Three (for me)

Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, Meat Puppets, the holy Triumvirate of my Punk Rock. These 3 Bands were all signed to SST records and each is made of solid gold. Minutemen were from LA, Hüsker Dü from Minneapolis, and the Meat Puppets were from my home town of Phoenix. I saw the Meat Puppets first live performance and subsequently saw them live many times as well as played on the same bill with them. They were 3 terrific people, very nice and very good musicians. The punk scene in Phoenix was quite small and everyone knew everyone. A very creative and friendly bunch of people. The Meat Puppets ended up in LA and got signed to SST records. The Meat Puppets music in the beginning was hardcore. Very fast, fast fast fast. Very abrasive. Hüsker Dü was the same, Over the top with speed. But both bands headed down a pop tinged path after the first couple of records. The Meat Puppets sound morphed into a psychedelic county tinged sound. They were heavy pot smokers back in the day, I can verify that. Lots of pot. The sound was very unique. No one really imagined combining both sensibilities. But in the early days of punk everything was up for grabs. We were inventing it as we went. Breaking the rules was part of the deal.

In 1983 my wife and I lived in Los Angeles, the high point of that was getting to see the Minutemen play many times. Every time we saw them they were fantastic. Always put on a great show. Such a tragedy that D. Boon died so young. He had such a unique perspective. To this day no one has approached that sound or anything close.

Hüsker Dü is the band that makes the music that really sets me on fire. I absolutly love the warped, hard edged pop that they play. They wrote so many good songs I can not count them all. Grant Hart and Bob Mould were 2 of the best songwriters of there generation. And as in all good bands grew to hate one another. I guess it made some kind of crazy competition within the band.


We Jam Econo— A DVD documentary about the Minutemen, a must see.

Corndogs

The drummer Derrick who is no longer with the Meat Puppets runs this site:
Meat Puppets

Shit from and Old Notebook