It's about time, about time.

I hate the idea of living in the past. There must be ideas and people existing and working today that mean something today, and there are, but that’s a lot of looking. Until then there are previously established artists that have done what I am looking for and look to. It’s less of a competition that way. While I was a fetus and prior, there were some (many, actually) musicians working under principles very similar to the Hofmann quote on simplicity and necessity I presented a while ago. The Minutemen declared it “jamming econo,” Fugazi didn’t have a name for it but acted under its principles. They weren’t interested in being loud for loudness’ sake, although they often were, and their lyrics approached preachy and heavy handed often, but because that’s what they wanted to say. Concerts and albums were cheap, as was merchandise (if they had any at all), slept on floors, working in a method that disposed the idea of privilege and cutting excess in all forms. Despite this neither of these bands (I focus on the Minutemen and Fuazi only because they are the most prominent in applying these principles) were traditionalists, and actually quite the opposite. Restriction on some fronts yields creativity and experimentation on others.

Upon further reflection on my unease with the gap of twenty or more years between the bands and me, their principles are no less valid now than they were in the 1980s and 1990s. There is a difference between rehashing what has been done and adopting what finds admirable about what has been done. The latter is honest and in itself admirable; a difficult trial for me is to recognize that many ideas I work with have been dealt with before but nothing has changed so much that they now have no weight.

Trailer for the 2005 documentary made by the Minutemen We Jam Econo: the Story of the Minutemen

"Shut the Door" by Fugazi, from their 1999 documentary Instrument (recorded sometime between 1988 and 1993)

"Ack Ack Ack" by the Minutemen, music video, 1985.