We jam econo - the story of the minutemen

Just got back from a showing of a low budget documentry - We jam econo - the story of the minutemen. It's a film about the underground band that existed on the american punk scene from 1979 - 1985. I was 8 years old when the band finished.

The minutemen were unique amongst their contemparies. They came into existence in isolation in San Pedro, california. Mike Watt and d.Boon were best friends from the age of 13. d.Boons' mother made them start a band to keep them off the streets. She decided that d. would play guitar and Mike would play bass.

d. was fat. He didn't look like lead singer/guitarist. Teenage girls would never put his poster on their bedroom walls, they would never imagine what it would be like to be his girlfriend. Mike Watt is just..... just different. Uncomfortable in his own body.

They were like peas in a pod, like brothers. They spoke their own language. They would 'jam econo' and spread their 'spiel'. They were 'corndogs from pedro' who would 'drink and pogo'. As somebody says in the film, their songs were didactic. They would preach to their audience about intangible concepts like futurism and dadaism. They tried to identify with the average man on the street, the working man who just worked for the dollar at the end of the week. Killing yourself for no money. They wrote political songs for michael jackson and bob dylan was there hero because they felt that he wrote left wing propaganda.

So how does a teenage boy in Glasgow get into a defunct punk band from america? Basically I just wanted to be cooler than anyone else. You like Nirvana? Corporate whore! Pearl Jam - music industry stooge! You support the military industrial complex you fascist!!! I was a total fanny when I was 14.

I bought my first minutemen cd (post-mersh vol. 1) on boxing day 1990 or 1991 in Tower Records in Glasgow. I didn't like it at first. I picked it up because other bands I like had name-dropped them (the dead kennedys, black flag, fugazi) and because they were on SST records (the ultra-cool record label of black flag) and because no-one else had heard of them. But they were difficult to listen to.

I persisted. I found their more accessible records (Project:Mersh is the best 'in') and I grew to love them. I just couldn't understand where they were coming from. They were different.

Punk for me is about being yourself. I wear a shirt and tie to work. I wear glasses and I have tidy hair. I have a respectable job. But in my head I'm still a punk. I'm myself. I'm not my job. You can be a punk if you are white or black or asian or gay or straight or american or chinese or whatever. Just as long as you are yourself.

The minutemen (like many bands I loved and continue to love) said 'it's ok to be yourself'. You can make music even if you can't play guitar. You can be the singer in a band even if you are fat and ugly. All that matters is that you are true to yourself.

I loved this band. Sadly they finished in 1985 when d.Boon died in a car crash just after the end of a high profile tour with REM.

I loved the film. It made me smile at the beauty of being less than perfect, the glory of being a loser, the joy of being weird.

The film was made privatly by two fans of the band. Fr more info try http://theminutemen.com/. To hear the band try http://www.corndogs.org/ and to find out what the unique Mike Watt is up to try http://hootpage.com/.

For a non-biased non-geeky opinion I asked my German flatmate who I forced to accompany me to the film. She thought it was OK but a bit too long with too much music where you couldn't hear the words properly. She did laugh at bits of it though.

Check it out if you want something different.

Phunky