Sunday 21 July 2019

Minutemen - History Lesson


Once again I have to thank Manerg for my introduction to Minutemen, way back in the 80s. Unfortunately the band no longer existed at the time of my introduction, singer/guitarist D. Boon tragically dying in a van accident in late 1985. There just isn't enough space here to attempt a short bio of the band, to those unfamiliar with them I suggest reading the wiki entry on them here.

Minutemen have had the odd anthology released but never really comprehensive, either a collection of live recordings or their early releases compiled on "My First Bells" which was a cassette only release in 1983. In the late 90s, their record label released "Introducing the Minutemen" which did feature songs from their whole catalogue, but for me it was somewhat lacking in content. It was also less than 1 hour long, and only featured a handful of songs from their finest release, the double album "Double Nickels on the Dime". This album features heavily in my collection, of the 48 tracks compiled 13 of them come from it. I'm sure many of you out there will argue about which tracks from each album/EP should have been included, but this is just my own personal favourites, and it did take some deliberating. For instance there's 2 versions of "Little Man With a Gun in his Hand", the first one from the EP "Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat", or the re-recorded version which only features on the vinyl edition of "Double Nickels on the Dime". While the later version is harder to find, I slightly prefer the original recording so picked that.

As ever I have tagged in the music files the origin of each song, but have also included a text file with this information. Hopefully most of you will enjoy this collection of one of the most outstanding underground bands of the 1980s.

  1. Sickles and Hammers (0:47)
  2. History Lesson (0:37)
  3. More Joy (1:08)
  4. Plight (1:37)
  5. Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing (1:30)
  6. Cut (2:02)
  7. What Is It? (1:50)
  8. Case Closed (1:28)
  9. Ain't Talkin 'Bout Love (0:39)
10. Search (0:51)
11. Dreams are Free Motherfucker! (1:11)
12. Life as a Rehearsal (1:34)
13. My Heart and the Real World (1:05)
14. Lost (2:30)
15. King of the Hill (3:21)
16. Straight Jacket (0:58)
17. History Lesson - Part II (2:11)
18. Futurism Restated (0:55)
19. Below the Belt (0:56)
20. Sell or Be Sold (1:44)
21. Ack Ack Ack (0:27)
22. Tension (1:19)
23. Clocks (0:39)
24. Take 5, D. (1:38)
25. The World According to Nouns (2:06)
26. Take Our Test (2:44)
27. Fake Contest (1:43)
28. I Felt Like a Gringo (2:04)
29. The Red and the Black (4:08)
30. Two Beads at the End (1:52)
31. Cohesion (1:55)
32. Corona (2:25)
33. Working Men are Pissed (1:18)
34. Black Sheep (1:09)
35. 9:30 May 2 (1:04)
36. Mutiny in Jonestown (1:08)
37. Spoken Word Piece (1:07)
38. Dr. Wu (1:44)
39. The Cheerleaders (3:47)
40. Little Man With a Gun in His Hand (3:11)
41. Storm in My House (1:58)
42. Song for El Salvador (0:31)
43. Party With Me Punker (0:55)
44. No Exchange (1:50)
45. Stories (1:35)
46. Tour-Spiel (2:48)
47. The Glory of Man (2:56)
48. Badges (0:39)




3 comments:

Alan Rudy said...

Great great band... would likely have replaced The Fall as my favorite 80s band, had D Boon not died. Saw Firehose open for Sonic Youth in Santa Cruz, CA - never took to Ed Fromohio. Strange night, too. The crowd didn't know what to make of SY and the band got frustrated and left the stage... at which point the desire for a show and to show they were cool enough to like 'em generated quite a few minutes of clapping, and SY came back, played 20-25 minutes of Dictators tunes and left for good. :-)

slugbucket said...

Thanks for the comment, Alan. Regarding Firehose, I remember buying their first album and being somewhat disappointed, and got rid of not long after. But, many years later I revisited their back catalogue and wished I'd given them more of a chance all those years ago.

I think on that first listen I was expecting to hear a continuation of Minutemen (though some tracks did have elements of their previous incarnation), instead of treating them as a new band. I suggest listening back to their albums, you never know your opinion on Ed Crawford/Fromohio might change!

jonder said...

I saw Firehose and SY in Tampa on that same tour. I think Firehose was a great live band whose energy didn't translate to the records. Some of it may have been the joy of seeing Watt and Hurley playing together again. All praises to Ed Crawford for inspiring them to get back in the saddle.

The Sonic Youts got a more enthusiastic reception in FL than at your Santa Cruz show -- but I would like to have seen them play Dictator tunes (or their Fall covers!) Neil Young's tour with Sonic Youth and Social Distortion was where I saw an audience unsympathetic to the SY sound.