See 39 more photos

Minutemen

75,275 listeners (2,027,130 plays)

Listening now: Mario_Tennis, takethathuskers, Oh-_-me

Add to my Library Share

punk, post-punk, hardcore punk, hardcore, punk rock… see all

232 shouts

Los Angeles, United States (1980 – 1985)

Minutemen were a highly influential, freethinking trio from San Pedro, CA, comprised of guitarist/vocalist D Boon and his childhood friend, bassist/vocalist Mike Watt, along with a former high school classmate on drums, George Hurley.
The group played influenced punk rock music in the early 1980s never finding (or even seeking) much mainstream success, but influencing many subsequent musicians. The group ended when Boon died in an automobile accident in Arizona in December 1985.



Influences and Creativity

They were influenced heavily by bands such as Wire, Gang of Four, The Pop Group, The Urinals and also funk bands of the late ’60s and ’70s were an important influence. nearly all of their early songs had unusual structures and were less than a minute long — even later when the Minutemen’s music became slightly more conventional, their songs rarely passed the three-minute mark. Though somewhat influenced by the speed, brevity and intensity of , the Minutemen are generally not classified in the genre.

Boon and Watt split songwriting fairly evenly (and Hurley made many contributions as well), though Watt rarely sang, and Hurley even less so. Boon’s songs were typically more direct and progressively in nature, while Watt’s were often abstract, self-referential “spiels”. Lyrics and themes would thus often veer from surreal humor, as in “Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs” and “One Reporter’s Opinion”, to the frustrations of blue collar life in California, as in the enduring “This Ain’t No Picnic”.
Read More… Edit

Similar Artists

Hüsker Dü, Mission of Burma, Wire, Meat Puppets, fIREHOSE, The Replacements, Fugazi… see all

See more

Videos

See more

Top Albums

See more

Shoutbox

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up (it’s free).

Listeners

See more

Recent Activity

Related Journals

See more

Groups (104)

See more

More Information

Links
Band Members

What’s New

It’s here. Welcome to the new Last.fm! Read all about it on our blog.

“I Liked The Last.fm So Much, I Bought The Company!”
© 2002–2008 Last.fm Ltd. Terms of Use