Pitchfork: Minutemen Documentary In The Works

Minutemen Documentary In The Works
Will mersh out and jam econo at Best Buy, Coconuts and other fine stores

[Posted Thursday, December 4th, 2003 06:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

The legendary Minutemen, preserved for posterity on DVD? Score! It's enough to make a man start fires.

Although history tends to be more collaborative and ambiguous than the often arbitrarily designated icons of historical record and cultural memory let on, we can say with confidence that The Minutemen, through their Herculean touring and relentless musical innovation in the front half of the '80s, played a pivotal role in laying down the network of clubs, labels, and paradigmatic refinements that the independent music apparatus enjoys today. The Minutemen rated their own chapter in Michael Azerrad's history of the origins of the American indie underground, Our Band Could Be Your Life-- and like the other pioneers addressed in that book (Black Flag, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat et al.), their influence is almost impossible to overstate.

From 1980 through the untimely vehicular demise of guitarist/vocalist D. Boon in 1985 The Minutemen, who took their name from the elite forces culled from the ranks of militias during the Revolutionary War (of which Boon was a passionate student), built a still-towering legacy by blending radical punk politics with free-jazz clusterfucks, granular funk, encyclopedic historical/literary knowledge and sardonic wit. Esoteric yet accessible, these adamant proles engaged with the political and social incongruities of their day on classic after classic album from their debut, The Punch Line, through their swan song, 1985's Three Way Tie (For Last), and removed their DYI ethics from the realm of abstraction by living the ideals embodied in their music.

Now, according to www.theminutemen.com, Rocket Fuel Films will be releasing a documentary of The Minutemen's prolific, prodigious exploits, entitled We Jam Econo-- The Story of the Minutemen. "We jam econo," incidentally, was a Minutemen lyric that became their de facto creed, referring literally to their Econoline touring van and figuratively to their self-sufficiency and independent spirit. The film is being cut by Tim Irwin and Keith Schieron, and will feature over eighty interviews, never-before-seen live performances, video outtakes (Mike Watt rips a fart, disrupting an otherwise seamless eight-note run: hilarity ensues), and hundreds of still photos. Because, everyone loves to sit around and look at still photos on TV, right?

This is no third-party hagiography; the project has been personally approved by Minutemen bassist Watt, who went on to fIREHOSE and a noteworthy solo career after The Minutemen disbanded and who, the aforementioned website maintains, "has been a key player in the production and even named the film." The filmmakers have conducted extensive interviews with Watt and drummer George Hurley. The filming and editing of We Jam Econo began in January of 2003, and the final product should hit the festival circuit in the summer of 2004. In the meantime, the filmmakers are still gathering footage, so if you have or know of any, don't hesitate to contact Keith through the site linked below and stake out your own little "I was there" section of the legend.