C/D/S/D: Minutemen

I never got to hear 'em until about a week or two before Boon died. :( Couldn't find their records in my time, but Muchmusic aired the videos for "King of the Hill" and "This Ain't No Picnic" on their "underground" show.

...couldn't find their records in my TOWN. But "time" works too, since I didn't find a copy of "Double Nickels" until nearly a year later.

So I spoke to Mike Watt for like an hour-and-a-half yesterday. Man I was nervous as hell - it was my first phoner, and it's intimidating meeting your heroes! - but he was totally gracious and cool, of course. Lots to transcribe but I'll post the link when the piece is done.

― double pickles on the wein (k3vin k.), Monday, July 6, 2009 10:05 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

minutemen rule obv

I was informed by the devotees over on the Watt list that none of the Minutemen material actually needs a remaster. Could have fooled me.

Would certainly love to see a lot of SST stuff getting upgraded properly while the cd is still a medium. THere's a lot of very interesting material that the label released over the years that I'd like to get in best possible audio. & I think it's probably the best part of 20 years since most of it was translated to cd and the medium has advanced a lot since then hasn't it?

The all acoustic bit in their documentary was pretty amazing, and made me want to see more...

I was informed by the devotees over on the Watt list that none of the Minutemen material actually needs a remaster. Could have fooled me.

Haha! As a Wall list member myself (I think you're the only other one I've met IRL) I can say that for me it depends on the record. 'What Makes A Man...' is the one I like the least because the sound is so dry; in fact I used to work with a guy who absolutely hated it because the guitar is so trebly (though that was intentional on D Boon's part; it's the record where the guitar and bass sound most polarised).

Wall list? Gah early mornings. Obviously I meant Watt list.

So I said I was talking to Watt before his current Euro tour, and the piece went online yesterday. It's a bit of a longread.

http://thumped.com/band-interviews/mike-watt-still-jamming-econo.html

Very nice. Will read it all later

yeah good stuff, at least what i've read so far. Watt is always great to talk to -- one of my first interviews and still one of the best.

xxp to make a well-worn point I don't think any critical need for Minutemen remastering on CD compares to Husker Du.....not just for the whole Spot/SST thing but that both bands were sonically so different. Different needs.

Probably missed this already shared elsewhere on here but if it wasn't...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4W5jP_Gmrg

It was 1985. Brett & my bdays are in June. We had both just graduated from college. We had a birthday/graduation party at his mom's house on the outskirts of San Pedro. The Minutemen played. It was a great day.

Ooh, can't wait to watch that properly when I get home!

Odd to think that this band playing in someone's mom's driveway is near the end of their career, rather than the beginning. Boon would die later that year. This video is fantastic, thanks Ned.

Yer welcome!

epic.

It's takes about 17 minutes to get warmed up and work out equipment stuff, then BANG ZOOM POW

To a lot of people in 1985 (myself included), the Minutemen were one of the 2-3 best bands in the world. To have them play in your driveway ...

So this happened two months after I saw them in Providence, RI.

Awww. I still need to read that Mike Watt talking about his fave albums interview I saw recently. Finally read that thing about how he grabs some sleep before gigs on tour (with that sad initial reference in it to the vehicle crash when D Boon died).

http://thequietus.com/articles/14671-mike-watt-minutemen-the-missingmen-favourite-albums?page=7

I love the way Watt thinks, and the way he phrases things:

"The way T. Rex records were released on eight-track cartridges was also influential on Minutemen I think. The way eight-tracks were mechanically organised is they'd cut right into the songs, end them half way through, divide them up, so it was like that Wire thing again."

Yeah, the way he speaks and the way he thinks are utterly unique.

So cool that he finally met and played with Blue Oyster Cult after all these years!

Oh man that Quietus thing is so wonderful. Watt is probably the most enjoyable interview in the world. The way he speaks about music, art, life, and everything is just so sincere, open-minded, big-hearted, and like others are saying, totally unique and flavorful. And it's so sweet how he never stops talking about D. Boon and what a big deal he was to him.

This is also good timing because I just bought a hugely expensive plane ticket to see him close out the Missingmen tour in London. I saw them do the opera in Minneapolis in 2012 and it was easily a top 3 all-time live concert experience for me.

That driveway party is so awesome! The biggest Minutemen mystery for me is how this working class band from San Pedro raised on CCR and BOC and inspired by punk even accidentally turned into this leftwing jazz-fusion juggernaut.

