Well, save whatever eyes you have left, because one month from now, you’ll need those peepers to enjoy the live Bug experience, comin’ at ya in both DVD and BluRay formats February 21 and entitled In the Hands of the Fans. Why the name? Well, the six cinematographer types behind the camera were all rabid Dino J fans who won a fucking contest (awwww!) granting them the privilege of  filming Bug, performed live by the original Dinosaur Jr. trio.

Mike Watt, Henry Rollins, Keith Morris, and of course Murph, Lou, and J. Mascis all make appearances, and I just bet there are cameos of their children doing something cute before the show (“Dinosaur Jr. Juniors!” as Allison Anders calls them). If all that, plus the excitement of seeing Dinosaur Jr. reformed, rehearsed, and rapacious isn’t enough to sell you on the project, get this: all the footage was directed and patched together by none other than Dave Markey, director of such amazing films as The Year Punk Broke, The Reinactors, and my perennial favorite, Rap Damage (In Seearch of the Hip Hop Rabbit). If any man knows how to make cinematic magic out of guitars feeding back, it’s Markey, who also does a little interviewing: check out the back of his head in this here trailer!

So, get enthused! And look here very soon for information on how to buy your copy.

-Dan Collins

P.S. Though I’m looking forward to seeing this footage from a venue in D.C. (I’ve heard the set there was one of the best all tour), when will bands start to shoot more live concert footage in one of L.A.’s many beautiful historic venues, e.g. the Palace, the Orpheum, or the Wiltern? Do these buildings have greedy lawyers or something? I love seeing my favorite bands on film, but I would enjoy it even more lit by the romantic flicker of a familiar Art Deco sconce. Sigh…

We have been lucky enough to both see and interview Dinosaur Jr in the past, so consider this night verified for excellence! And as it happens, two of you have won tickets to go to the show! To win tickets, we asked us to send your CUTEST VIDEO OF A BABY ANIMAL—an “Animal Jr”–and send you did! So many adorable animals to choose from and so little time. After much deliberation, we finally got it down to two winners! Behold the winners! And if you didn’t win, you can get tickets here!

First, however, (and we don’t mean to be a joykill) let us all come together in agreement that giving a pet for a holiday present is most likely a super not good idea, and that if you absolutely MUST give someone a pet, may we suggest you select a dog or a cat from a local shelter? A rescued animal is an adorable animal! Finally, animal shelters are overcrowded and underfunded these days, so if you are looking volunteer for or donate money to a good cause this holiday, why not see if your neighborhood animal shelter or wildlife sanctuary could use an extra pair of hands?

Now, on to the cute baby animals!

WINNER 1: CINDY C AND AN ADORABLE BABY TORTOISE!

So ugly, it’s cute!

WINNER 2: KATHLEEN S AND THE CUTEST MOST SLEEPIEST BABY BUNNY!

A baby bunny that fits in the palm of your hand!

And there were so many amazing videos that we just had to make some honorable mentions!

KYLE DILL WITH A TROUBLESOME CAT

He plays the tambourine and sticks his head into places it doesn’t probably belong. We’re not normally cat people but…this is pretty damn cute!

CAROLINE H WITH A BABY OWL

A baby owl that is taking a bath in a bowl! So. Cute.

MATT W WITH A PANDA

Show me a person who does not like baby pandas and I will be impressed because who doesn’t like a baby panda? Mewing as he tries to crawl up a step??

LANE G WITH A GOAT BEING BORN

Are you a parent? Been putting off that talk about where babies come from? Show the kids this video and it will probably help out as a visual aid. Also, this is as baby as an animal can get.

TOM H WITH A BABY DOG

A baby doberman, to be exact, making his first tiny little bark!!

Rollins is a funny guy, but it’ll be hard to top Allison Anders calling J and Lou’s kids “Dinosaur Jr. juniors!”

-Dan Collins

Well, under normal circumstances, you can’t!  Unavailable in any distributed format for years, according to director David Markey, the film finally found a home on Vimeo not too long ago where slam-dancers of all ages could see it.  And then this happened:

Sorry! “”Reality 86′d” A film by David Markey” was deleted at 1:49:29 Mon May 23, 2011. Vimeo has removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Greg Ginn claiming that this material is infringing: “Reality 86′d” A film by David Markey. We have no more information about it on our mainframe or elsewhere.

