C/D/S/D: Minutemen

Interesting that want for a band like a contemporary equivalent to a band while doingtheir own thing thing. Have had a simiilar question for a new MC5 that would somehow still sound as individual while picking up on a similar array of influences. But can't sound like teh band they're an equivalent to because that would undermine the request or whatever.
Minutemen were a product of their times so swept up into hardcore while still being as individual as they were. So had some kind of external influence somewhat directing their sound.
Would like to find other bands as original and a few of them did wind up on SST at the same time as the Minutemen.
Did the underground/alternative scene factionalise after a point so the subcultural Venn overlap drift apart and you don't get as many bands having a framework sound to mess around with and find their own take on to the same degree. Or are the pistols and the Clash etc still as important an influence outside of generic punk . Like just thinking taht without the presence of a punk scene would these bands have been even more maverick and have wound up just doing their own thing and being completely unknown. Would they have been able to gig and thereby develop their own sound without having a wider movement like that to add momentum and tap into.
The band obviously picked up on some current UK bands though probably more Wire, Gang of Four and the Pop Group bands who themselves were cherry picking what influences they picked up from the pool while adding in their own. I think there are direct quo9tes from Pop Group instrumental passages on Double Nickels.

I thought for a moment that maybe the back catalogue was being looked at and hopefully remastered.

You remember right Stevo, there was an Insta post from John Golden over a year ago where he was doing new stampers for Double Nickels, but who knows if they were remasters from the tapes or a refresh of the latter-day ones without the run-out grooves on LP1.

I also get what you’re saying in general and it’s a point that’s been made before: that some artists are so unique (or at least synthesise their influences in such a unique way) that defies future iteration by those it influences. Everyone knows the old saying about The Velvet Underground but there’s a fundamental simplicity there that was easy to pick up on. Whereas there’s an argument to be made that the music (in the style of) of the Minutemen could only have been made by the Minutemen and that specific musical and personal interplay between Watt and D. and George, a ferment of musical and political ideas, the head and the heart, etc.

one element of the band would be its individuality so as soon as it starts sounding like a version of an earlier band it loses that element. Possibly a bit Catch 22 but I think of note.

& yeah may be down to interpersonal chemistry within the band. Might be of note to see the difference between bands picking up on largely teh same influences and see how much the band interpersonal chemistry changes things between bands. Assuming it is a given that different players will pick up on the same influences in different ways and so on.

Hoping that teh process of playing is a process of reinvention. The philosopher Gadamer has a great perspective on tradition taht I'm reminded of there. where what keeps a tradition able to continu8e is the process of continual reinvention of a core idea/set of ideas.

I know it's essentially a question without an answer: "Who is totally unique but sounds like these other guys?" But I was also thinking of the other part of the question, "but still has a similar sense of groove?" They incorporated disparate genres and elements in a way that was jagged and sharp but also loose. I've heard plenty of bands who draw on eclectic influences but end up sounding all over the place (black midi) or like the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Primus. So the question is more, "who has a similarly refined aesthetic?" I know there will be another Watt and D. Boon. There have been some interesting suggestions so far.

I haven't heard a great deal of Parquet Courts but they seem like something that would about fit the bill. Also White Denim

> I know it's essentially a question without an answer:

I think it's not even possible without the fourth Minuteman: President Ronald Reagan.

> "but still has a similar sense of groove?"

But for the death-before-midrange and jazz sympathies between the players, this Kurws album comes the closest for me:

https://kurws.bandcamp.com/album/dziura-w-getcie-hole-in-the-ghetto

This is probably cheating but Big Walnuts Yonder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bfraz58MpI

Nick Reinhart, Mike Watt, Nels Cline, and Greg Saunier