of the day have been things that I was listening to that day specifically, but as I was scrolling through Spotify, I stumbled on a Minutemen playlist I saved a while ago, and realized I haven't listened to the band in a long time, so I figured I'd start with this post, and go on a Minutemen binge tonight. The band was first formed in San Pedro, CA in 1980 by singer/guitarist D. Boon and long time friend, bassist Mike Watt, after their earlier band, the Reactionaries, broke up. The drummer for that group, George Hurley, moved around between a few bands after Boon and Watt formed this new group, but eventually joined up with them, solidifying what would be their permanent line-up. The band was known for their short, fast tunes, which incorporated a lot of funk into their version of punk rock. The band is definitely on of the most unique American acts from that time period, and widely lauded as one of the most important.

1985 D. Boon passed away after a car accident. Both Watt and Hurley had no desire to continue, and essentially quit play music. However, a fan of the band wrote them a letter and inspired them to start again, which they decided to do with that fan, forming a new group, fIREHOSE. The new group was very much like an extension of Minutemen, and are definitely worth checking out if you've never heard of them. I decided to go with a track from the Minutemen's second to last album, 1984's Double Nickels on the Dime, which is by far the band's longest, with 45 songs in total. It's a fun listen, as each song is still relatively short, though they were willing to also try some longer ideas at a few points, which is a nice change of pace. This song is one of the non-funk tunes on the album, and is actually quite a pretty little song. D. Boon sort of speaks over most of it, with his usual, amazingly poetic lyrics. Watt's bass also provides a really important element, which he often did, taking up more than just the usually bass duties.