[1] When the band was formed by D. Boon and Mike Watt after their first serious attempt at a band, The Reactionaries, fell apart, they had originally wanted their friend and fellow ex-Reactionaries drummer George Hurley to hold the drum seat, but he had joined a new wave band named Hey Taxi!
Tonche, a welder by day (and according to some reports, had been in a polka band named The Polish Eagle Polka Band at one point), was recruited instead.
[2] Tonche's tenure lasted about six months, long enough to help arrange some early Minutemen songs and play a few early performances, but Tonche quickly tired of the aggressiveness of punk audiences and quit in June 1980.
In 1987, Forced Exposure released a 7-inch EP featuring rehearsal recordings of the Minutemen with Tonche on drums.
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