MINUTEMEN - #1 HIT SONG - Double Nickels On The Dime (1984) HiDef :: SOTW

Bergo '45 Song of the Week #238 - Devon's Pick for 1/21/18:
http://www.bergo45.com
"#1 Hit Song" by Minutemen off the album Double Nickels On The Dime (1984)
SST Records

"The brevity of almost all of their songs
can often hide the fact of how good
they were as musicians......

......and another effect of the shortness
of their songs, almost always, is your wish
that they'd gone on a bit longer."

- Devon Beuschel

This is a weekly dive into the musical mind of Bergo '45. Each week, a new song is chosen by a different member of the band. Check out the playlist to see all of the past selections. Take a chair, grab a towel and give it a listen....


Minutemen were an American punk rock band formed in San Pedro, California in 1980. Composed of guitarist/vocalist D. Boon, bassist/vocalist Mike Watt, and drummer George Hurley, Minutemen recorded four albums and eight EPs before Boon's death in an automobile accident in December 1985; after his death, the band broke up. They were noted in the California punk community for a philosophy of "jamming econo"—a sense of thriftiness reflected in their touring and presentation—while their eclectic and experimental attitude was instrumental in pioneering alternative rock.

Double Nickels on the Dime is the third studio album by American punk trio Minutemen, released on the Californian independent record label SST Records in 1984. A double album containing 45 songs, Double Nickels on the Dime combines elements of punk rock, funk, country, spoken word and jazz, and references a variety of themes, from the Vietnam War and racism in America, to working class experience and linguistics.

After recording new material, the band each selected songs for different sides of the double album, with the fourth side named "Chaff". Several songs on Double Nickels on the Dime were outsourced to or inspired by contemporaries, such as Black Flag's Henry Rollins and Jack Brewer of Saccharine Trust.

Double Nickels on the Dime is seen not only as Minutemen's crowning achievement, but, according to critic Mark Deming, "one of the very best American rock albums of the 1980s". The album now appears on many professional lists of the all-time best rock albums, including Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Slant Magazine listed the album at #77 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".

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