Been listening to an old cd of Double Nickels in my car over the last couple days. It sounds perfect, especially when compared to Husker Du from the same era. Must have to do with the fact that Minutemen used no distortion at all, no overdubs etc. ive never heard the full Double Nickels with the missing songs.

man that Quietus thing is great, missed that

The thing I found about getting older is the danger is you think you know it all, and I try to fight that, man, 'cause everyone's got something to teach you.

love this dude

Love the shoutout for Tyranny and Mutation. I always knew these guys were into BOC

They covered 'The Red and The Black', twice, and they gave a lyrical shout-out to E Bloom. They were even set to work with him before D Boon's accident. They were demonstrably BOC fans!

Okay so I think any fan will need this book talked about here:

http://larecord.com/interviews/2015/06/04/a-wailing-of-a-town-an-oral-history-of-early-san-pedro-punk-interview

Direct order link here -- hell, I'm getting it now.

http://endfwy.bigcartel.com/product/a-wailing-of-a-town-an-oral-history-of-early-san-pedro-punk-and-more-1977-1985

Yes, can't wait to read it!

What a vast, daunting catalog -- yet approachable. I tried my best.

yeah it's tough to pick 20! I also love "If Reagan Played Disco" and "Jesus & Tequila" and "Corona" and "Cohesion" and "Paranoid Chant"

“The Red and the Black,” named after Stendhal’s classic novel about political intrigue in post-Napoleonic France.

Pretty sure that's a secondhand reference to the color scheme of a police force that works. Dogsled on ice.

I saw somewhere a few months ago where Joe Strummer was asked to name the greatest punk band of all time, and he said something like "Probably the Minutemen, right?"
― andy, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just looked this up because I thought that was pretty cool if Joe did say that, but not quite:

Spin: Who would you say were the ultimate punk band?

Joe Strummer: The Television Personalities

Spin: Really?

Joe Strummer: Well, they're second place. First place are the Ramones. They're the daddy punk rock group of all time. The Television Personalities, they're slightly obscure, but they brought a severe sense of intelligence to it, just at a time when punk needed the piss taken out of it. And three, maybe I'd put in the Buzzcocks. Oh yeah, the Minutemen. Big ups to the Minutemen!

Nice writeup, as usual! A few other favorites of mine: Cut, Take Our Test, My Heart and the Real World

Pretty sure that's a secondhand reference to the color scheme of a police force that works. Dogsled on ice.

Definitely sure it's a Blue Oyster Cult cover.

In which our hero, Mike Watt, pops in to comment on some soundcloud podcast about his music:

https://soundcloud.com/that-record-got-me-high-podcast/s2e50-minutemen-double-nickels-on-the-dime?fbclid=IwAR3yxUNXJJEt98VDR8yWpWgzOvlzX83pV19T_hrF-DtFVGuDEtSJFBXN8RE

you understand we needed to come up w/a bunch of new tunes to make this a double album so for the second batch we asked lots of friends for lyrics so our tunes wouldn't start repeating themselves in regards to spiel. for me also, words coming from different places than myself helped w/coming up w/fresh music ideas. on bass, watt

Valuable piece of insight into the process.

fbclid=IwAR3yxUNXJJEt98VDR8yWpWgzOvlzX83pV19T_hrF-DtFVGuDEtSJFBXN8RE

Interesting Podcast. I've been listening through them since somebody shared the news of the Gun Club Fire of love edition a few months ago. There have been some interesting takes on things.

mike watt really is an american treasure

Nothing earth shattering here, but always great to hear the voice of Watt:

https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2019-09-03/mike-watt-minutemen-san-pedro-busy-bee

Once my wife I spent the better part of day wandering/driving around San Pedro and we ate at some joint cuz I had heard Watt talk about it and it was great.

Unlike a lot of people on this message board I seldom revisit the music of my youth, but recently I decided to take a nostalgic dive and listen to the big four alt rock albums of 1984: Husker Du's Zen Arcade, The Replacements' Let it Be, The Meat Puppets' Meat Puppets II, and The Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime.

They all came out when I was 15-16 yrs old and I adored them all back then.

When I listen to them now they all sound really good but the Minutemen album sounds by far the most interesting of the batch. It's got the best grooves, the most intriguing lyrics.

I've mentioned this in another thread, but I'm eternally pissed off that I had a ticket to see the Minutemen opening for REM in 1985 but didn't use it, and D. Boon died only a few weeks later.

Just saw that BGO has a 2cd compilation of the 3 Columbia releases by fIREHOSE Flyin' the Flannel, Mr. Machinery Operator and Live Totem Pole but no Big Bottom Pow Wow . Stumbled on it while looking through the site.
Shame the SST stuff can't be similarly compiled .

The My First Bells tape compilation on SST was a wonderful, wonderful thing, Wore out two of them.

God that was a great tape