We caught up with David Markey on Facebook this week and got his take on why he believes Ginn had the film “paralyzed”:

So… what did Greg Ginn do to your film, Reality 86’d?
He first refused to release the film when I offered it to him. He then refused to let me release the film. He then refused to let Henry release the film. 20 years pass. I post it to Vimeo for viewing purposes only and Ginn has it removed. Like clockwork.
Do you make him look bad in the movie?  Why would he do this?
The film was done with love and respect for Ginn and Black Flag, one of the world’s most important bands, still… even after all of this.  There is nothing in the film to make him look bad that we didn’t already see in Woodstock.
Isn’t this an important portrait-of-a-time film that everyone should see?
This particular era is not very under-represented, although oddly enough Greg did allow footage from this movie to be seen in American Hardcore.  I thought that was weird.
This is one of the few films with footage of Joe Cole, the famed Black Flag roadie whose death inspired songs by Sonic Youth, an album by Hole, and even two books by Henry Rollins.  Why would anyone want to diminish his legacy?
Beats me.  Joe saw the film before he was killed.  At least he got to see it.
Henry Rollins is in the film too.  Does he know what Greg’s done to the film?
Yes.  Very much so.  Henry wants it released. Dukowski wants it released. 5 other people in the film want it released. The fans want it released.
Now that I can’t see the film, it only makes me want to view it more.  What are my options?
I hear it’s all over the net already so perhaps the 20th century way of doing things is already irrelevant.
So, how are you going to make this right?  Will you shoot a third Lovedolls movie and cast Bob Moss as a villainous “Gagg Thin, head of STD Records?”
Probably not, not that it’s not a great idea…

-Dan Collins

The Horribly Wrong take the cartoonish violence from the childish id and cram it all into a gleeful, in-the-red punk rock rant. I’m talking axes and killing children and burning down the house with your whole family in it. It makes me want to drink Pabst from the can and slam into a wall. My main tocallo and fellow reviewer Daniel Clodfelter, who’s way more into lo-fi DIY punk than I will ever be, heard this record and said “eh,” but that’s what punkers said in the early ’80s about Glen Danzig, and look who wound up being BFF with Henry Rollins! The Horribly Wrong share a love of all things bloody and killer robot with the Misfits, though not their sound—here you’ll find more than a little Dwarves, with a fast-fast-fast riffing that brings to mind late-’90s/early-’00s bands like the Seculars, or any backyard band that loved the Dead Boys but played twice as fast and did shitty coke all night in their aunt’s rec room. The lyrics stretch into the absurd, but why not? Novelist Tim O’Brien stresses the value of “story truth” or “happening truth” when writing about the Vietnam War, and being young and punk rock is its own casualty-filled jungle. I’m sure neither I nor The Horribly Wrong has truthfully woken up with “blood all over my body” and no memory of how it happened, but boy, can I relate!
—Dan Collins

Guitarist Andy Coronado (Wrangler Brutes, Monorchid, Skull Kontrol) presents here his list of “Beltway Outsiders”—DC-area bands that were never a part of the famous Dischord-and-friends hardcore punk world. He will be DJ-ing tonight at Big Freak.

Pentagram Relentless LP (Pentagram, 1984)

“Probably the 3rd or 4th lineup of this (now) highly revered Virginia band, this record was their first official album more than 13 years after the band had begun. Victor Griffin lays it down thick here. The songs are simple and superb. Pentagram always claimed to be disciples of Blue Cheer, but revisionist history has placed them alongside the likes of Saint Vitus, Trouble, Witchfinder General, etc., as part of some budding doom metal movement that doesn’t seem like it was really happening at all. Each band was an anomaly in its own area. Modern day metal archaeologists have connected the dots and cherry-picked certain aspects and bits of imagery to create a picture of an imaginary seminal scene that seems far fetched and less ridiculous than it actually was. Remember Wino’s leather top-hat on the back of Mournful Cries? Ouch! What about all those titties on the Witchfinder General records? Titfinder General is more like it. The one thing that I can see these bands all had in common is they were making amazing music and no one gave a shit. Until 25 years later. But you get the feeling that, unlike their hardcore peers at the time, they WANTED to be loved. Pentagram woulda sold their souls to be Priest. Today you feel smug satisfaction when you put on a Pentagram record knowing that they were underdogs and that if you’d been there then, you would surely have had the good taste you have today and you’d be on the inside to partake in the “Doom Genesis.” In reality you’d have just been some pesky fan at the show who was getting in the way of Bobby Liebling’s hand on its journey to rummage around your girlfriend’s ass crack as you’re all waiting in line to piss in the one working toilet at the Bailey’s Crossroads version of the Boar’s Nest.”

