Minutemen

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Essential Albums

  • Double Nickels on the Dime
    Double Nickels on the Dime
    Double Nickels on the Dime

    Minutemen’s Double Nickels On the Dime is punk rock’s great American novel. On more than 40 tracks spread across four sides of vinyl, the tightly wound San Pedro trio blurs genres both literary and musical, ping-ponging between polemics, surrealism and autobiography. Hardcore, funk, jazz, folk, satirical pop, flamenco, no-fi live recordings, free-form percussion workouts—nothing was off-limits to this musically omnivorous, sui generis band. SST labelmates Hüsker Dü were planning the deeply ambitious Zen Arcade, an album whose double-LP would not only expand the duration of hardcore punk, but test its limits with nods to folk and psychedelia. Energised by their concept (acknowledged by a friendly “Take that, Hüskers!” in the liner notes), the Minutemen took an album-length session they did in 1983 and exploded it into a widescreen epic. Inspired by Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma, each member claimed a side of vinyl and drew straws to see whose section got which songs (the playful Side D represents the “chaff”, including a cover of Steely Dan’s “Dr. Wu” and the Meters-esque instrumental “Love Dance”). In the previous three years, the Minutemen had released more than a half-dozen frantic, nervy releases packed with tiny songs that blurred by and crashed into each other. Double Nickels doesn't slow down too much—only a handful of tunes cross the two-minute mark—but allows a little more breathing room for songcraft, grooves and experimentation. Embracing both the speed and anything-goes freedom they gleaned from hardcore punk, they imbued their songs with influence from post-punk pioneers Wire, the dancy and hyperliterate Pop Group and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s workingman’s swamp rock. Guitarist/singer D. Boon questioned American foreign policy (“Viet Nam”, “Untitled Song for Latin America”) and raged against advertising (“Shit from an Old Notebook"). Inspired by the shifting narrative structure and metatextual tricks from James Joyce’s Ulysses, bassist Mike Watt would insert himself into songs (“One Reporter's Opinion”) and sing about semiotics (“Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth?”). “It seemed to me then, and it still does now, that [Joyce] was trying to write about everything,” Watt said. “And in a way the Minutemen were trying to do the same.” Of the 40-plus songs on Double Nickels, the country-fried “Corona” would obviously have the longest life, repurposed as the theme to the Jackass series of TV shows and films. Drummer George Hurley’s intro to “It’s Expected I’m Gone” is the closest thing that hardcore has to an iconic hip-hop breakbeat record; his drums have been looped by both Sublime and Pinback. Covering so much ground both lyrically and musicially, the album would influence everyone from superstars like the Red Hot Chili Peppers to jazz-rock titans like Nels Cline to 2020s-era indie stars like Horsegirl. The phrase “Our band could be your life” from “History Lesson — Part II” would not only serve as the title of the pre-eminent book on the ’80s indie label revolution, but a call to arms for generations of bands doing things DIY.

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About Minutemen

Legendary SoCal punk band Minutemen were both one of the most inventive and exciting bands of the ’80s underground and a tantalising case of “What if?” Formed in 1980, the group’s iconic lineup consisted of D. Boon, Mike Watt and George Hurley (who replaced original drummer Frank Tonche shortly after the band’s birth). The Minutemen’s debut 7-inch EP, Paranoid Time, was produced by Greg Ginn of Black Flag and SST Records and introduced the band to a wider group of hardcore and punk supporters in California. Their debut LP, The Punch Line, was released a year later, and more firmly introduced the band’s signature style of ultra-quick, explosive songs revolving around jazz, funk and folk rock, mixed with D. Boon’s unique, off-colour brand of social commentary. The band reached their critical apex with the sprawling, massively influential 1984 album Double Nickels On the Dime, which squeezed in 43 songs and further expanded the parameters of pun with spoken-word experiments. Frontman D. Boon died tragically in a van accident a year later at the age of 27, leaving fans and remaining band members wondering what else the great group could have achieved. However, the group's influence endures through bands as varied as Red Hot Chili Peppers and Parquet Courts, while a whole new generation of punk kids was introduced to the Minutemen's charms when the Double Nickels track "Corona" was repurposed as the theme song to MTV's Jackass franchise.

ORIGIN
Los Angeles, CA, United States
FORMED
February 1980
GENRE
Alternative

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