took if given the chance.
“I don’t think I would have done anything different, other than when I was doing music back then, to be a bit more professional about it,” he said. “Professional in the sense of preparing myself to play live and taking care of my voice, this kind of thing, which I’ve gotten way better at now.”
The elements of a great live album
But the album “ALL” is just the first of two Descendents re-release albums on the horizon. “Liveage!,” the band’s live album recorded during the “ALL” album’s support tour in 1987, is also becoming available.
For a good live album, Aukerman said it’s important to bring the energy — but not “a slap-hazard kind of chaotic energy.”
“We got to play these songs really fast, and we drink a bunch of coffee and stuff like this, so that brings that energy,” he said. “But I think the nice thing about something like ‘Liveage!’ is that the songs were accurately done. You know, they were performed with a certain amount of precision that I think it… when you listen to, it’s not like this wash of just like noise or whatever. Every note’s played where it’s supposed to be played.”
But on the other extreme, he said, is being so precise during a live performance that the song sounds exactly as it does on the already-released record.
“If you listen to ‘Liveage!,’ for example, you know, you can hear me, you know, kind of taking a certain line and changing it, you know, messing around with the cadence of the lyrics, or just, you know, singing lines slightly differently melodically,” he said. “So I tried to kind of… You know, at that point, you’re playing a song, and you’re playing it in the here and now. And in the here and now, that’s how I wanted to play that song.”
When it comes to other bands’ live albums, Aukerman says he enjoys the Ramones’ work.
“I guess the first Ramones’ live, ‘It’s Alive’ is a great one, because they just, you know, they go from one song right in next,” he said. “You know, you hear the end of whatever, ‘Blitzkrieg Bop,’ and it’s like ‘ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR!’ And every time they do that, it’s nice, because you get to hear the ‘one-two-three-four,’ like Dee Dee is doing ‘one-two-three-four,’ on almost every song, so it’s like, yes, every time he does that, it’s like, ‘Go Dee Dee!’ So it’s yeah, probably Ramones’ ‘It’s Alive’ is one of my favorites.”
Descendents are set to release “ALL” and “Liveage!” on Aug. 14 — on vinyl, CD and cassette — via the Org Music label. You can pre-order the albums on OrgMusic.com and the band’s online store.
What I’m listening to…
After my interview with Aukerman, I pre-ordered both “ALL” and “Liveage!” for my personal collection. I’ll definitely be listening to those records in full (no skips!) once they arrive in the mail.
But this week I’m turning my ears toward an artist the music world lost recently.
Last issue of Punk Rock Bach, I wrote about a gofundme launched for L7’s Jennifer Finch — who had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Sadly, Finch died on Saturday.
Her bandmates said in a statement that they were “shattered by the loss.”
“Jennifer was a true original who lived entirely on her own terms, and the impact she made on music, art and everyone lucky enough to know her cannot be measured,” the band said. “We love her beyond words and will carry her with us always. Rest in power our dear friend.”
The Los Angeles Times published a full obituary following her death.
This week, I’m listening to L7’s 1992 album “Bricks are Heavy.”
The album is full of ‘90s energy and definitely not a snoozer. The album opens with the track “Wargasm” and the record’s momentum continues song to song — climaxing with “This Ain’t Pleasure.”
Very much worth your time, particularly when remembering a great musician the world has lost.
Next week, we’re back with an interview with Death Dealer Union’s CC McKenna and Kay Bellows. The band has a new album on the horizon — “Dark Sister” — and they told Punk Rock Bach all about it. Look for that discussion next Thursday!