Nuclear Crayons Bad Pieces … LP (Outside, 1984)

“This is the band from your high school where the only freaks in the entire school formed a band because there was no one else to play with. It’s like, “OK, the “Duckie” guy from Pretty in Pink will play guitar, piano tie guy will play drums, hippie “Neil from The Young Ones” guy will play bass, and goth girl from drama class, you sing.” Nuclear Crayons are that band that make you feel awkward and embarrassed at first but then you quickly realize that you are the asshole and they are all that is beautiful, honest, and devoid of ego. Remember Nightmare of the Elf? “Overpopulation” is the jam, but every song here grows on you. Looking at the pics of them in Banned in DC when I was a teenager, I really just wanted this band to go away. Laura Lynch “Lavoison” was a total boner killer and the rest of the band just stood there yawning. I wanted the Faith to just jump over from the other page and beat the stuffing out of these charlatans. Anyway, they managed to put out a single, an LP and a comp all on their own Outside Records without help from the eye-rolling rein-holders of the DC scene at the time. Bernie Wandel went on to play bass in the first incarnation of the Henry Rollins Band, only to be unceremoniously dumped when Henry poached Andrew Weiss from Gone. A few years later Bernie made an appearance in Henry’s dream journal “Black Coffee Blues,” where he was unceremoniously punched in the fucking face when he came knocking at Henry’s front door.”

United Mutation Rainbow Person EP (DSI, 1985)

“Name: A+….. Art: A++….. Music: ehhh……. When I first heard about UM as a teen, I expected them to fully live up to their name and blow my balls apart. United Mutation? The most bad ass name ever. How could it not be good? I picked up a copy of the Fugitive Family EP and was expecting Void’s little brother. I mean, the record scraped in to becoming a part of history with it’s catalog number: Dischord 10 7/8. The “7/8” is kinda telling … it’s like, “We really don’t wanna besmirch the family name, but you guys are our friends and all—how ‘bout this?” I’ve listened to Fugitive Family 70 times and I couldn’t hum one song to you. Mike Brown’s vocals are distinctly original for the time, somewhere between Pushead’s Septic Death screech and Cannibal Corpse’s cookie monster ridiculousness, but predating both. The art on the record is top notch—I made a shirt I still wear to this day that is graced with the cover image. They made great strides by 1985’s Rainbow Person EP. The music is way better … more complicated and memorable, and Mike Brown’s singing bears a strange resemblance to HR’s at this point. They petered around for a couple more years and then faded away …”

White Boy “Sagittarius Bumpersticker” 7” (Doodley Squat, 1977)

“One of the area’s first “punk” acts, White Boy were the father/son team of James and Glen Kowalski taking the stage names Mr. Ott and Jake Whipp. A notoriously aggressive live act, the band released this record themselves and were cited by many of the DC laureates as an early life-changing experience. The record came out when punk was less defined by a certain sound—it sounds like a bar boogie blues band with a dude singing about how wants to puke all over things. Shock value was trading at an all time high, it seems. The behind the scenes exploits of White Boy proved to be more scandalous than anything Mr. Ott ever sang about when he ended up being thrown in prison for a string of child molestation and child pornography charges. Baaarrrrffffff …”

The Hated No More We Cry EP (Vermin Scum,1985)

“The title of this record couldn’t be worse suited for this particular bunch of Maryland crybabies. Apparently they actually did CRY while they performed live. Guh. These guys fall perfectly betweenZen Arcade-era Husker Du and Rites of Spring, with the whining notched up a bit and the lyrics a bit more hippie-drippie. If you’re a sixteen year old boy, everything they ever did will sound amazing to you, even when they kinda started sounding like Rush at the very end. I’ve never met a woman that could stand this band. What does that say?”

Death Piggy War EP (DSI, 1984)

“Hailing from Richmond Virginia, Dave Brockie’s pre-Gwar outfit Death Piggy surely suffered from the fact that they were trying to be funny guys in a climate that was distinctly humor-unfriendly. Songs with titles like “Ceramic Butt” and “Bathtub in Space” make me chuckle as I type. Brockie’s vocals here are a dead ringer for Gibby Haynes, and the music is less psychedelic than the Buttholes but comes from the same “making fun of punks” school which is always a good thing.”

No Trend When Death Won’t Solve Your Problem LP (Widowspeak, 1985)

“The ultimate DC outsiders, No Trend were notoriously hostile towards the entrenched DC hardcore/Revolution Summer establishment and took their anger nationwide. Lydia Lunch“>Lydia Lunch saw they weren’t just another band and put together this collection of tracks from several records. Singer Jeff Mentges belts out the most believable, thoroughly disgusted first line you’ve ever heard on a record; “QUICK!! TWO SECONDS TIL NONEXISTENCE! SO WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WAAAAAANT!!!!” It still gives me chills every time I hear it. I love No Trend as much as they hated all of us. Their ultimate “Fuck You” was their terrible final album they shit out for Touch and Go, which was intended to fuck with their audience’s expectations and managed to do so quite effectively.”

