In the early 1980s, there was no American band that could touch The Minutemen. Like fellow Californians The Circle Jerks, the trio said what it had to say with lightning-fast speed, if not usually with musical precision. But unlike most other bands, The Minutemen actually had something to say.

Commenting on politics, society and most everything else, guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt (later of firehose) and George Hurley (with THAT hair) were ramshackle, loud-mouthed and beloved by American punks.

"We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen" is a two-DVD set with a feature-length documentary about the short-lived band that died with the 1985 death of Boon in an auto accident in Arizona. Disc two is a marathon of live footage of more than 60 songs from three gigs.

There are also interviews, deleted scenes from the documentary and original music videos for three songs (it was the '80s after all).

The result is a comprehensive retrospective of one of the most important bands in American indie rock history. Even 20 years later it's hard not to love the sheer determination and the passion and the compulsion to question everything.

If you can't find it at Atomic and such places, the Flexifilm Web site is plexifilm.com and The Minutemen Web site is theminutemen.com.