The Glory of Man

Few albums in American rock carry more moral weight than Double Nickels on the Dime — the 1984 double LP from San Pedro's Minutemen that packed 45 songs into 73 minutes. Guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt, and drummer George Hurley built something politically fierce, musically restless, and entirely their own.

The Glory of Man is characteristic Minutemen: barely two minutes, built on interlocking bass and guitar lines owing as much to jazz and funk as to punk. The band called their approach "jamming econo" — playing within your means, saying what you need to say, and stopping. It was a philosophy as much as a sound.

D. Boon died in a van accident in December 1985 at 27. Double Nickels was his monument. The Minutemen remain one of the most influential American bands never to have had a hit.