We Jam Econo

The wife and I went down to the EARL last night to catch the Minutemen documentary We Jam Econo. Overall, I’d say it was a solid effort, but it didn’t blow me away. I’ll give it a 7 out of 10 on the “I just now made up a movie rating system for themuy.com” chart. And now, here are some random thoughts about the film and the band.

The film basically had 3 different devices: interviews with Mike Watt, interviews with various famous (and not so famous) people and live performances by the Minutemen. The editing job was pretty much just a grab bag of interviews and live performances sequenced into a movie. I would have wished that there was some type of narrative device that tied everything together better and gave you a sense of the historical ramifications of what the Minutemen accomplished. I kept getting the feeling that I wanted a step back so I could survey the scene instead of constantly being shuttled back and forth between interviews and live performances. This is probably more a stylistic wish on my part because as I think back about the film, there really aren’t that many unanswered questions I have about the band. I just think it might help the non-fan to get into the film a bit more.

It was great getting to look back on a time when bands like the Minutemen could hop in a van and just make up a life for themselves. As Mike Watt puts it, “our life was art.” Mike is, of course, the star of the movie and provides the most laughs. He is such an original guy. Watching him drive his van around San Pedro telling stories about D. Boon and the early years of the Minutemen is the best part about the movie. I’d love to see just that entire interview uncut.

I only recently heard Double Nickels on the Dime for the first time. It’s one of those albums I had always meant to listen to but just forgot about over time. I’ve listened to it pretty much non-stop for the last few weeks on my commute to work and it was a great coincidence that this documentary played in my town last night. I have to say that all the hype I’ve heard about this album is right on target. It’s a quirky, sprawling document of two lifelong friends’ musical ambitions captured in double album form. I think D. Boon already had his band’s documentary in mind when he wrote History Lesson (Part II):

our band could be your life
real names be proof
me and mike watt
we played for years
punk rock changed our lives
we learned punk rock in hollywood
drove up from pedro
we were fucking corndawgs
we’d go drink and pogo
“mr narrator!”
this is bob dylan to me
my story could be his songs
i’m his soldier child
our band is scientist rock
but i was e bloom
then richard hell
joe strummer
and john doe
me and mike watt
playing guitar

It’s crazy that 25 years after the fact, about 100 people went down to a rock club on a Monday night in Atlanta, Georgia to watch a film about 3 guys from San Pedro, California. What a cool legacy.