various artists - Our Band Could Be Your Life

I think a lot lately about musical mini trends that have been lost to time.

Can you do a tribute comp in 2020? I mean, sure, you COULD theoretically put one out. But who'd care, much less buy enough copies to break even? I feel like the tribute comp went out around the time that Fearless put out their tenth Punk Goes! release. Although, as I writing this, I'm remembering that Guilt By Association comp that had Petra Haden doing Journey, Superchunk doing Destiny's Child, etc. That was good stuff that a year or two later probably would have been an MP3-only website release for someone like Merge or some publicist firm. But I digress.

I remember being SUPER stoked on this when I snagged a copy in 1996. "Oooh, Jawbox! Oooh, Tsunami and Unwound and Kaia and Treepeople! Doing Minutemen songs! Oooh!" And app. 25 years later, it still holds up. I hate to describe this as a novelty, because releases (the indie rock tribute to [Band X]) like this were numerous throughout the 90s and early aughts. But seeing it in the flesh (aluminum?) feels weird, even if it sounds so good. The most pleasant surprise for me was re-hearing Seam's version of "This Ain't No Picnic". I have a real yen to revisit their Touch & Go catalog now.

"Our Band Could Be Your Life: A Tribute to D Boon and the Minutemen"
ripped at 192kbps from the 1994 CD release on Little Brother Records
(DL)

Minutemen - The Punch Line

Boon & Watt, L.A., 1984

I remember how excited I was when I found a slightly watered damaged copy of The Punch Line on CD in the now-defunct CMart in Forest Hill back in 1995. There's an excitement that I've been missing a lot over the past five years in discovering something brand new. My roommate and I were talking last night about going out on Tuesdays and getting knocked out by a band you've never heard before. I'd say it's a function of getting older, but it doesn't ring quite as true as I'd hope. I want desperately to have that nervous, right-before-the-first-kiss feeling again, the way I did the first time I heard Out of Step or A Love Supreme or The Punch Line.

I don't know what else to say about this, other than the Minutemen have always been one of those bands I'd want to emulate if I were in a band. There is no bullshit here; just the sound of D Boon, Mike Watt & George Hurley getting to the point. It fucks me up knowing that a lot of younger folks have missed out on this (and other SST back catalog) due to Ginn's mismanagement of the catalog. I have loved this band for a long time, but still choose this as my sentimental favorite.

"...I'm already on someone's list as a casualty..."

Minutemen - The Punch Line

(click the record to DL)

RIYL: one liners, fucking corndogs