History Music / Minutemen

* LeadBassist: While D. Boon receives a lot of acclaim as a guitarist and was usually the lead singer, Mike Watt tends to get at least as much praise for his distinctive bass lines. The fact that he wrote (or at least co-wrote) a majority of the band's music and had a bit of a BreakupBreakout certainly helps as well.

* GenreMashup: Their usual style is a mixture of punk rock, funk, and jazz, though they also venture into other genres.

* PostHardcore: One of the [[TropeMaker first]] examples.

* NotChristianRock: "Jesus and Tequila" is a song that talks about Jesus in a somewhat positive light and "God Bows to Math" references God and Enoch from Literature/TheBible in a non-hostile manner (despite the title). Also, in some pictures and videos of the band, drummer George Hurley is seen wearing a Christian cross necklace. Despite this, however, they have enough songs with ClusterFBomb lyrics to avoid being remotely categorized as ChristianRock.

* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: ''The Punch Line'' is this turned UpToEleven. The songs had a very stripped down style with no choruses or guitar solos, making the 18 songs on the album over in only 15 minutes.

* HardcorePunk: Albeit a somewhat [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly unusual]] example.

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Their usual style is a mixture of punk rock, funk, and jazz, though they also venture into other genres.

->"''Our band could be your life!''"

[[quoteright:354:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Minutemen_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:345:Coming Soon! Or not.]]

One of the well known bands from the US underground rock scene of the [[TheEighties 1980s]]. A RockTrio consisting of guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, they started out creating very short, simple punk songs, usually with a political theme. Unusually they incorporated jazz influences as well other other styles that reflected their DIY ethic.

* {{Acrofatic}}: D. Boon was constantly jumping around and energetically dancing onstage, despite his weight.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Everywhere from 3 to 6. Some of their faster stuff would be a 7 with a heavier guitar sound.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: D. Boon pronounces "measure" as "may-sure". Mike Watt admits this is a large part of the reason why he used the word in some of their lyrics.

* AlternativeRock
* BadassBeard: Mike Watt (though he alternated between having one and being clean shaven).

One of the well known bands from the US underground rock scene of the [[TheEighties 1980s]]. A PowerTrio consisting of guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, they started out creating very short, simple punk songs, usually with a political theme. Unusually they incorporated jazz influences as well other other styles that reflected their DIY ethic.

[[caption-width-right:345:Coming Soon! [[AuthorExistenceFailure Or not.]]]]

They were active from 1980 to 1985, when their frontman D. Boon [[AuthorExistenceFailure died in a van crash]] in UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}}. In 1986, Watt and Hurley formed a new band, fIREHOSE, with new lead singer and guitarist Ed Crawford. That band played together until 1994, after which Watt embarked on a solo career.

They were active from 1980 to 1985, when their frontman D. Boon [[AuthorExistenceFailure died in a van crash]] in UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}}.

* BreakupBreakout: After the band disbanded, Mike Watt experienced a bit of success in other bands, such as playing bass for Music/TheStooges and recording with Music/SonicYouth for their [[Music/{{Madonna}} Ciccone]] Youth album (his voice is also heard on Sonic Youth's "Providence"). He's even played bass for more popular acts such as Music/KellyClarkson.
** Watt and Hurley were heartbroken after the death of Boon and both planned to never play music again. However, a Minutemen fan from Ohio, [[PromotedFanboy Ed Crawford]] ''drove to California'' to convince Watt and Hurley not to do so. The three soon formed fIREHOSE, a band whose albums sold very well (for albums in the early years of AlternativeRock), scored a big rock radio hit ("Time With You") and even wound up getting signed to a major label before splitting in the early '90s.
** Watt's 1995 debut solo album ''Ball Hog or Tugboat?'' is notable for being the only time that [[Music/PearlJam Eddie Vedder]] and [[Music/{{Nirvana}} Dave Grohl]] ever played on an album together. As a result, the album received the heaviest promotion of any of Watt's recordings to date. They also both went on tour with Watt to promote the album. The tour's opening act? Grohl's then-brand new band Music/FooFighters performing their first ever live shows.

* RealSongThemeTune: The theme to ''Series/{{Jackass}}'' is "Corona" from ''Double Nickels on the Dime''.

* {{Acrofatic}}: D. Boon was constantly jumping around and energetically dancing onstage despite his weight.

* LyricalDissonance: [[ProtestSong Protest songs]] set to funky, energetic backing music.

* RealSongThemeTune: The theme to ''Series/{{Jackass}}'' is "Corona" from ''Double Nickels On The Dime.''

* {{Rockumentary}}: ''We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen.''

** The title of "Spillage" was meant as a shout out to Music/{{Descendents}}, a punk band who were fond of making their song titles end in "-age" ("Bikeage", "Myage" and "Marriage" for example).

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: D. Boon did vocals on most songs, but Mike Watt did vocals every now and then. George Hurley also did vocals on two songs: the "speech" during "Ruins" and the scat singing in his solo song, "You Need the Glory."

** "This Ain't No Picnic," "Nature Without Man," arguably "Little Man With a Gun in His Hand".

Active from 1980 to 1985, when their frontman D. Boon [[AuthorExistenceFailure died in a van crash]] in Arizona. One of the well known bands from the US underground rock scene of the [[TheEighties 1980s]]. A PowerTrio consisting of guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, they started out creating very short, simple punk songs, usually with a political theme. Unusually they incorporated jazz influences as well other other styles that reflected their DIY ethic.

* ShoutOut: The title of ''Double Nickels on the Dime'' alone has a few. ''Double Nickels'' is trucker slang for 55 miles per hour (if you look at the dashboard on the album art, you'll notice the speedometer reads 55). ''The Dime'' is a nickname for California Interstate 10.

** Also "Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing" and "This Ain't No Picnic", the latter targeted at a racist auto parts store owner who wouldn't let Boon play jazz on the radio.

* TitleOnlyChorus: "This Ain't No Picnic," "Nature Without Man," arguably "Little Man With a Gun in His Hand".

* VitriolicBestBuds: In ''We Jam Econo'', it's revealed that neighbors didn't really complain about the band practicing too loudly; instead, they complained about Mike Watt and D. Boon cursing and yelling at each other.

!!!"Double Tropes on the Dime":

* BreathlessNonSequitur: According to Mike Watt, most of his lyrics were like this due to his obliviousness about the nature of most song lyrics, hence moments like the "Big fucking shit" in "It's Expected I'm Gone."
* ClusterFBomb: Being a punk band, they naturally break this out in their more political-driven songs. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in "Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing" with the line "If we heard mortar shells we'd cuss more in our songs."

* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: ''The Punch Line'' is ThreeChordsAndTheTruth turned UpToEleven. The songs had a very stripped down style with no choruses or guitar solos, making the 18 songs on the album over in only 15 minutes.