Though the revolutionary political implications of their name were no accident, Minutemen were named for good reason: for most of their too-short career, the San Pedro, California trio's songs lasted 60 seconds or less. Spurred by political outrage, an austere personal philosophy summed up as "we jam econo" and music that compacted free jazz, classic rock and hardcore punk, D. Boon, Mike Watt and George Hurley were like no one else. By 1985's Project: Mersh, they were expanding their sound, but in December of that year D. Boon was killed in a car accident, ending the band.