9353 To Whom It May Consume LP (R&B, 1984)

“Where do you begin with these guys? They shoulda been bigger than Jesus Jones but have completely been excluded from the history books. Total weirdo goth pop with lyrics that are so dark and funny and are delivered between Bruce Merkle’s bizarre alternating falsettos and baritones. Former Double-0 axeman Jason Carmer’s brilliant guitar playing is stripped away of it’s hardcore roots and delivers wonderful delay pedal psychedelia. Like No Trend, these guys were antagonizers and you got the impression that something just wasn’t quite right with the singer. I found that out firsthand when I met him at my friend Chris’s place in DC. He had been living in a wooded area by the freeway in Arlington with four dogs. He told us he had just been evicted from his camp by the cops and he’d had to shoot two of his dogs in the head because he couldn’t care for them. He had the other two dogs with him and after he told the story he split and left the dogs with us. Right after he left both dogs started violently vomiting and they collapsed. He’d poisoned them. Sick motherfucker. Great band though!”

Wicked Witch “Fancy Dancer” 7” (Infinity, 1985)

“When I lived in DC you could find this record anywhere for 50 cents. They even had it at Safeway. Everyone I knew had it. You had to buy it because it looked awesome. And everyone displayed it, too. If you went to a party it was always deliberately placed in the front of the host’s pile of 7”s. But did we listen to it? Hell no! Richard Simms was a one-man band who apparently pressed a shitload of these things. The A-side’s “Fancy Dancer” is a freaky funk number that is almost uncategorizeable. The B-side’s “Y Wood U Call It Rock?” is a heavy metal rock jam from another planet that sounds like it was recorded at the wrong speed. Awesome!”

Fury Resurrection EP (THD, 1989)

“These guys were in Swiz and Ignition, who weren’t beltway outsiders in the least, but this side project deserves special attention. It was 1989 and Fugazi were king—skillfully played post hardcore was the sound du jour. This record came out of nowhere—pure shambolic hardcore bombast that barely stays in time and then completely falls apart at the end. They never played a show and never practiced. Chris Thomson’s first attempt at singing in a band and his finest moment, he sounds like he’s ad-libbing the whole thing. Shawn Brown’s bass playing sounds like someone handed him the instrument and a giant question mark appeared above his head like if you had handed a caveman a cell phone. I was living in San Diego at the time and amongst my friends this record became everyone’s “I’m a fucking lunatic, this is what I listen to!” badge of pride. Everyone wanted their band to sound like this band but they couldn’t cuz they PRACTICED.”

ANDY CORONADO DJs WITH ADAM WADE, ADAM NAUSEUM, SHORT SHORTS AND CHRIS ZIEGLER AT BIG FREAK ON MON., APR. 4, AT THE BLACK BOAR, 1630 COLORADO BLVD., EAGLE ROCK. 10 PM / FREE / 21+. TWITTER.COM/HEWASABIGFREAK.

A living room vibe with Henry Rollins is what KCRW promises to deliver on Thursday, Dec 9, 8pm, at the Echoplex. “Henry Rollins – Rare Cuts and Conversation” is a benefit for the radio station. Tickets on sale Wednesday, November 17. They call it a listening party:

“Rollins has been searching his musical vaults and will come armed with top selections from his personal music collection – some of which have never been heard before — to share with fans. In a living room-style setting, anecdotes in tow, he’ll share a night of unforgettable tunes and stories.
“I will play stuff that I am unable to on my regular show, due to the rare nature of the material. I have been planning the set for weeks and am so excited to be able to get some truly unique tracks to your ears,” said Rollins. “Basically, the Echoplex will be my living room, you are the guests and I am playing some of my coolest cuts from decades of gathering, complete with the story around the track and its acquisition.”

They are adamant that the event will not be documented in any way so it’s a one-time thing. Be wary of breaking that rule. Henry Rollins might get mad.

HENRY ROLLINS FREQUENT FLYER TOUR TAKES OFF FEBRURARY 17

TICKETS ON SALE DECEMBER 4 (PRE-SALES STARTING DECEMBER 1)

Henry Rollins trades in his airline miles for a tour bus with the launch of his Frequent Flyer Tour in early 2010. Henry’s latest talking tour kicks off January 12 in Dublin, with the 45-date first North American leg departing from San Diego on February 17. Following stops in Australia and South Africa, Henry returns for a second North American leg in mid-May.

