Recording Milo Goes to College

For the recording of their debut album Milo Goes to College in June 1982, the band worked at Total Access Recording in Redondo Beach, California , with Spot , who had also engineered and produced the Fat EP . While still short and fast, the songs on Milo Goes to College were also melodic. Aukerman later reflected: “It’s interesting: we started very melodic, then moved to hardcore, but melded the two at a certain point and became melodic hardcore .” The album’s title and cover illustration referenced Aukerman’s departure from the band to study biology at the University of California, San Diego . The illustration was done by Jeff Atkinson , based on earlier caricatures by a high school classmate of Aukerman’s named Roger Deuerlein, who had drawn comic strips and posters depicting Aukerman as the class nerd .