October 22, 2007

Double Nickels on the Dime

Double Nickels on the Dime, The Minutemen, Rolling Stone Magazine's #411

Double Nickels on the Dimeexile staff consensus: Top 400 album




the breakdown:
3.5 cannons - venerableseed
3.0 cannons - lenbarker
2.0 cannons - polchic and eurowags
1.0 cannon - angryyoungman

the essays:
10/22
- And our last post about these two albums is Dave's tale of glue ear, hippies, erotic sandwiches, John Goodman, and laundromat theft. (I bet you've clicked (or scrolled down) already.

10/19 - First time poster Audrey has a terrific zinger about the essence of Double Nickels: driving around, youth, and, er, other bodily essences.

10/16 - Then comes my personal Double Nickels lament.

10/12 - First up is Mr. Barker's terrific look at Double Nickels and its '80's emo punk brother-in-arms Zen Arcade.

the introduction (done with the Funkadelic's Maggot Brain):
After a week of OK Computer's numbing familiarity (a/k/a no alarms and no surprises) the next two albums, Funkadelic's Maggot Brain and the Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime are sure to jolt us back to their disparate realities. Just how disparate? Lets just look at the raw facts:

Origin:
DNotD: San Pedro, California
MB: Parts unknown

Band Members:
DNotD: Three permanent members. Drums, Guitar, Bass
MB: Too many to count

Album Length:
DNotD: 81 minutes
MB: 37 minutes

Number of Songs:
DNotD: 45
MB: 7

Average Song Length (Longest Song):
DNotD: 1:46 (3:05)
MB: 5:15 (10:20)

And that's before we get into the sound, the politics, the album covers, the spirit, the time, the genres, the dance-ability, the audience, the attitude, and the legacy.

Despite all their surface differences, these albums both rock, are both underappreciated, and have both become wonderful treasures for legions of devoted fans. They both also carry on the message of the forthcoming apocalypse that OK Computer began so well.

Why else did we connect the two? Believe or or not Minutemen bassist Mike Watt covered Maggot Brain's title track on his own debut solo album, with J Mascis on guitar and Funkadelic's own Bernie Worrell on keyboards. (We'd be a lot prouder of our combo if we'd have known that fact before the choice was made.)

2 comments:

polchic said...

I have to admit, I was dreading this round while listening to the first track of maggot brain last night. It felt endless - and not in a good way.

Once track 2 started up, the mood shifted, my spirits lifted and I started thinking this wouldn't be such a drudge after all. Looking forward to the next full listen. Will post soon.

TheAngryYoungMan said...

I just recently listened to both of these for the first time ever, solely for purposes of this list. I dug the sound on MB, but while DNotD had it's moments, I could not get over the feeling that I was listening to a rehearsal session. Despite it's length, it doesn't feel like a finished album to me.