NORTH AMERICAN DATES:

February 17 Solana Beach, CA, CA, Belly Up Tavern

February 18 Phoenix, AZ, Marquee

February 19 Albuquerque, NM, Kimo Theater

February 20 El Paso, TX, El Paso High School

February 21 Oklahoma City, OK, Diamond Ballroom

February 23 Houston, TX, House of Blues

February 24 Dallas, TX, Lakewood Theater

February 25 Little Rock, AR, Juanitias

February 26 New Orleans, LA, House of Blues

February 27 Birmingham, AL, Workplay Theater

February 28 Atlanta, GA, Variety Playhouse

March 2 Clearwater, FL, Capitol

March 3 Fort Lauderdale, FL, Revolution

March 4 Orlando, Fl, House of Blues

March 5 Charleston, SC, Music Farm

March 6 Asheville, NC, Orange Peel

March 7 Richmond, VA, The National

March 9 Washington, DC, Birchmer

March 10 Washington, DC, Birchmer

March 11 Philadelphia, PA, First Unitarian Church

March 12 New York, NY, Irving Plaza

March 13 New York, NY, Irving Plaza

March 16 Bayshore, NY, Boulton Center

March 17 Sommerville, MA, Sommerville Theater

March 18 Portland, ME, Space 538

March 19 Halifax, NS, Rebecca Cohn Auditorium

March 20 Moncton, NB, Capitol Theatre

March 22 Montreal, QC, Le National

March 23 Ottawa, ON, Bronson Centre

March 24 Kingston, ON, Sydenham St United Church

March 25 Kitchener, ON, Conrad Centre

March 26 Toronto, ON, Queen Elizabeth Theatre

March 27 Syracuse, NY, Westcott Theater

March 28 Ithaca, NY, Castaways

March 30 State College, PA, State Theater

March 31 Pittsburgh, PA, Hazlett Theate

April 1 Kent, OH, Kent Stage

April 2 Columbus, OH, LC Pavillon

April 3 Newport, KY, Historic Southgate House

April 4 Lexington, KY, Buster

April 5 Bloomington, IN, Buskirk-Chumley Theater

April 7 Chicago, IL, Vic Theater

April 8 Milwaukee, WI , Turner Hall Ballroom

April 9 Madison, WI, Barrymore Theater

HENRYROLLINS.COM

Stream: The Minutemen “History Lesson Part 2″

(from Double Nickels on the Dime available on SST)

The Minutemen’s Double Nickels On The Dime is one of the several weathered foundations of L.A. RECORD and one of the few albums still alive with the weird outside-inside energy of punk as it was once in California and the world. Exactly twenty-five years later, it still starts bands and makes friends. Minutemen bassist Mike Watt meets for pizza at San Pedro’s excellent Pavich’s Pizza for remembering D. Boon and George Hurley and that guy Mike Watt in the summer of 1984. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

