Underground Punk Legends Get The Silver Screen Treatment.

by Andrew Lau

And now a few words from someone recalling their first exposure to a little band called the Minutemen:

"They were so inspiring and so motivating from the very first time I heard them. I discovered them through skate videos.'Paranoid Chant' was the first song and I just remember being so blown away by it."

Sounds about right.

Tim Irwin is taking a quick trip down memory lane; but he isn't just any old fan, Irwin is the director of the new documentary, We Jam Econo-The Story Of
The Minutemen. He and friend/producer Keith Schieron spent the last two years putting together the band's story doing eighty interviews and collecting scads of unreleased photos and performances that make up the film.

That said, We Jam Econo is perhaps one of the most anticipated rock documentaries to hit the screen since the 2003 MC5 film, A True Testimonial that, after only a handful of screenings, was pulled due to legal battles between the filmmakers and band members. A sad and ugly name-calling match that has kept the film locked away.

Irwin and Schieron's film seems to have gone in the opposite direction. "We've been very fortunate with this one, everyone has been amazing," Irwin says and then sighs, "but, wow, I've been part of films where some painful stuff has happened. Making a film is such a commitment; it's years of your life."

Still, after all the work, he seems in awe of the project. "This is the first film where cooperation from almost everyone we talked to was almost instantaneous. I remember the first trip we went on and Keith told me we had fourteen interviews lined up, and I thought, alright, if we come home with seven I'll be really, really happy. And we came home with seventeen. That never, ever happens. That's went it hit me that we were really onto something."

Perhaps the reason for all this cooperation is due to the massive amounts of respects that the band has gained throughout their short career and beyond their untimely demise in 1985.

Coming out of the Southern California port town of San Pedro, the trio (D. Boon, George Hurley and Mike Watt) meshed unusual influences (Creedence
Clearwater Revival, Wire, and Blue Oyster Cult to name but three), and lived by the Do-It-Yourself motto to the extreme. Most importantly, they cut their
music down to the basic core: no solos, no choruses and much of their early material clocks in around sixty seconds. What you have here are amazingly
catchy, grass roots political songs created by three working class kids; spastic, thundering diatribes with compassion. The Minutemen were extraordinary and the result was nothing short of an amazing run of twelve records in five years. Together, with the rest of their SST label mates (Black Flag, Husker Du, Meat Puppets, et al.) they barnstormed the country and Europe in vans and never looked back. Known for their non-stop work ethic, they once played fifty-seven shows in sixty-three days. Unmatched punk careerism.

Still, it's difficult to put into words the effect this band had. Everybody seemed to love them not just for their music but love them as people, as well. The infectious zeal of their personalities radiated form stage, from interviews and their records. The Minutemen were 100% true to their word. Sounds odd, I know.

"Punk Rock" was more of a feeling than a blueprint to these three. Pick up an instrument and just learn; record some tunes and put them out; load up a van and drive; get on stage and play. Anyone could do it. In a 1985 interview, D. Boon stated: "There should be a band on every block, 'cuz it can happen." What he meant by "it can happen" was not that anyone could be famous, but anyone could play music and live happy by creating. Period.

"There was a comment that didn't actually make it into the film," explains Irwin, "from Jello Biafra and he's telling this story where it was during a sound check. He and D. Boon were chatting and this guy comes up, totally whacked out, wearing a cape, and his shirt said CAPTAIN ANARCHY. He comes up to them and says: 'I'm Captain Anarchy!' and Jello wonders how they can get away from him this guy without interacting with him very much. But D. Boon looks at him and goes: 'That's cool. What do you do for Anarchy?' And the guy goes: 'I thrash!' Anyone was worth having a conversation with to [the Minutemen]. Anyone wasn't any less or more than they were."

Sound like a perfect band, and for some people they were just that. The bond between these three was extremely close knit, especially between Watt and
Boon who fought and loved each other like brothers since the age of fourteen. Tragically, (and there always seem to be tragedy for bands like this) D. Boon was killed in a van accident in December 1985 while they were in-between tours. The beautiful story of the Minutemen seemed to grind to a halt. After a hiatus, Hurley and Watt continued with their next group, fIREHOSE, after which Watt took on a solo career.

Since their demise, the Minutemen's legend grew slow and steadily. "I didn't even discover them until 1989," says the director, "everything I knew about them was form the CD's I was listening to." The idea for the film dates back to Irwin and Schieron's high school days in San Jose. Then, after being out of contact with each other for ten years, their paths again crossed; Irwin had been knee-deep in documentary film work ("All I ever made in that [high school] video production class was either skateboard videos of my friends or documentaries on local bands. Fifteen years later I find myself doing the same thing and I'm pretty delighted about that."). Schieron, meanwhile, had been working in radio and, obviously, the idea for the film came up again. A mutual friend told Watt about their idea and Irwin met him before a show in Salt Lake City. "I just introduced myself and told him how much impact they had on my life. I said: 'Why don't you think about it, after your tour we'll come out to Pedro see you and, if it makes sense, we'll do it. If not, we won't do it.' There was no pressure."

Later that year, Watt took the two on a tour of his beloved San Pedro in his van. "He showed us all the spots.and at the end he said: 'Okay, I think you're right this is an important story to tell, I think we should do it.' He kinda gave us the go ahead."

Two years later, We Jam Econo premiered February 25th at -where else-- San Pedro's majestic Warner Grand Theater. It was a success; it was sold out,
friends and fans shoulder to shoulder. "It was the first time I was able to watch the film as a spectator. I had been so immersed in it that I never got to just watch it. And that night it hit me very hard emotionally."

Now comes the work of getting out to the rest of the world.

"We're talking to three or four different distributors so it's just a matter of deciding which one would treat the film the best. Theatrically, we've already started booking a tour. Some cities it'll only be a day and others it'll be three or four and, as those have been coming up, we just put them on our web site. [theminutemen.com] The response has been." here, Irwin pauses, "I couldn't have asked for anything better."

Not only is a DVD version is in the works, but: "We're also trying to put together a book," says Irwin. "It was Keith's idea and when we started talking about it we told Watt and one of his ideas was to basically to just do a transcript of the film. We won't do any writing, it'll all be word-for-word from the film and then, of course, photos from the film.but that's further down the road."

The Minutemen's end is heartbreaking and taking the two former band members back to that time couldn't have been easy. "It was really hard for Watt, I don't know if he's watched the whole thing.he e-mailed us back and said that his mom loved it and we felt like we were on the right track. I really appreciate the fact that he realizes what an important story it is to so many people and he was willing to put himself out there to let that story be told."

"It's a sad, it doesn't end happy.[but] we offer some hope after that." Irwin pauses a moment and says, "It's such an important story we just want to help as many folks as possible to either remember the inspiration from when they first heard the Minutemen or experience it for the first time, you know? And Watt was real geared up on the idea of the book because, in his words, you can't take a movie with you on tour in the van but you can take a book."