We Jam Econo - The Story of the Minutemen, is a full-length documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 about the influential 1980s punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 band Minutemen

Minutemen (band)

Minutemen were an American hardcore punk band formed in San Pedro, California in 1980. Composed of guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, Minutemen recorded four albums and eight EPs before Boon's death in an automobile accident in December 1985...

, created by director Tim Irwin and producer Keith Schieron in association with Rocket Fuel Films. The film premiered on February 25, 2005 at the historic Warner Grand Theatre

Warner Grand Theatre

The Warner Grand Theatre is an historic movie palace which was opened on January 20, 1931. It is located in San Pedro, California, at 478 West 6th Street in the United States of America....

 in San Pedro

San Pedro, Los Angeles, California

San Pedro is a port district of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was annexed in 1909 and is a major seaport of the area...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, after two years in production.

Poignant recent interviews with the band's two surviving members Mike Watt

Mike Watt

Michael David Watt is an American bassist, singer and songwriter.He is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen, dos, and Firehose; , he is also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan as well as many other post-Minutemen...

 and George Hurley

George Hurley

George Hurley is a drummer noted for his work with The Minutemen and fIREHOSE.Even though he went to the same high school as D. Boon and Mike Watt he did not meet them until around 1978. That same year, Hurley formed The Reactionaries with Boon, Watt, and Martin Tamburovich...

, as well as first-person anecdotes from notable musicians including Ian MacKaye

Ian MacKaye

Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, label owner, and producer. Active since 1979, MacKaye is best known for being the frontman of the influential hardcore punk bands Minor Threat and The Teen Idles, the post-hardcore bands Embrace and Fugazi, as well...

, Flea

Flea (musician)

Michael Peter Balzary , better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-American musician and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers...

, Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, comedian, publisher, actor, and radio DJ....

 and Thurston Moore

Thurston Moore

Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...

, complement the archival concert and interview footage of the band, creating an informative and moving film for those interested in the band or punk rock in general.

The title is a lyric from their song "The Politics of Time." It's also referred to in a comment made near the end of the film by Mike Watt, in a 1985 interview, when the band is asked if they have anything else to say. He answers for them: "We jam econo." Econo was local slang for economic and described the band's dedication to low-cost record production and touring. It also describes the band's (and burgeoning underground independent music scene's) do-it-yourself attitude and philosophy.

Interviews

Film includes interviews with the following individuals (in alphabetical order):

• Milo Aukerman
  Milo Aukerman
  Milo Aukerman is an American singer, songwriter and research biochemist. Aukerman is perhaps most widely known for being the lead singer of the early Los Angeles area punk rock band the Descendents, a group widely considered to be pioneers of modern "pop punk"...
  
  
• Joe Baiza
  Joe Baiza
  Joe Baiza is a punk rock and jazz guitarist whom Eugene Chadbourne cites as one of the most noteworthy guitarists to emerge from the Southern California punk rock milieu. Baiza is a founding member of the bands Saccharine Trust, Universal Congress Of, and The Mecolodiacs...
  
  
• Kevin Barrett
  Urinals (band)
  The Urinals are a punk rock band from Southern California. Known for their minimalist approach to songwriting and recording — their lyrics have been called "punk haiku" — the band influenced other punk rockers of the 1970s and 1980s including the Minutemen....
  
  
• Scott Becker
• Jello Biafra
  Jello Biafra
  Jello Biafra is an American musician, spoken word artist and leading figure of the Green Party of the United States. Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys...
  
  
• Richard Bonney
• Jack Brewer
• Dez Cadena
  Dez Cadena
  Dez Paul Cadena is an American punk rock singer and guitarist. He was the third vocalist and later rhythm guitarist for hardcore punk band Black Flag. Since 2001 Cadena has played guitar with the Misfits...
  
  
• Joe Carducci
  Joe Carducci
  Joe Carducci is an American writer, record producer, and former A&R executive, formerly most closely associated with the influential record label SST Records....
  
  
• Nels Cline
  Nels Cline
  Nels Cline is an American guitarist and composer, currently the lead guitarist of alternative rock band Wilco. David Carr of the New York Times describes Cline as "one of the best guitarists in any genre."-Career:...
  
  
• Byron Coley
  Byron Coley
  Byron Coley is an American music critic who wrote prominently for Forced Exposure magazine in the 1980s, starting with their fifth issue until the magazine ceased publication in 1993. Prior to Forced Exposure, he wrote for NY Rocker, Boston Rock, and Take It! magazine. Coley is one of the first...
  
  
• Ed Crawford
  Ed Crawford
  Charles Edward Crawford, aka ed fROMOHIO, is an American best known as the lead singer and guitarist for fIREHOSE, an alternative rock band he formed in 1986 with former Minutemen members Mike Watt and George Hurley .-Biography:In 1985, Minutemen vocalist and guitarist D. Boon was killed in a van...
  
  
• Brother Dale
• Richard Derrick
  Richard Derrick
  Richard Derrick was born in Torrance, California in 1961, and is a lifelong resident of nearby San Pedro. He began playing music at an early age, starting with piano at age four, guitar at age ten, then learning both drums and bass guitar at 15...
  
  
• John Doe
  John Doe (musician)
  John Doe is an American singer, songwriter, actor, poet and bass player. Doe founded the much-praised L.A. punk band X, of which he is still an active member. His musical performances and compositions span the rock, country and folk music genres...
  
  
• Chuck Dukowski
  Chuck Dukowski
  Chuck Dukowski is an American punk rock musician, best known as a founding member and bass player for Black Flag. Dukowski wrote some of Black Flag's most popular songs, including "My War," "What I See," "I've Heard It Before" and "Spray Paint." He left the band before the release of My War, and...
  
  
• Ray Farrell
• Flea
  Flea (musician)
  Michael Peter Balzary , better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-American musician and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers...
  
  
• Michael C. Ford
  Michael C. Ford
  Michael C. Ford is a poet, playwright, editor and recording artist.-Bio:Ford in Chicago, Illinois and moved with his parents to Pasadena, California toward the end of World War II. Between 1974 and 1977 he co-edited a prose/poetry journal called The Sunset Palms Hotel...
  
  
• Carlos Guitarlos
• Grant Hart
  Grant Hart
  Grant Hart is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-songwriter for the influential alternative rock and hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü. After the band's breakup in 1987, Hart formed the alternative rock trio Nova Mob, where he moved to vocals and guitar...
  
  
• Richard Hell
  Richard Hell
  Richard Hell is a singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and writer.Richard Hell was an innovator of punk music and fashion. He was one of the first to spike his hair and wear torn, cut and drawn-on shirts, often held together with safety pins...
  
  
• Pat Hoed
  Pat Hoed
  Pat Hoed is a singer, professional wrestling commentator and radio personality. He has performed under the guises of Fantasma , Larry Rivera and Adam Bomb Pat Hoed (born September 3, 1963 in Hollywood, California) is a singer, professional wrestling commentator and radio personality. He has...
  
  
• Rob Holzman
• Randall Jahnson
  Randall Jahnson
  Randall Jahnson is an American writer, director and producer. His works include Dudes, The Doors, The Mask of Zorro, Sunset Strip, and episodes of the HBO TV series Tales from the Crypt. Jahnson also directed music videos for Stan Ridgway, Henry Rollins, Black Flag, and Minutemen. In the 1987, he...
  
  
• Kjehl Johansen
  Urinals (band)
  The Urinals are a punk rock band from Southern California. Known for their minimalist approach to songwriting and recording — their lyrics have been called "punk haiku" — the band influenced other punk rockers of the 1970s and 1980s including the Minutemen....
  
  
• Curt Kirkwood
  Curt Kirkwood
  Curtis Matthew Kirkwood is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, but currently resides in Austin, Texas....
  
  
• Martin Lyon
• Ian MacKaye
  Ian MacKaye
  Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, label owner, and producer. Active since 1979, MacKaye is best known for being the frontman of the influential hardcore punk bands Minor Threat and The Teen Idles, the post-hardcore bands Embrace and Fugazi, as well...
  
  
• David Markey
  Dave Markey
  Dave Markey is an American film director.As a self-taught filmmaker and musician, Markey directed, produced, edited, and photographed most of his films, the majority of which has been self-funded and distributed. His work documents the punk scene in Southern California throughout the 1980s and 1990s...
  
  
• Mike Martt
• J Mascis
  J Mascis
  J Mascis is an American musician, best known as the singer, guitarist and songwriter for Dinosaur Jr.. In 2011, he was ranked in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.- Biography :...
  
  
• Brother Matt
• Stephen McCllellan
• Vince Meghrouni
• Richard Meltzer
  Richard Meltzer
  Richard Meltzer was one of the earliest rock music critics. His first book, The Aesthetics of Rock, evolved out of his undergraduate studies in philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and graduate studies at Yale University...
  
  
• Mike Mills
  Mike Mills
  Michael Edward "Mike" Mills is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock group R.E.M.. Though known primarily as a bass guitarist, backing vocalist, and pianist, his musical repertoire includes also keyboards, guitar, and percussion instruments...
  
  
• Thurston Moore
  Thurston Moore
  Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
  
  
• W.T. Morgan
• Chris Morris
  Chris Morris
  Chris Morris may refer to:* Chris Morris , gay rights activist* Chris Morris , American football player for the Detroit Lions...
  
  
• Keith Morris
  Keith Morris
  Keith Morris is an American singer and songwriter known for his role as frontman of the hardcore punk bands Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, and Off! Born and raised in Hermosa Beach, California, he formed Black Flag at the age of 21 with guitarist Greg Ginn and performed on the band's 1978 debut EP...
  
  
• Brendan Mullen
  Brendan Mullen
  Brendan Mullen was born in Paisley, Scotland and moved to Manchester, England when he was 8. He spent his early teen years writing for various British music magazines. In 1973, Mullen moved to the United States where he remained for the remainder of his life. Mullen had just started working toward...
  
  
• Colin Newman
  Colin Newman
  Colin Newman is an English musician, record producer and record label owner.-Biography:Newman is a member of the rock band Wire. When the band temporarily split in 1980, Newman pursued a solo career. His first solo LP, A-Z, was released in 1980 on the Beggar's Banquet label...
  
  
• Greg Norton
  Greg Norton
  Greg Norton is an American musician, formerly of the band Hüsker Dü....
  
  
• Raymond Pettibon
  Raymond Pettibon
  Raymond Pettibon is an American artist who currently lives and works in Venice Beach, California.-Early life:...
  
  
• Tony Platon
• Lee Ranaldo
  Lee Ranaldo
  Lee M. Ranaldo is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth...
  
  
• David Rees
  David Rees (cartoonist)
  David Thomas Rees is a left-wing cartoonist and humorist whose best-known work combines bland clip art with outrageous "trash talk" to incongruous effect...
  
  
• Lisa Roeland
• Nanette Roeland
• Kira Roessler
  Kira Roessler
  Kira Roessler is an American bass guitarist, singer and Emmy award-winning dialogue editor. She is best known for her membership in the punk rock group Black Flag.-Biography:...
  
  
• Henry Rollins
  Henry Rollins
  Henry Rollins is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, comedian, publisher, actor, and radio DJ....
  
  
• Kurt Schellenbach
• Spot
  Spot (producer)
  SPOT, , was the house producer and engineer for the influential independent punk record label SST Records. He recorded, mixed, produced or co-produced for most of SST's pivotal acts between 1979 and 1985...
  
  
• John Talley-Jones
  Urinals (band)
  The Urinals are a punk rock band from Southern California. Known for their minimalist approach to songwriting and recording — their lyrics have been called "punk haiku" — the band influenced other punk rockers of the 1970s and 1980s including the Minutemen....
  
  
• Tom Watson
• Jean Watt

DVD

The 2-disc DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 (with 16-page booklet) was released on June 27, 2006 on Plexifilm

Plexifilm

Plexifilm is an independent DVD label and film production company co-founded by Gary Hustwit and Sean Anderson in 2001...

.

