The Reactionaries – 1979

For any die hard fan of the Minutemen these Reactionaries recordings would no doubt be seen as absolutely essential listening. With that being said I am just about as casual of a Minutemen listener as anyone could be. However it is clear from these original practice recordings that Mike Watt, D. Boon, and George Hurley had already been tinkering with aspects of a sound that would later develop into their signature sound long before the Minutemen actually came to be. These are super raw, super lo fi recordings that sound exactly how one would picture a band featuring these guys in the late 1970′s would sound. The Clash worship is apparent and the foundation is set here. Snide political statements in songs like "The Big Lie" and "God and Country" apparently carried over to the Minutemen from their Reactionaries days. The only thing that really threw me for a loop in all of these tunes was the straight up Blue Oyster Cult lifting in "Tony Gets Wasted In Pedro."

The Lo-Fi recordings are balanced out on the second half of the C.D. where members of various iconic South Bay bands do their own reworkings of the Reactionaries catalog. These new recordings are sharp and well played out with everyone who contributed adding their own flavor. As stated before this disc will definitely have some people foaming at the mouth.

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-Ditch-
Managing Editor
 

 

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