Kate and Anna McGarrigle's Tell My Sister remaster (first two albums plus odds and sods) and Minutemens fourth album, the wittily titled double Double Nickels On the Dime, have joined forces to finally put Tyler, the Creators newbie on the back burner.
What happened was the release of the master and the This Concert will Change Your Life and I took a coupla steps back.
Here is what they have in common.
1. The letter M
2. Death.
3. Timing. The McGarrigle's were first released 1976 and 1977, Minutemen in 1980. In 1983 they were simultaneously at in. In 1985, the minutemen.
4. Both bohemians, the McGarrigles on the hippie side, the Minutemen were more Beatnik -though they might not have realized it.
5. Jazz. The McGarrigles were to folk what Joni Mitchell was to jazz and the Minutemen even covered Steely Dan's "Dr. Wu".
They are both terrific albums, they both more then stand up. Minutemen I knew at the time but I completely missed out on the McGarrigles (because I was sinking in a sea of punk and new wave, no doubt). Listening to it today, I know I would have loved it. It is the Canadian (like Joni again) that gives them a lack of sentimentality and cuts to the heart of the matter, while Minutemen are the antecedents to a certain strata of alt rock. Here at least, they have the noisiness of punk and the angularity of jazz and a sincerity that overwhelms the concepts. They mean it, man.
Double feels all of a piece, though it covers just about everything from blues to metal.
Another thing about the two.
6. They are not particularly melodic. Minutemen can get messy and experimental, the McGarrigles can get bemused and depressed.
And like I said, I have em both on heavy rotation.