Sidemousing the bongo

You don’t hear much about the Minutemen anymore. Too bad; in the early 1980s, when such West Coast indie-rock bands as Black Flag and Circle Jerks regularly tore up stages between Vancouver and San Diego, the three-piece Minutemen—from San Pedro near Long Beach—ruled the roost by combining punk intensity with an almost fluid jazz sensibility. Frontman D. Boon died in a van rollover in December 1985, and bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley added Ed Crawford and soldiered on through 1993 as Firehose. Then, Watt went “solo”—if you want to call the three albums (1994’s Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, 1997’s Contemplating the Engine Room and the just-released The Secondman’s Middle Stand) solo discs; free-flowing collaborative projects is more like it. Watt’s current group, the Secondmen, comes to town, specifically to the Blue Lamp at 1400 Alhambra Boulevard, at 9:30 p.m. this Saturday, September 18. The 21-and-over show is $10 in advance and $12 at the door.