Milestones: Minutemen, Black Flag recorded ‘Minuteflag’ EP 25 years ago this week

Milestones is a periodic feature marking important album releases, concerts and musical figures in the history of ’80s college rock.

RELEASE: Minuteflag EP

PERSONNEL: Black Flag (Greg Ginn, vocals and guitar; Kira Roessler, bass; Henry Rollins, backing vocals; Bill Stevenson, drums) and Minutemen (D. Boon, vocals and guitar; George Hurley, bongos and bean can; Mike Watt, bass)

RELEASE DATE: Sometime in 1986; recorded on March 3, 1985

BACKSTORY: One of the more curious footnotes of the ’80s indie underground, Minuteflag was a one-off, four-song EP recorded in one day by the members of the Minutemen and Black Flag while the latter band was working on Loose Nut at Total Access Recording in Redondo Beach, Calif. It’s a loose, jammy affair, with only one song with vocals — the calypso-like, D. Boon-sung “Fetch the Water” — plus three free-form instrumentals (hear all four tracks below). The two bands purportedly agreed they’d only release the tracks once one of the groups broke up; tragically, Boon was killed in a van accident that December, ending the Minutemen. SST Records released Minuteflag the following year.

REISSUED? No. In fact, Minuteflag still has never been officially released on CD. It was only pressed on 12-inch vinyl and as a cassette single. There’s a MySpace page dedicated to finally getting the EP reissued, but so far, no luck.

Hear the full ‘Minuteflag’ EP after the jump…

Tracklist: Minuteflag, Minuteflag EP

1. “Fetch the Water”
2. “Power Failure”
3. “Friends”
4. “Candy Rush”

Audio: Minuteflag, ‘Fetch the Water’

Audio: Minuteflag, ‘Power Failure’

Audio: Minuteflag, ‘Friends’

Audio: Minuteflag, ‘Candy Rush’

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