Whalley Avenue, New Haven, Fall 1985

The Minutemen came to town and played in some already more or less defunct club out on Whalley. I was working at the radio station, so I must have gotten in for free. After the opening, I decided to sidle backstage.

There was Mike Watt, writing out a set list on his bass case. Some guy with a videocamera -- not small in those days -- got in his face.... "So. The Minutemen are touring for Project Mersh, as in commercialism. What does it mean?"

Watt, looking at camera: "What does it mean? Well, we look at money like this. It's like air, you need it to breath, but what are you gonna do, keep a bunch of oxygen tanks in your garage? So what's our plan? Are we going to accumulate a lot of these vouchers? No, we're going to return them to the market in exchange for goods and services."

Mike Watt, it turns out, is not a philosopher. But nor was he kidding. Them's good words.