MOG

I suppose there are a lot of bands that I could say "changed my life" in my formative years...Devo, Sex Pistols, REM, The Clash, Gang Of Four, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, X, The Replacements, The Smiths, Dream Syndicate, Husker Du, etc, etc...but there's probably no band that holds a higher place in my personal pantheon than The Minutemen...the first time I heard them, it was like a revelation...pure and true...fast and furious..and it stuck...boy did it ever...they were punk rock without the "fashion"...without the clique...just a group of guys making music...fucking with the system...fucking with the idea of what a band looked, sounded and acted like..."these guys were like Dylan to me"...indeed...and live? are you kidding me?...they were amazing...and an incredibly nice bunch of guys to boot...

If you have not seen We Jam Econo, the documentary from which the above clip was taken, I could not recommend it enough.
And of course, Micheal Azerad's book, Our Band Could be Your Life, is a must read. I bought it for the chapter on The Minutemen alone...it was the most in depth account of the band and their history I had ever seen in print...and it was well worth it...the rest of the book is amazing as well...but hopefully you already knew that...

-m