erasing clouds
 

We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen

dvd review by dave heaton

"The point is just trying to get away with whatever you can; you don’t have to be part of any machine" – Mike Watt

The story of The Minutemen – D. Boon, Mike Watt, and George Hurley – is one of independence, a band determined to express themselves as they wanted to, to make music based on their own idiosyncrasies, interests and inclinations. It's a story of art coming from a stubborn devotion to following their own path, one of what punk was really all about, and also one of friendship, and ultimately of tragedy, as the band's end came when D. Boon died in a car accident.

The film We Jam Econo tells that story well, albeit within the somewhat limited format of a typical music documentary. This sort of magazine article-style music documentary, based around talking-head interviews interspersed with archival band performances and occasional band interviews, seems all the more prevalent these days, and I have mixed feelings about that. One part of me enjoys them for the actual footage of the band in question, and for getting to see musicians, writers, and family members interviewed in the flesh, instead of just on the page. Another part of me longs for documentaries that themselves stand as creative works of film, or that integrate the band's story into the artistic path the film itself takes (as in the outstanding recent Townes Van Zandt documentary, Be Here to Love Me).

All of that said, We Jam Econo tells a worthwhile story. It may not have the most unique way of telling it, and in its interviews has a tendency towards redundancy and hyperbole (not counting the often revealing interviews with Watt himself). And the film finds a powerful way to tell of D. Boon's death, but then more or less rushes past it, to the end. Yet the music itself (witnessed on the bonus disc through footage of 62 songs performed live) is to this day unique, and the story of the Minutemen as a band is an inspiring one, so a movie about them, even an imperfect one, is still worthwhile.

{www.plexifilm.com}


this month's issue
archive
about erasing clouds
links
contact
     

Copyright (c) 2006 erasing clouds