Minutemen
Project: Mersh

The story tells us how the race ended; the van speeding at night down an Arizona road crashes. D. Boon dies instantly; at the peak of their career while the Minutemen were on tour with the then-emerging R.E.M. Mike and George can’t go on without the guitarist; it wouldn't make any sense to continue without his imposing and significant presence. It is December 1985.

This concludes a simply amazing musical story, which began in San Pedro, California, in January 1980. Creators of an atypical and highly personal Hardcore: incorporating jazz, blues, country, funk, no-wave, etc., etc., etc., along the way. Four long-play albums were released, with at least six additional EPs that gave free rein to their uncontainable genius, their colorful and unrepeatable musical universe.

"Project: Mersh" is the penultimate EP that the band releases before the tragic final act. It is released a few months after "Double Nickels On The Dime": their masterpiece, one of the most influential and "weird" albums of the entire 1980s. Forty-five tracks in seventy-five minutes: the glorification of the concept of fragmentation in Music typical of the Californian trio... But today I want to talk about "Project: Mersh" and the Minutemen's ironic attempt to broaden their audience base, to commercialize in other words.

And in fact, they are already ironic from the cover (with one of the characters announcing to the other two: "I got it! We'll have them write hit songs!") and in the title of the work itself, which in the band's jargon means "Project: Commercialize." It's as always the "SST" label (take a moment of religious silence with me, considering whom I'm about to mention...) that takes care of disseminating the work. And finally, here comes the Music, free from conventions, very "free" even if in a more thoughtful context, but no less dissonant than in the past.

The vigorous and geometric funk-blues of the opener "The Cheerleaders", with that horn section so sharp and spot-on; the cover of "Hey Lawdy Mama", originally by Steppenwolf, which alternates between frenzy and relaxed moments with a crazy instrumental ending that shows for the millionth time the technical skill of the trio.

It continues with the brief melodic-pop sketch, if I may offer such a deviation, of "Take Our Test", with that vocal refrain so simple but immediately sticks in your brain and stays there forever!! "Tour-Spiel" is the classic radio-friendly track that they've been looking for: its rock fluidity, its precise and effective guitar phrasing takes us toward Athens, toward Stipe and company. Prehistoric indie rock, a source of inspiration for hundreds of other bands that would form after them.

We are already at the end with the long "More Spiel", a dense and bizarre instrumental-mantric piece: deviant and advanced psychedelia worthy of top marks.

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