What Could Be Romantic About Mike Watt?
I just saw the very nice We Jam Econo, the Story of the Minutemen on the DVD machine. Although certain people don't dig this band too much, they will always have a special place in my heart, and it was great to see a lot of this old footage and hear them talking about stuff. The movie features interviews with luminaries such as Spot, Grant Hart, Greg Norton, Joe Baiza, Jack Brewer, Raymond Pettibon and others, including lots of members of Black Flag. (Hey, I thought Chuck Dukowski was fat. What happened?) I could have done without Flea (although he actually came off as a fairly decent person), the guy from Get Your War On (again, a perfectly fine fellow, but he was probably born post-fIREHOSE) and Lee Renaldo (I don't think he said anything bad, but man, is that voice of his annoying. I'm pretty sure that for anyone who hears him speak more than one sentence in a row this adjective comes to mind: "Douchebag!")
In the special features, there were some videos. The video for King of the Hill was notable because it featured D. Boon as a robber-baron-style capitalist king "eating all this food" as PD used to say (in reference to this video). I had no real memory of it, so it was good to finally see the "all this food" scene. Also, the SST offices were used as a backdrop in another video (Ack Ack Ack) set at the fictional record company of "Sonic Boom Records," which was PD's real record company name. Interesting.
5 Comments:
Yeah, I couldn't believe it when we were in Northern Lights before the show and Jamie said he didn't really like the Minutemen. EH I know you're not huge on them either. But come on, talk about nailing the zeitgeist of the 80s... in this video the band is strafed and bombed by Reagan in a stuka:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzyzVZZfUfM
Too perfect.
I don't really remember that JR moment. He was too busy concentrating on the radness of AOF. Was it the "old" Northern Lights? This must have been the Mersh Alive in 85 tour. That t-shirt did not make it. I still have my Campaign Trail '84 shirt. Less cotton in it, I guess. D. Boon sold it to me right out of that white van for five or six dollars.
I liked King of the Hill, and it's possible I could like the whole minutemen approach today.
At the time, though, it was hard to generate any interest in white dorks playing funk when so many better bands were around.
EH
COME ON, the Minutemen kicked ass. I never understood other bands from that era that seemed to appeal to latent, passive aggressive hostility. Maybe the word is "anal expulsive."
hey jk, I hope you're not passively aggressing on me for not liking your band.
EH
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