Minutemen
Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat

Listen to the music of the Minutemen: it's good for you. And listen to this "Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat", a EP recorded among the palm trees of Redondo Beach for a total of fifty dollars, to understand why.

Eight tracks where you can feel the fragrance of that unparalleled harmony that reigned in the SST household. Take three individuals like D.Boon, Mike Watt, and George Hurley who, more than composing songs, let themselves be swept away by their creativity, add a rehearsal room with open doors, where their beloved label mates brought their contributions of ideas and even more beer and you have "Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat", whose cover was designed by Joe Baiza, guitarist of Saccharine Trust, the first among many playmates of the Minutemen in this (non)album.

"Self-Referenced", with its wonderfully limping rhythm and the unmistakable dog-like voice of D.Boon that yells "I'm full of shit", will make you understand that each of the one hundred sixty (non)songs of the Minutemen has its reason. "Cut", written by Watt in homage to Greg Ginn and his supersonic way of playing, will instead make you understand that these three guys from San Pedro, when they played, became a single entity and production and execution thus overlapped ("jam econo!" was their motto). Pull out your most flamboyant Hawaiian shirt for two pieces like "Dream Told By Moto" and "I Felt Like A Gringo", narrating a trip to Mexico by our guys, show all your virility and start swaying in a vintage Cadillac: a morbid gaiety will pervade you and it will be the feast of the grotesque. This lazy atmosphere of madness will exponentially increase when into the shabby rehearsal room once came a madman like Crane, a longtime friend of D.Boon, who will mistreat his trumpet first in "The Product" and then in "Dreams Are Free, Motherfucker" (one of the best titles in history, chosen by Henry Rollins himself) and, once bored, he will hand it over to George Hurley, who in turn will lend his worn-out drumsticks to Dirk Vandenburg, photographer of "Double Nickels on the Dime", and will further vent his foolishness by improvising at the microphone in "The Toe Jam". The overwhelming "Little Man With a Gun in His Hand", written by D.Boon and Chuck Dukowski, closes the album, talking about a famous Black Flag roadie, Steve "Mugger" Corbin, and his bizarre existentialist ideas.

Listen to these eight quickies in the toilet, when you go buy bread or while washing the car. The smile will return to your asshole faces.

My last lines go to the dear departed D.Boon who, on the back of this "Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat", engraved his most famous aphorism: "Punk is whatever we make it to be". Let's remember him with a smile, then, because at the sight of a tear he would have burped in our faces and let's continue to dream because - remember well - dreams are free, motherfucker!