"punk rock changed our lives"
September 6, 2014 5:02 AM   Subscribe

Minutemen jam econo on a public access TV show called Acoustic Blowout in 1985. You can find more Minutemen videos and concert recordings on corndogs.org.
posted by Kattullus (18 comments total) 49 users marked this as a favorite
 
I just interviewed him for the paper I write for. He is one of the nicest interviews I have done. Easy to talk with, tons of personal anecdotes, just a great, all-around guy. I didn't even remember to lose my cool!
posted by the_royal_we at 5:22 AM on September 6, 2014


This is great- good start to a Saturday. Love that Green River.
posted by stinkfoot at 6:35 AM on September 6, 2014


The Minutemen were the greatest band in the history of rock and roll music.

Mr. Narrator, this is Bob Dylan to me.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:49 AM on September 6, 2014 [23 favorites]


Thanks for this post! I listened to the Minutemen a lot when I was a kid, so I really like getting the chance to hear some re-arranged versions of these songs.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:33 AM on September 6, 2014


Many thanks, and what BitterOldPunk said!
posted by languagehat at 7:35 AM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


Every now and then I'll be talking music things with some nice person and they will reveal, innocently, that they had never heard The Minutemen. Everything is then dropped while I whisk them home and put Double Nickels on the Dime on and turn up the volume.

And it's always the same response on their part: eternal gratitude.

Thanks Katullus: awesome post.
posted by jammy at 7:47 AM on September 6, 2014 [8 favorites]


All of the inspirational, life-affirming Minutemen documentary "We Jam Econo" is up on YouTube for the uninitiated. If you have even the slightest interest in punk and don't know them, watch it.

I also need to plug my favorite Minutemen-related moment of the last decade, the short "Cooking with Mike Watt". Mike continues to jam econo.
posted by ryanshepard at 8:44 AM on September 6, 2014 [3 favorites]


First time I ever got terribly upset that someone I didn't know personally died.

Every Minuteman album was better than the last one. Who knows how awesome they would have gotten.
posted by the bricabrac man at 9:27 AM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ah yes, I remember.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:31 AM on September 6, 2014


The Minutemen were the greatest band in the history of rock and roll music.

maybe. very maybe. they were definitely the greatest band in the history of rock and roll in 1985, and then something goddamn horrible happened. Which brings to mind my old friend Motron who, whenever that song American Pie came on, would swear and say no, the f***ing music died twenty-six years later in a shitty van accident ... and then he'd invariably put on Double Nickels On The Dime, which was easy if he was driving, because he pretty much always had it on anyway in his car.

Political Song For Michael Jackson To Sing.
posted by philip-random at 10:42 AM on September 6, 2014 [3 favorites]


Via Mike Watt's Hoot Page, "some 1985 spiels from d. boon"

I really love Mike Watt.

Also, for those who want to know more about The Minutemen, David Rees wrote a really great history. Excerpt:
In fact, before they decided to call themselves the Minutemen and sing songs about Central American politics, D. Boon, Mike Watt, and George Hurley performed as “The Lamborghini Brothers,” and sang songs about their Italian sports cars ... The iconic cover photo of [Double Nickles on the Dime] features Mike Watt behind the wheel of his Lamborghini Countach. He’s smiling because he hit 55 mph in first gear.
posted by compartment at 12:04 PM on September 6, 2014 [6 favorites]


So we just got a new computer, one that came with a parsimonious data plan. Norton Antivirus had been eating up a lot of data, and Gentleman Caller put it in "econo mode". To which I replied, "so now it just hambones on the thunder broom and goes on spiels about Peeeeedro."

Econo mode...Mike Watt...get it?

Even though D. Boon had long since gone to that great trainwreck in the sky when I was a kid, I can say that the Minutemen changed my life in high school. They and Husker Du looked like the guys who'd sell pot behind the voke, but their music was so expansive and boundary-shifting and ruminative and...just in the best spirit of punk. Want to do something? Pick up your thud stick (whether that's a bass or a pen or a camera) and make the noise you need to make, man. That's way more punk rock than spitting and donning a Mohawk. And their music still manages to surprise me and make me laugh all these years later.
posted by pxe2000 at 12:22 PM on September 6, 2014 [9 favorites]


We were fucking corndogs.

(I've spent hours thinking about "Mr. Narrator". I swear to god with that one phrase I was in and even if I never gave myself a fancy haircut those two simple words told me that I found somewhere I could be.)
posted by From Bklyn at 12:29 PM on September 6, 2014 [2 favorites]


You are all wonderful and correct people.
posted by billder at 5:28 PM on September 6, 2014


I like the Minutemen.
posted by brevator at 5:53 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ol' Watt *still* jams econo. A road warrior. Pile in the van, sleep on someone's living room floor… indefatigable, unstoppable, and still flying the flannel. "START YOUR OWN BAND!"

(Then again, when he tours with Iggy, he ain't gotta sleep on no one's floor. Wouldn't be surprised if he skipped out on his luxury hotel room some nights, though, just to konk on the deck, as he puts it…)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:22 PM on September 6, 2014 [3 favorites]


I hate the Minutemen for not existing while I was old enough to see them.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:04 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


By the time I was old enough to go see shows (that my parents knew about or weren't hundreds of miles away) D. was already gone. I got to see fIREHOSE a few times though, and they were fucking amazing.

I still use two Minutemen lines everyfuckingday at work and in life; 1. It's what you make it, man. 2. I got no time to fuck around, no WAY!

Also, to this very day, if I'm feeling a little down or beaten up I have this little ditty to cheer me up...

When the Bombs
Start Falling
On the First Day of WWIII

Gonna Grab me a Girl
And go and Fuck Her

Yea, Yea,

WWIII!

(My First Bells was pretty awesome.)

Thanks for the post! I always need a little more "It's what you make it, man!" in my life!
posted by snsranch at 6:03 PM on September 7, 2014 [2 favorites]


« Older Writing with Colour   |   "...that the moment my legs begin to move, my... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments