Watt was walking through a park in their hometown of San Pedro, California, when Boon, playing a game of "army" with other boys, fell out of a tree right next to him and found that his friends, one named Eskimo, must have ditched him.

[5] Following Starstruck's disbandment, Boon and Watt met drummer George Hurley and formed The Reactionaries with vocalist Martin Tamburovich.

After a month with no drummer, during which Boon and Watt wrote their first songs, the band rehearsed and played a couple of early gigs with local welder Frank Tonche on drums.

Tonche quit the group, citing a dislike of the audience the band initially drew, and Hurley took over as drummer in June 1980.

[6] Greg Ginn of Black Flag and SST Records produced Minutemen's first 7" EP, Paranoid Time (1980), which solidified their eclectic style.

[citation needed] On Double Nickels, they co-wrote some songs with other musicians, notably Henry Rollins, Chuck Dukowski, and Joe Baiza.

This project, eventually titled Spielgusher, was completed (by Watt, Meltzer, Yuko Araki, and Hirotaka Shimizu) and released in January 2012 on clenchedwrench.

[citation needed] Watt has created four acclaimed solo albums, recorded four with now-former-wife Kira Roessler as the duo dos, recorded three others as part of the punk jazz jam band Banyan with Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction), Nels Cline (Wilco), and Money Mark Nishita (Beastie Boys), contributed on "Providence" off Sonic Youth's album Daydream Nation and "In the Kingdom No.

George Hurley has produced work with Vida, Mayo Thompson, and Red Crayola, further indulging the free-form and off-the-wall leanings showcased on Double Nickels.

Hurley and Watt have also continued to make music together both live and in the studio since Firehose's splitting in 1994, starting with a track, along with Petra Haden and Stephen Perkins, for the NORML benefit album Hempilation II in 1998.

[13] On rare occasions since 2001, and usually in the Los Angeles area (two December 2004 performances in England being a notable exception), George Hurley and Mike Watt, who have remained friends since Firehose's disbanding in 1994, reunite to play a set list of all Minutemen songs as a duet.

"[citation needed] They were chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform one of these shows at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.

That included playing jazz, soft rock, funk, bossa nova, R&B, blues, and especially bare-bones experimental music that couldn’t fit into any specific genre tag.

They also played cover versions of classic rock songs by bands such as Creedence Clearwater Revival,[20] Steely Dan,[21] and Blue Öyster Cult.

Lyrics and themes would thus often veer from surreal humor, as in "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs" and "One Reporter's Opinion", to the frustrations of blue collar life in California, as in the enduring "This Ain't No Picnic".

One example of this can be found in the title of their album Double Nickels on the Dime, which poked fun at Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55" by implying that the Minutemen preferred to take risks with their music rather than behind the wheel of a car.

[23] Minutemen were influenced heavily by bands such as Wire,[24] Gang Of Four, The Pop Group,[24] Richard Hell & The Voidoids, and The Urinals.

They were also fans of Captain Beefheart,[25] and echoes of his distinctive, disjointed, avant-blues music can be heard in their songs, especially their early output.

He played very few chords, sticking to scratchy, aggressive picking and a constant weirdo barrage of notes, and essentially skipped distortion entirely.

There is a rigid, implosive order, as though the Minutemen are trying to develop a microchip music in which each song is freighted with more and more information in an ever diminishing space.

LP and the inner gatefold jacket for Double Nickels on the Dime, feature drawings by noted artist Raymond Pettibon, who was at the time associated with the SST label.

[28] Joe Strummer of The Clash listed Minutemen as one of the ultimate punk bands along with Ramones, Television Personalities, and Buzzcocks.

[30][31] In 2000, Watt (as administrator of the band's publishing) allowed the automaker Volvo to use the Boon instrumental "Love Dance" in a car ad.

[32] Watt and Hurley have done occasional gigs since 2001 (mainly in the L.A. area except for two December 2004 shows in England) playing Minutemen songs as a duo with no guitarist.

"[33] The documentary film We Jam Econo charts the band's history through interviews with Watt, Hurley, Henry Rollins, Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers, and other California punk rock contemporaries.

[citation needed] The Unknown Instructors track "Punk Is Whatever We Make It To Be" from their first album The Way Things Work contains interpolations by vocalist Dan McGuire of several lyrics from Double Nickels on the Dime.

[citation needed] In 2015, the band EL VY, an American indie rock collaboration between Matt Berninger (lead vocalist of the National) and Brent Knopf (founding member of Ramona Falls and Menomena), inspired by both Grease and We Jam Econo, imagined "as a sort of punk rock musical following the adventures of Didi and Michael—named after the Minutemen's D. Boon and Mike Watt.