Rounding out our salute to Minutemen this week, it’s probably fair to say that being “weird” was an essential part of their musical DNA. This is, after all, a band that incorporated everything from country, polka, jazz, and other eclectic influences into their distinctively quirky brand of So-Cal flavored punk. So of course, it was only natural that the few music videos they made reflected that inherent weirdness, not to mention their low-fi/economical ethos.
A case in point is their somewhat goofy video for “King of the Hill”, which, despite its low-budget quirkiness, features Boon’s characteristically thoughtful and topical lyrics that are just as relevant today as they were way back in 1985. His tragic death from a car accident later that year remains one of the most bitter losses in the history of punk rock, as he and the band were only just getting started. We can only speculate on what might have been, but at least he and the band left us with some truly timeless, classic, and distinctive music. R.I.P. D. Boon:
