Minutemen
A San Pedro punk trio of D. Boon, Mike Watt and George Hurley who "jammed econo" on SST, made the 45-song Double Nickels on the Dime in 1984, and wrote "Corona", the Jackass theme.
San Pedro
D. Boon and Mike Watt formed the Bright Orange Band in 1973, joined Starstruck in 1977 and played with George Hurley in The Reactionaries, with the singer Martin Tamburovich, in the late 1970s. When that group split they started the Minutemen in January 1980 with a first show opening for Black Flag; Hurley joined as drummer in June 1980, after Frank Tonche's brief stay. Billboard called them provocative art-punk minimalists. Their method was jamming econo: cheap after-midnight studio time, day jobs and short tours.
Records began with the Paranoid Time EP (1980, produced by Greg Ginn for SST), The Punch Line (1981), the Bean-Spill EP (1982), What Makes a Man Start Fires? (1983) and Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat (November 1983). Double Nickels on the Dime followed on July 3, 1984 (SST 028), then Project: Mersh (1985), their most commercial-sounding release, and 3-Way Tie (For Last) (1985). Boon painted several of the covers and Raymond Pettibon did others. Setlist.fm has 403 setlists from 1980 to 1985, 143 of them in 1985.
The end and what followed
They toured with R.E.M. at the end, and their last concert was on December 13, 1985 at Park Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. D. Boon died on December 22, 1985. Watt and Hurley formed Firehose in 1986, urged on by a fan, Ed Crawford, and since 2001 have occasionally played Minutemen songs as a duo; Jeff Mangum curated the 2012 All Tomorrow's Parties weekend at which they played.
Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life (2001) profiles them, crediting them with showing that regular Joes could make great art. The documentary We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen, directed by Tim Irwin, premiered on February 25, 2005 at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro and was released on DVD in June 2006; Rotten Tomatoes scores it 94 percent. Watt wrote Spiels of a Minuteman (2003). Joe Strummer and Dave Alvin praised the band.
Albums
- Double Nickels on the Dime 1984 · SST
A double LP of 45 songs on four sides, made for $1,100 and named in answer to Sammy Hagar.
Songs
- Corona Double Nickels on the Dime · 1984
A 53-word song on Side Mike about a Mexican beach and a bottle deposit, later the Jackass theme.
Sources
- Minutemen (band), Wikipedia
- Double Nickels on the Dime, Wikipedia
- Corona (song), Wikipedia
- We Jam Econo, Wikipedia