You turned fifty in December and now Double Nickels is having its 25th anniversary.
I was 25 or 26 when I recorded this? Half of my life. The biggest thing about that guy Mike Watt in those days of 25-year-olds was really getting my mind blown by Ulysses. That was the big thing in my mind right then. It had a big impact on me. It made me wonder so much about the world. It’s funny how things come around. That record was a trippy time in the Minutemen’s life. In the punk era. Going back 25 years—it’s part of the past now! It’s a signifier in some ways—my life and other peoples’ lives. Like people knowing us and the punk movement—people who got the record, never saw us live. Keith and Tim did the We Jam Econo documentary. A lot of bands from the older times don’t have things done on them like that. They didn’t know a lot about the band—they knew from the record, but they wanted to find out about us. It became a thing unto itself—a touchstone. Not unto itself because it was obviously a scene—without a scene, there woulda been no Nickels, no Minutemen, no Econo. I don’t wanna get carried away—conceited! It’s just how it works out. We never thought we were a better band than anybody. We were happy as hell to be along with the team. We didn’t wanna be on top of the pile. I think every band had its own trip. There’s enough people to tell what’s right and wrong with music in books and shit. I don’t get into that. One good thing I like about it—is for D. Boon. A lot of times you get killed in your younger days, you get forgotten. I know the reason in my case—I liked him a lot and the fella could pay really good. For other cats to be aware of him—keeping the Minutemen in mind like that—in a weird way, his art is living. Some of his spirit is out there. For me, I owe him everything.
Where can you hear Boon the most on Nickels?
Maybe ‘Anxious Mofo’—that solo he does! Hardly any notes! It’s just great. And he does a great one in the instrumental—‘June 16.’ A lot of the words were influenced by Jim Joyce. The glory of man and all this. On ‘June ’16,’ Boon does a really good guitar solo, too. Hurley plays smoking drums on almost all of it. There’s a lot of dynamics with those two guys. Little tiny song settings. I’m trying to glue things together. I don’t do much bass solo on that record. I don’t think any.
Who drew the anchor on the label?
D. Boon. Punk records only had the writing on one side. With the way the lyrics are on the sleeve, we got the idea from Wire. Just put it out like prose instead of poetry.
Who wrote ‘Arena rock is new wave’ in the dead wax?
Joe Carducci came up with all those. I don’t know his commentary. [Looking at the photos in the gatefold] These pictures—this is Richard Meltzer, this is Joe Baiza. I just cut these pictures out. I had a posterboard. This is our first paid gig at Starwood. These two school buses—we rented these and played in them in Mojave on a dry lakebed. We had to wear sunglasses because the dust was blowing so hard. This is the Federal Building in west L.A.—I think it’s Rock Against Racism or Reagan. Maybe both. The camera people were taking pictures of a girl with a mohawk—they were way more into that than filming bands, so I’m turning it up. You can see how the scissors I used—pinking shears! I like these pictures. I don’t know—so casual. Boon’s got his fist up! And Georgie…
I know you did the record like Ummagumma—everyone got a solo song. ‘Cohesion,’ ‘Take 5, D’…
Georgie’s is ‘You Need The Glory.’ D. Boon never wrote a song with my words. I would write with his words all the time, but they weren’t words he wrote for me. They were little thoughts he put on paper and left around. That shit didn’t have rhymes—it was just thoughts, observations. He would use his words if he had rhymes—‘This Ain’t No Picnic.’ There were some misfires on this, I think. We did another version of ‘Little Man With A Gun In His Hand’—this came out such a lame version!
You said before you gotta spread a lot of manure to be a farmer.
Well, we wanted to match up to the Huskers because they had a double album. Kind of a challenge. I thought the band always did better when we were challenged. And it caught the band at a great time when Georgie was still writing us words.
At work, right?
He’d have to go in and work a lathe, so they’re kind of abstract. And the band had played enough that we could bring songs together really quick. Me and D. Boon were always quick because we grew up together but it always took time to show Georgie. We never wanted him in back—we wanted him just as involved. We’d spend a lot of time working out. This time, he could learn to feel it. He knew when he’d have a break or pause. The songs were coming real quick. The big problem was how were we gonna put 45 songs in order? We knew it was gonna be four sides. The way a record works, the needle works its way to the label. I kinda figured we’d have the shitty ones on the label and the good ones outside. How is this gonna happen? If we draw straws to find an order—first second third, pick one at a time. And good songs go first and lame ones get left, and the fourth side is nobody. I think Georgie got first pick and what’s he pick? His solo song! If you look at his side—all Hurley! I got second pick—I picked ‘Mike Jackson’ first, and Boon got third and picked ‘Anxious Mofo.’ Here’s a weird one—Hurley/Boon. Not a lot of Hurley/Boon. ‘Two Beads At The End,’ which we used to always crack up. It was always hard to know what Georgie was singing about. Private meanings. So we thought two butt beads hanging out—start you up like a lawnmower! I haven’t looked at this in a long time. D. Boon’s side is a lot of his stuff. And mine—a lot of Watt ones! Maybe we were picking songs from our own stuff—I thought I was picking for good! And it turns out the good ones are kinda on the outside. We didn’t want no favoritism. All divided even. A democratic thing. D. Boon would like that political idea.
How did ‘History Lesson’ end up on the label? That’s one of the very best songs.
Nobody wanted it! Second to last pick. D. Boon’s last pick was ‘One Reporter’s Opinion.’ Liked the guitar, a lotta guitar solo—hated the idea of my name in the song. I did that a lot. And ‘History Lesson’ had my name in it, too. The last two songs picked. The fourth side all unpicked. The Henry song, D. Boon’s ‘Song for Latin America,’ Martin the Reactionaries singer—no one wanted them!
Where did ‘History Lesson’ come from?
I wrote it and I kinda got the lick from Velvet Underground ‘Here She Comes Now.’ Mugger kept playing it over and over. I wrote it kind of for hardcore kids. Velvet music is kind of slow, but I thought everybody should be able to relate to playing with your buddy in a band. I guess some dudes real young think of being a rock star, but a lot of dudes start just to be with their friend. A lot of the idea—we didn’t seem like guys in a band. Kind of strange in a way. But personable! People could know us. They like a song where we talk about each other. A lot of times, D. Boon would be pulled off stage by bouncers thinking he was just some dude in the crowd! Me sometimes but D. Boon a lot—they just couldn’t believe he was in a band!
‘And Mr. Narrator, this is like Bob Dylan to me?’
We didn’t know what words were for in songs when we were boys. We thought it was like lead guitar. We didn’t know meanings and shit. But Dylan seemed like a weird uncle at Thanksgiving, muttering and no one paying attention but here’s these weird kind of words. When we were making music as boys, we never thought of music as being expression. Used to get feelings. We thought it was to copy records. Never had the idea you try to get your own thoughts out! As we got older, it seemed maybe Dylan wasn’t so afraid. And if he wasn’t, maybe we shouldn’t be scared. It was kind of confidence for us. The narrator—like a voice in a movie explaining things. That’s who he was in our life. We were learning by doing. Now cats write tunes all the time! I gave a talk to my sister’s 6th grade—these kids, they’re in bands! Last year I did one here for 3rd graders—nine-year-olds!—and some girls had bands! But it was different in those days—you didn’t do it. Not like lemmings or sheep—though people are like lemmings a little bit. The best guy in town was the guy who could play ‘Black Dog’ the best. It was building models—‘Hey, kind of like the real thing.’ We don’t think soapbox derby—where you can roll around in the thing. Roll, not just look! So Dylan kind of helped us. We didn’t know what his words meant but we knew they meant something. Now we’re gonna write songs—what are words for? By Double Nickels, I’d been doing—I’d written my first ones—terrible ones—in the Reactionaries. That’s thirty years—1979! I made two cassettes. Ten songs. None made it to Minutemen. One I gave to Brendan Mullen—the only time I tried to get a gig. But by Double Nickels, I’d already written like 50 or 60 Minutemen songs. I was kinda havin’ fun. I’d write words sometimes just to hear D. Boon say them. In ‘It’s Expected I’m Gone’—let’s have D. Boon say ‘big fucking shit!’ right now! I just wanted to hear him say ‘big fucking shit!’ really loud like he did! Nothing to do with the song. Something to do with the James Joyce book.
‘I must look like a dork?’
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. ‘I must look like a dork’ I got from an interview with Iggy in Creem. They’d have spiel with questions and answers and they’d bold out a quote—‘I MUST LOOK LIKE A DORK.’ That magazine was very cool. Not like Rolling Stone and shit—good sense of humor. So I just lifted from Iggy. I thought Iggy was a balls-out dude—the Stooges a balls-out band. To be in that legacy—be part of a movement inspired by that band—so what if you look like a fucking dork! You tell people you are and you still go for it.
Is Double Nickels your Ulysses?
I try to be black-and-white about what Minutemen were trying to do with political songs. ‘Organizing the Boy Scouts for murder is wrong!’ It wasn’t supposed to be satire. We’re an anti-war band! A working people band! Kind of a weird-kind-of-people band! Dudes who didn’t fit in so much. To us, the message of our band and a little bit of punk, too—start your own band! Say what’s on your mind! Sometimes it was scary—there were skinhead bands and shit who were terribly enthusiastic in their message. But that’s the way the scene was. No rules. People went for it. I talk about Minutemen in two songs on that album—the one I actually mailed to Michael Jackson and ‘Politics of Time.’ I didn’t really sing about the band in ‘History Lesson’—because it was Hurley, too. On Punchline, the song ‘History Lesson’ is very hard-hitting. The story of most human civilization is killing each other. And I thought maybe there might be a part two—we don’t have to kill each other? So I’m gonna take it relaxed—talk about heroes like Richard Hell, Joe Strummer, John Doe. Those are my three songs that ain’t about Ulysses. About the band and my friend. Georgie’s? I don’t know what his are about—a working guy writing them at work. Boon—his tunes are usually about his beliefs. The outside writers—we never asked ‘em. It wasn’t important to us. It might have been like censorship. Just 100% used their words. And some of them were pretty cryptic. Like Dirk’s ‘The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts.’ And Jack Brewer’s cousin Joe—we didn’t even know the guy!—writes a weird one—‘Please Don’t Be Gentle With Me.’ I don’t know what the fuck—that’s a love song?
How many love songs are on Double Nickels?
‘Just wake me up and tug my hair!’ We took these at face value—we didn’t care! We made songs! A love song I got from Ulysses—‘My Heart In The Real World.’ Ulysses was bent a lot on language, so it was actually about language, but it has love song imagery. And war imagery. ‘Do You Want New Wave’ is about language too. ‘The World According To Nouns.’ All inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Have you re-read Ulysses?
