#267 Minutemen, 'Double Nickels on the Dime' (1984)
Previously #413
What do Hüsker Dü, Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson have in common? This record, as it happens. For some reason, I don’t remember this album at all from the last countdown. A seminal punk album, and one that arguably changed the course of the punk scene. On this their magnum opus, the band pushed past the stylistic limitations of the hardcore scene ad gave us a record of straight up punk, hardcore, ska, alternative rock and even a bit of classical fingerpicked guitar thrown in. So how do the above three artists fit in? The band chose to do a double record purely because they had heard that labelmates, Hüsker Dü’s record, ‘Zen Arcade, due for the same day, was a double record. As acknowledgement of this, they wrote “Take that Hüskers!" in the liner notes. Taking inspiration from Pink Floyd, they decided that each side of the double album would be dedicated to the songs of each member. As there were only 3 members, the last side was entitled ‘Chaff’ and featured the leftover tracks. The opening track on bassist, Mike Watt’s side is called ‘Political Song For Michael Jackson To Sing.’ Explaining the title to L.A. Record, Watt said “No—I wanted Michael Jackson. If Michael Jackson sang our song, a lot of people would get the message of Minutemen. He had a big audience. A good singer. I sent him a cassette of it—to the management on the record cover. I wrote him a note. ‘This is a political song I think Michael Jackson should sing.’ I never got written back.”
The album features 43 tracks, but majority of them are under 2 minutes; short, fast and loud, for the most part. The longest track on the album is 2:58, ‘The Glory Of Man,’ which happened to be my favourite song. Guitarist/vocalist, D. Boon would die in a van crash a year and a half later at the cursed aged of 27 years old. Mike Watt is considered one of the most influential bassists of all time. How influential you ask? Well, on his debut solo album 11 years later, his backing band consisted of Eddie Vedder on guitar and vocals & Dave Grohl on drums, as well as contributions from Krist Novoselic, J Mascis, Evan Dando, Frank Black, Thurston Moore, Henry Rollins, Mark Lanegan, Flea, Pat Smear, Ad-Rock & Mike D, amongst others.
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