Minutemen

“Double Nickels On The Dime”, or the history of American rock in miniature. Forty-three gems that rarely last two minutes and never reach three, in which the hardcore that had characterized the early Minutemen records seems to have given way to a ramshackle funk that acts as the glue holding together this long series of songs, so heterogeneous in their take on the most diverse styles that have marked American rock. Blues, country, folk, psychedelia, hardcore and whatever else you can think of: on close inspection you can find a bit of everything in this crazy melting pot.

The scene of the crime is Los Angeles in 1984 (rectius, the port of San Pedro, as the band themselves are keen to point out on the back cover of the album), and responsible for it are the members of what is perhaps the most explosive trio in the American rock scene: D. Boon (rest his soul), vocals and guitar, Mike Watt, bass, and George Hurley, drums.

D. Boon revs up his car engine and off we go: Mike Watt's immediately aggressive bass introduces us to "Anxious Mo-Fo," the record's first overwhelming miniature, followed without pause by "Theatre Is The Life Of You" and the incendiary (in lyrics too) "Viet Nam." Funk, hard rock and punk merge beautifully across these first three tracks, before giving way to "Cohesion," a solo acoustic guitar piece with a Spanish flavor that almost recalls a slightly more nervous John Fahey.

After this brief (!) moment of relaxation, things kick back into gear, hitting hard with funk, and the rhythm section's work is truly outstanding: warmth, technique and taste come together beautifully in arrangements that never turn baroque, creating such a complete sound that the guitar can slot in with total ease, freed from the burden of having to fill a void, as often happens in three-piece bands. D. Boon's voice, on the other hand, remains perhaps the most punk element of Minutemen, the link back to the band's origins, standing alongside the funk as the only common thread running through the whole record.

With "Do You Want New Wave Or Do You Want The Truth?" and the following "Don't Look Now" the mood turns more relaxed - the first track, spoken-word, at times almost melancholic - before picking back up with "Shit From An Old Notebook," which opens with a micro guitar solo straight out of Hendrix's playbook.

From here on, the reworkings and quotations of the most disparate musical styles become increasingly frequent and explicit: from the almost jazzy shades of the "Toadies" interlude or the whole of "Martin's Story," to the country-punk of "Corona," the vaguely avant-garde folk of "Take 5, D." (sung by Mike Watt), the playful divertissement of "My Heart And The Real World" which, at times, seems to anticipate the melodic hardcore of NOFX and co. by a good decade, and the avant-garde psychedelia of "You Need The Glory" - just to highlight the most obvious examples.

Then there are the record's "ballads," perhaps its most overtly pop moments: "History Lesson, Pt. 2," light and nostalgic at once, and "There Ain't Shit On T.V. Tonight," with its almost bossa nova flavor (the grayest bossa nova ever heard) in the guitar's rhythmic movements.

The list of tracks and their cross-contaminations could go on for a long while (a very long while, given that the tracklist runs to 45 songs): one could ask why not also mention tracks like "West Germany," "Jesus And Tequila," "Dr. Wu" and so on, but the truly astonishing thing about this album is that, despite the brevity of its songs, many of them reveal, with every new listen, genuine musical microcosms that keep growing richer each time, often so tightly fused and concentrated that they're nearly impossible to break down into elements traceable to a single genre - and this through compositions that are anything but filler or exercises in style, managing instead to sound genuinely innovative. All due distinctions made, the record can be compared on a conceptual level to what the Clash had achieved a few years earlier on the other side of the Atlantic with "London Calling."

In other words, summing up the past in order to reinvent the present (and lay the groundwork for the future) - and it's no coincidence that such an approach emerged from two bands born out of the influence of the revolution (or counter-revolution, depending on your point of view) unleashed by punk; everyone can draw their own conclusions from that.

"Double Nickels On The Dime" could be seen as a snapshot with musical America (non-mainstream, of course) of 1984 in sharp close-up, and that of the preceding years forming the backdrop - sometimes more visible, sometimes blurrier, and at times barely distinguishable from the main subject.

Or as a monument. A miniature monument (pardon the pun) to American underground rock.

In any case, as far as this writer is concerned, one of the best records of the Eighties (despite sounding so little like "the Eighties"), but enough chatter - in the meantime we've reached the fateful track 45, "Three Car Jam": this time it's the engines of the band members' three cars roaring, announcing their departure, destination unknown. The "history lesson" is over.

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02/11/2006