I did in my forties. It seems a lot sadder book. Those days, when I wrote songs from that book, it was a big celebration! The glory of man! Now it’s more like—the glory hole of man! It seems like I could hear Joyce’s voice stronger. It seems like a lot of sadness with his mother and just the general condition of humans sometimes. So much failure. The only victories are tiny things between people in everyday stuff. The big joy is in the small middle things, because the big things are all fucking nightmare. ‘One Reporter’s Opinion’ seems like love, but it’s not. What struck me as trippy about Joyce was the technique in Ulysses changing the style with each episode—very scientific, dry, baby talk, opera, all these different trips. A lot of our shit was so… inside. It never got out to people. But it was very clear to us. Like the title. And the meaning of our lyrics. During this time, Boon worked in the van pool—one time the police were called on him—they said there was an insane man attacking the weeds! He was just a utility guy using the weed-whacker! But he had a mohawk! ‘The guy’s attacking the building!’ He’d write stuff while working and driving on little papers—this is what he would write and why there are no rhymes in them. And I’d find ‘em and make songs.
Did you ever talk to him about that?
No—I’d wonder if he would leave ‘em for me! I’d just find these things. Find ‘em in the van, in the car, all over the place. Just thinking about stuff.
How do you feel when you listen to Double Nickels now?
I didn’t listen for a long time. I listened around We Jam Econo. It was amazing! George said the same thing—‘How could I play that shit?’ It holds up, I think, for the most part. It doesn’t sound like, ‘Here’s my lame young days.’ It sounds like maybe the best thing about it!
Why?
I don’t know! Just listen! Goddamn! The way we played together—the way we were in our history. A lot of things happening at the right time. The way we were with other peoples’ lyrics and our own. We didn’t try to refine it or water it down. We just grabbed it by the bull horns and went for it, and the spirit shows through! It doesn’t sound forced—doesn’t sound fake. It’s very un-self-conscious. We did it without thinking—we wanted one because the Huskers had one! ‘We should, too!’ We just let it be it—we never thought in bigger terms. Now look—if you wanna know what was good about Minutemen, a lot of it’s in that record. We didn’t know at the time. But you ask perspective—like when I re-read Ulysses—that’s what I see. When I read it, I heard a different voice. The words were the same but I had changed. And maybe I identify more with the man. It seemed sadder. A lot of books from my 20s I’m re-reading seem a lot sadder. Kerouac—On The Road—very sad! These days it’s not a total ‘Yeah! Yeah, go for it!’ celebration firecracker. Dean Moriarty leaves him in the hospital with dysentery—that’s lame! It’s beat like ‘beat down.’ Minutemen—that is a young man’s record. And the spirit of young men is in that. It’s like—‘Wow, we got a chance to make a record! A chance to play together! To play a gig with Flag and Huskers! A chance to write music to Jack Brewer’s cousin Joe’s song about whatever the fuck tug my hair in the morning!’ We were just fucking lit about everything—all lit! Sometimes a young person is like that because they don’t have the worries of an older thing or a bad experience to keep them all wallowing or too safe. It has that spirit in it. And I can identify it because I was there. And I think about George and Boon and myself—man! That more than probably any other—we were all there with everything we had! More than any other of the Minutemen records. Buzz or Howl was actually two different things. I don’t think any Georgie songs are on it. One side Spot, one Ethan. No Georgie songs on 3 Way Tie or Project Mersh. What Makes A Man Start Fires, I had to write all the music—the only time D. Boon didn’t live in Pedro. Paranoid Time, Georgie wasn’t there with the songs. He came in later. Punchline was kind of Double Nickels. A little bit. An early version. Built on almost the same template except one or two outside writers. When we had the one album, most of the outside writers came on the second album of Double Nickels. The first was almost Punchline part 2—it actually was! And Punchline—goddamn! We make that—in the first year—December of ’80! Before we’d even been a year old. It’s not like Nickels—that’s why it holds up. It’s our signature. If you wanna know about the band and you only hear one record—that’s the one.

THE MINUTEMEN’S DOUBLE NICKELS ON THE DIME IS AVAILABLE FROM SST. VISIT MIKE WATT AT HOOTPAGE.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/WATTFROMPEDRO.

Still equatorial, but infused with frenetic, stinging jabs, Vieux Farka Toure’s reverb engorged polyrhythmia disbanded the lethargy and summoned the crowd to his feet.  Despite the gnarled twitch of Vieux’s playing and an introduction by Henry Rollins, the breakneck riffs did not defuse the twizzled hippy arms and catastrophic ass-wagging of smug baby-boomers that seem to accompany any performance that is unfortunate enough to be classified as ‘world music.’  Still, movement seems to be the music’s demand and long, jammy digressions make me question whether the twirling and regrettable attempts at ‘tribal’ dancing weren’t deserved.  Vieux himself seemed amused, both smiling and smirking as ripsaw progressions met with intensifying, pounding drums, refusing, at least, to emphasize any sort of weary, heal-the-world philosophy.  Instead he stretched the edges of the music, often barreling into unexpected realms of noise and punk, in rampant economy.  By the end, something had happened; the baby-boomers had dispersed and the squirming, flowing hippie dancing had become something more urgent and agitated.