DISC 1:
Feature "We Jam Econo - The Story of the Minutemen"

• Original music videos for:
  • "This Ain't No Picnic
    This Ain't No Picnic
    "This Ain't No Picnic" is a song by punk/alternative band Minutemen. It appears on their 1984 double album Double Nickels on the Dime, and was composed by their lead singer and guitarist D. Boon.-Background:...
    
    " (directed by Randall Jahnson)
  • "Ack Ack Ack Ack" (directed by John Talley-Jones)
  • "King of the Hill" (directed by Randall Jahnson)
• 19 Deleted Scenes and Interviews
• Uncut Bard College
  Bard College
  Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
  
   Interview (56min)

DISC 2:
Three live performances:

• The Starwood
  Starwood Club
  The Starwood Night Club was a popular club in West Hollywood, California from early in 1972 to late 1981. Many punk bands and heavy metal bands started their careers playing at the Starwood....
  
  , Los Angeles, CA - November 18, 1980, songs include:

1. Swing To The Right
2. Fascist
3. Joe McCarthy's Ghost
4. Paranoid Chant
5. Tension
6. Contained
7. Fanatics
8. Art Analysis
9. Issued
10. Validation
11. Definitions
12. Warfare
13. Sickles & Hammers
14. Hollering
15. On Trial

• 9:30 Club
  9:30 Club
  Foo Fighters Promise to come back to D.C. and play the 9:30 ClubNightclub 9:30 is a nightclub and concert venue in Washington, D.C. Originally located at 930 F Street, NW, Washington, D.C., in the 1970s it was called the "Atlantis Club", and hosted primarily rock, New Wave, and punk bands...
  
  , Washington, D.C. - 1984, songs include:

1. Big Foist
2. Retreat
3. Toadies
4. Anxious Mo-fo
5. Love Dance
6. Static
7. Search
8. Cut
9. Plight
10. Working Men Are Pissed
11. Ack Ack Ack
12. Life As A Rehearsal
13. Beacon Sighted Through Fog
14. The Only Minority
15. Mutiny In Jonestown
    Jonestown
    Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones. It became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement as well as in a nearby...
    
    
16. Maybe Partying Will Help
17. Political Song For Michael Jackson
    Michael Jackson
    Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
    
     To Sing
18. The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts
19. Mr. Robot's Holy Orders
20. One Reporter's Opinion
21. God Bows To Math
22. Please Don't Be Gentle With Me
23. Joe McCarthy's Ghost
24. The Punch Line
25. Definitions
26. The Anchor
27. Bob Dylan
    Bob Dylan
    Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
    
     Wrote Propaganda Songs
28. This Ain't No Picnic
29. There Ain't Shit On TV Tonight
30. No Exchange
31. Self-Referenced
32. Dream Told By Moto
33. Corona
    Corona (song)
    "Corona" is a song by American punk/alternative trio Minutemen from the album Double Nickels on the Dime, which was composed by the band's lead singer and guitarist D. Boon....
    
    
34. I Felt Like A Gringo
    Gringo
    Gringo is a slang Spanish and Portuguese word used in Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America, to denote foreigners, often from the United States. The term can be applied to someone who is actually a foreigner, or it can denote a strong association or assimilation into...
    
    
35. Do You Want New Wave Or Do You Want The Truth?
36. Little Man With A Gun In His Hand

• Acoustic Blowout (Public-access television
  Public-access television
  Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
  
   Show) - Hollywood, CA - 1985, songs include:

1. Corona
2. Themselves
3. The Red And The Black
4. Badges
5. I Felt Like A Gringo
   Gringo
   Gringo is a slang Spanish and Portuguese word used in Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America, to denote foreigners, often from the United States. The term can be applied to someone who is actually a foreigner, or it can denote a strong association or assimilation into...
   
   
6. Time
7. Green River
   Green River (song)
   "Green River" is a song by American rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song was written by John Fogerty and was released as a single in July 1969, one month before the album of the same name was released .- Background :...
   
   
8. Lost
9. Ack Ack Ack
10. History Lesson Pt. II
11. Tour Spiel
12. Little Man With A Gun In His Hand

External links

• Official DVD site features video excerpts
• Preview Trailer from the Official Minutemen website
• Interview with the producer, Keith Schieron