I chose to write about
this album because I wish someone had turned me on to it when I first began
exploring punk music. I was a freshman in high school in the fall of 1991 when
Nirvana’s Nevermind busted open my expectations about music and set me
on the course of discovering what else was out there. If I had found Double
Nickels on the Dime by The Minutemen when I was fourteen, it would probably
be one of my top five all-time favorite records. Instead, I came across this
album the year I turned thirty and it prompted me to reassess what great music
I had missed up until that point. When the Minutemen released Double Nickels
on the Dime in 1984, they created a classic album in American independent
music, a testament to a beautiful friendship, and a blueprint for how a few
regular people can come together and make something extraordinary.
When I first went
looking for punk music, I gravitated toward the two American punk bands that
people around me talked about the most: Black Flag and Minor Threat. In each
band’s music, I found elements that I liked, but neither one felt like
something that really included someone like me. When I eventually heard Double
Nickels on the Dime, I found myself in this album in a way I had never
experienced with a punk band. When I listened to his album, I recognized core
elements of myself that didn’t always seem at home in punk music like
goofiness, thoughtfulness, weirdness, and idealism. Guitarist and singer D.
Boon, bassist Mike Watt, and drummer George Hurley grew up in working class San
Pedro, California and formed the Minutemen as an alternative to the bleak
prospects of their hometown. All three band members were close and shared
chemistry as musicians, but D. Boon and Mike Watt were lifelong friends whose
bond informed nearly every meaningful aspect of the Minutemen’s existence. On
“History Lesson, Pt. 2,” one of the best songs on Double Nickels on the
Dime, D. Boon simply tells the story of two friends discovering punk music
and learning how to do it for and by themselves. This album of more than forty
songs documents a fiercely unique, independent band at the height of their
powers taking on as much as they possibly could. Double Nickels on the Dime remains
the Minutemen’s greatest achievement and its influence can be traced throughout
a prominent branch of indie rock including one of 2016’s best albums, Human
Performance by Parquet Courts.
When D. Boon died in
1985, the Minutemen ended, but the band’s legacy grew consistently over the following
decades. In 2001, Minutemen figured prominently in Michael Azerrad’s
indispensable book, Our Band Could Be Your Life. Azerrad featured
Minutemen as the second profile in the book, derived the title from a lyric in
“History Lesson, Pt. 2,” and dedicated the book, in part, to D. Boon. In 2005,
Tim Irwin’s great documentary, We Jam Econo: The Story of The Minutemen,
brought the band’s story to an even larger audience. The band’s music,
especially Double Nickels on the Dime, became a touchstone for the
expanding world of indie rock. Eclectic indie rock band Calexico established a
rousing cover of “Corona” as part of their live shows before recording it for
their 2004 EP, Convict Pool. In 2006, indie folk singer Bonnie “Prince”
Billy and post-rock instrumentalists Tortoise released a covers album, The
Brave and the Bold, and offered up a monolithic, but faithful rendition of
“It’s Expected I’m Gone.” As I’ve learned, it’s never too late to get started
with an album as essential as Double Nickels on the Dime, but for your
sake I recommend that you start soon.
-
John
Parsell
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