Minutemen: Double Nickels On The Dime

Hard to write about a record and band that has gotten so much attention lately what with the highly recommended We Jam Econo movie and DVD, the upcoming Michael Fournier and the Our Band Could Be Your Life book. The January, 2006 interview between Fournier and Watt was posted on Watt's site and provides a ton of insight into the record (as well as documenting more of Watt's unique slang). For instance, who knew how much James Joyce's Ulysses influenced Watt in his song writing?

In the raw interview footage on the We Jam Econo DVD, Watt calls Double Nickels the band's "art" album and that's kinda correct from his sense. But boon's songs are more about rock and roll and politics and history When Boon was "art" - it always seemed it was Watt behind it - using scraps of paper he found in Boon's car for lyrics and so on. And Hurley's songs are just, well, like nothing else on the album -- dream-based lyrics, free jams, and funky standard-shattering drum fills and beats.

First, how about the three songs that the CD version of this left out due to space problems - although I'd argue that this album deserve a double CD and LP reissue with outtakes and the full album and outtakes if they exist - if it's good enough for Sonic Youth's 80's rock, well...fucking get it together, SST:

• "Mr. Robot's Holy Orders" (Hurley/Watt)
• "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love" (Van Halen)
• "Little Man With a Gun In His Hand" (live)

And a few of my favorites (although this list changes on a regular basis):

• "This Ain't No Picnic" - Boon's "take this job and shove it" song - only so much better than Paycheck
• "God Bows To Math" - a pre-Math rock song - at any rate, a great minimalist effort from Boon who was normally more wont to add some jam into the guitar lead
• "It's Expected I'm Gone" - Speaking of... this song was covered by Tortoise and Bonnie "Prince" Billy last year - the song was also sampled by Pinback in "Hurley" which was recently featured at Gramophone
• But this discounts the other 39 great songs on this record! So go buy it or sumpin'...
  

d. boon (RIP) - guitar & singing
mike watt - bass
george hurley - drums

photo by a. peak from inside album

More Outer links:
Wikipedia's Minutemen and Double Nickels page
Watt's hootpage
Get a Double Nickels On The Dime recording of your very own
I was going to mention the Rolling Stone 500 but then realized what albums beat it (lol)
And let's not forget these two tracks that I believe are left off the CD... great fodder for your mixes...

Saved Round:
The etching inside run-off grooves:
side d. - "arena rock is the new wave"
side mike - "punk rock is the new nostalgia"
side george - "dance rock is the new pasture"
side chaff - "chump rock is the new cool"

and last but not least:

from the liner notes - drawing by the great Raymond Pettibon...