Albums by this artist

Double Nickels On The Dime (Recommended) (1984)

Minutemen

Double Nickels On The Dime

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» MARK T.R. DONOHUE | STAFF WRITER

NATN Recommended Minutemen Double Nickels On The Dime SST, 1984 RiYL: Husker Du's Zen Arcade, Mike Watt, Meat Puppets, Gang of Four

A sprawling monument to American excess pared down by punk rock ethics and tempered with large helpings of humor, humanity and cheap beer, Double Nickels On The Dime is one of the true classics of indie rock. The Minutemen -- pudgy Mike Watt on dextrous bass, George Hurley on the racing drums, yet still pudgier D. Boon on the guitar and schpiel -- responded to Husker Du's Zen Arcade with a record almost entirely unlike it in everything except length. Friendly, agreeable, expansive, and so overstuffed that it sounds like it should have intermissions, Double Nickels is an essential part of any reasonable person's guitar rock collection.

Trying to talk reasonably about the best songs and the album's themes is difficult. Double Nickels has 43 songs. (45 on double vinyl.) Many of them are throwaways. Many, many more of them are not. "My Heart And The Real World," at less than a minute and a half, summarizes most of the important points of the human condition in three eminently quotable verses. "This Ain't No Picnic" does the working man's blues like new wave Creedence. "History Lesson, Part II" is a heartbreakingly honest story of lives literally saved by indie rock.

And then there's more songs. And yet still more songs. Listening to Double Nickels all the way through is exhausting. Some of the best songs ("The World According To Nouns" shows up in the mid-40s) may elude your ear for years due the premature onset of sheer exhaustion. I'd suggest random play, but that would probably make the album even harder to make sense of.

The plus side is, as you may have already guessed, although an album with 43 one-and-a-half-minute songs is somewhat difficult for home listening, it's perfect for radio airplay or mixtape-making. Put "My Heart And The Real World" on the end of side one of your next tape, and just see if you don't get immediate results. It's that good.

MARK T.R. DONOHUE | Mark T.R. Donohue is a prolific freelance writer whose areas of expertise include Rockies baseball, video games, genre television, English soccer, and pub rock. He lives in Colorado, where he cultivates the largest and creepiest private collection of Alyson Hannigan memorabilia in the Mountain West.