Black Sheep Hit: Thanks to Jackass, their most well-known song is "Corona", the show's theme song, which has more of a polka feel than their usual punk/post-punk output.
Breakup Breakout: After the band disbanded, Mike Watt experienced a bit of success in other bands, such as playing bass for The Stooges and recording with Sonic Youth for their Ciccone Youth album (his voice is also heard on Sonic Youth's "Providence"). He's even played bass for more popular acts such as Kelly Clarkson.
Watt and Hurley were heartbroken after the death of Boon and both planned to never play music again. However, Ed Crawford, a Minutemen fan from Ohio, drove to California to convince Watt and Hurley keep performing. The three soon formed fIREHOSE, a band whose albums sold very well (for albums in the early years of Alternative Rock), 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 Eddie Vedder and 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 Foo Fighters performing their first ever live shows.
Creator Backlash: Mike Watt (as well as some fans) hated the first CD mix of Double Nickels on the Dime so much that they released a new CD mix only two years later and kept the original CD version out of print. Watt also expressed a dislike for both studio versions of "Little Man With A Gun in His Hand." He disliked the version on "Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat" for ending in a Fade Out also claims he didn't like the take they used on "Double Nickels", despite it having an outro.
Doing It for the Art: Part of what established their cult following when they were still around was their constant touring, despite all members holding day jobs; for instance, D. Boon didn't even have a day off that wasn't spent touring before he died.
In fact, according to Mike Watt, in his days with the Minutemen, he (and the band) tended to have the viewpoint "anything that isn't a gig is a flier", which led to a mentality that their albums were used to promote their tours, rather than the other way around.
Missing Episode: The CD version of Double Nickels On The Dime omits three songs due to limited space: "Mr. Robot's Holy Orders", "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love" and "Little Man With A Gun In His Hand" are all cut. The version on iTunes also omits these tracks. However, the vinyl version does include them, and is still in print.
No Budget: They took the frugality of Hardcore at the time and cranked it up to eleven, in the process pioneering a style known as "Jamming Econo" where their live shows relied on charisma from the members and nothing else and albums mostly consisted of first takes recorded on used tape on impossibly shoestring budgets. For example, Double Nickels had 45 songs recorded a budget of $1,100.
On the studio side of things, they cut costs using many different ways to save money; for example, they'd book less expensive studio hours after midnight, would usually record songs in the order they intended them to be on the album (thus saving a lot of time and money in the editing process), recorded over used tape, etc.
The Pete Best: After The Reactionaries split up, George Hurley initially joined another band, resulting in a very short-lived lineup with Frank Tonche on drums. Tonche left the band after playing two gigs, put off by the punk crowd their concerts drew.
Referenced by...: Uncle Tupelo paid tribute to D. Boon in their song "D. Boon" from their second album, Still Feel Gone.
In addition to seeing the direction the band would have taken if D. Boon hadn't died so young, it would be interesting if Michael Jackson agreed to sing on "Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing" instead of ignoring their offer.
Before D. Boon's death, they planned on putting together a triple album combining live recordings and new studio material called 3 Dudes 6 Sides 3 Studio 3 Live. The track list for the live portion was to be determined by fan vote, with the band having ballots handed out at shows. Boon died before any new material could be written, but what was going to be the live half of the album was released on its own as Ballot Result (albeit with some of the voted-for songs missing because live recordings of them just couldn't be found).
On The Punch Line, Watt and Boon were a Vocal Tag Team with Watt singing less often, but was still the lead vocalist on a sizable chunk of the songs. However, on the follow-up, What Makes a Man Start Fires?, he only sings backing vocals and only takes lead vocals on 3 out of 45 songs on Double Nickels, with D. Boon still singing the last verse on one of them ("The Politics of Time"). According to Watt, he actually planned on singing more, but when he switched from playing bass with a pick to using his fingers, he had a lot of trouble with singing and playing at the same time.
