The Minutemen were a punk rock band from San Pedro, California comprised of singer/guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley. They recorded in the late 1970s and early 1980s until the untimely death of D. Boon in December 1985. Influenced heavily by Wire and The Urinals, nearly all of their early songs were less than a minute long; even later when their song became relatively more conventional, the Minutemen rarely passed the three-minute mark.

Boon and Watt split the songwriting just about evenly, though Watt rarely sang. Boon's songs were typically more direct and progressively political in nature, while Watt's were often more abstract self referential "spiels".

Through most of their career they ignored standard verse-chorus-verse song structures, in favor of experimenting continuously with musical dynamics, rhythm, noise, and those traditional song elements that they had initially avoided. They also played covers of "classic rock" by the likes Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steely Dan and Blue Öyster Cult, simply out of appreciation for their songs, and without irony, diverging dramatically from hardcore punk orthodoxy of the 1980s.

The Minutemen were great fans of Captain Beefheart, and echoes of his distinctive music can be heard in The Minutemen's songs, especially their early output.

They originally called themselves The Reactionaries, and continued their penchant for ironic right-wing names when D. Boon picked the name Minutemen partly because of the fabled Revolutionary War militia, and partly because it had also been used by a right-wing reactionary group of the Sixties.

Greg Ginn of Black Flag and SST Records produced their first 7" EP, Paranoid Time, which solidified their eclectic style. At first, they completely avoided guitar solos, choruses, and fade-outs. Later, they were known for hybridizing punk rock with forms of jazz, funk, acid rock, and R&B in novel ways, perhaps best exemplified on 1984's double-album, Double Nickels on the Dime.

On Double Nickels, they co-wrote some songs with others, notably Henry Rollins, Chuck Dukowski, and Joe Baiza . Surviving members Mike Watt (bass) and George Hurley (drums) played in fIREHOSE and have done solo projects since.

From 1999 until the show's cancellation, The Minutemen's song Corona was featured as the theme song of the MTV television show Jackass.

The group's career is chronicled in Our Band Could Be Your Life, a study of several important American underground rock groups.

Discography

(all on SST Records except where noted)

LPs

• The Punch Line (1981)
• What Makes A Man Start Fires? (1982)
• The Politics of Time (New Alliance 1984)
• Double Nickels on the Dime (1984)
• Three-Way Tie for Last (1985)
• Ballot Result (1986)

45s/EPs

• Paranoid Time (1980)
• Bean-Spill (Thermidor 1982)
• Joy (198x)
• Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat (1983)
• Tour-Spiel (Reflex 1984)
• (1985)
• Minuteflag (1985) (collaboration with members of Black Flag)

Music videos

• "This Ain't No Picnic" (from Double Nickels on the Dime, 1984)

Further Reading

• Joe Carducci, Rock and the Pop Narcotic (Los Angeles: 2.13.61, 1993).
• Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 (USA: Little Brown, 2001).

External Link

• Mike Watt's Hoot Page http://www.hootpage.com/ (contains a lot of Minutemen information as well as Watt's other projects)
• Minutemen Live Music Archive http://www.archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php?collection=etree&cat=Minute
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See Minutemen for information on U.S. Revolutionary War militia members.