Milk Man Smiles to You "Hi" in a Nude

First of all, if you want to go any further, you have to read this.

Now, at first I thought this was one of those ultra-hippy uber-expensivo private schools, filled with children whose parents still wear Chuck Taylor's with tweed blazers. But, according to the school website, this is a tiny K-12 public school located on an island with only 69 students. Now, I was a child once, and I assume all of you were as well, and I couldn't possibly imagine being, say, 8-years-old and being a part of this. When I was in sixth grade, our music teacher was a geriatric (NOW RECENTLY DECEASED) man who was so against the concept of pop music that when our class sold enough magazine subscriptions in order to win the class 'prize' of having any music we wanted being played and sang in our music class, he absolutely refused. We had class as usual, and the only concession he made was playing, on piano, the old-time rock 'n roll style ripoff song that was printed in our music class songbooks.* Incidentally, a couple years later our new music teacher did let us bring in our own music and then we'd discuss it academically, but eighth graders have horrible taste in music, if you didn't know. I do remember someone brought in some Guns 'n Roses (and not any of their classics but "Used to Love Her (But I Had to Kill Her)" from their horrible GNR Lies LP) and I, motivated by the desire to seem what then was perceived as 'hip' at the time, brought in my C + C Music Factory tape. No shit. I had to work hard to get where I am today.

Anyway, imagining the Milk Man album as child ballet is a bit of stretch. Granted, Deerhoof is one of my new favorite bands, I've purchased three of their albums in the last few months, and it has been a great pleasure to discover and explore their back catalogue. But, Milk Man, which I finally purchased just last week and is great, was an album I had downloaded last year, listened to once (maybe) and then deleted. Therefore, not the most accessible stuff to get into, and if I would have heard it twenty years ago I probably would have freaked out. You can listen to the title track from the album, which is by far the most mainstream sounding song they've ever made, here. There are other songs on the album that are much more unusual and designed to frighten small children and pets. I'm giving major props to the teacher who put this together, and the open-mindedness of students, parents, and other teachers for cooperating and not complaining.


*A little sidenote: I can't believe that when I was 11-13 I'd actually go out on my bike and sell magazine subscriptions (and CDs/Cassettes too I think) to strangers, all in the name of raising money for the K-8 parochial school that, while certainly providing me with a semi-quality education, at least in math and science (but not English, obviously), was during those three years my personal torture chamber. Obviously my parents bought like 3 in order to help me get whatever the highest goal was (one year it was a limo ride and a free sub from Subway, another year it was a trip to a Brewers game), but still I do remember riding five miles and knocking on random doors. Since I am now 27-years-old and would be too embarrassed to do the same thing today, and I was probably more shy and weird (I hope) then, it just seems impossible.