legendmusic

A QUARTER OF NICKELS

I can still remember the very first time I heard them. It was the same day I first met Neil Blender. 1986 or so. Neil was blasting their music over speakers in his living room when O and I walked in. My first question was, “Who is this?” Neil and O both responded, “The Minutemen.” I was dumbfounded. A few months later in a record store, my good friend Kevin Wilkins shoved a couple 12″ records in my hand and just said, “Buy these.” It was the Minutemen’s What Makes a Man Start Fires? and Double Nickels.

I purchased them both and my life hasn’t been the same since.

The Minutemen’s now iconic Double Nickels on the Dime has been floating in the audio ether for twenty-five years this month and I still listen to it pretty regularly. I can practically recite all the bass lines note for note. It acquainted me with San Pedro, the town I’ve lived in and loved for almost twenty years now. Thank you Mike, George and D.Boon (may you rest in peace). Thank you very much.

—Andy Jenkins, 30 July 2009