July
The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
Most people today will not appreciate how incredibly hard and time-consuming the making of the cover for this album was. Look it up.
D. Boone, Mike Watt, and George Hurley made some of the most unique and defiant music associated with the punk rock movement of the '80s but this double LP is the crowning crown of all their crowns. The jackasses over at Jackass know a thing or two and have kept this flame fanned, even if peripherally. Go buy this. Now.
August
Menudo - Evolución
Menudo had already been setting quite the trail of panties on fire for some time before this album came out. Little did anyone know that back then, in 1984, the cult of Ricky Martin would begin with the one song he'd led here "Rayo de Luna." People under 30 don't know about Menudo, but they know who Ricky Martin is. It's time to jump into a DMC-12 and rectify that.
September
Black Flag - Family Man
There was something revolutionary and extremely punk rock about this album, Black Flag's third full-length. This is what the jocks of the time needed, this is what close-minded punkers required.
Sure, we can see now, through the Technicolor of hindsight that Rollins would be going one way and Ginn another. One thing no one knew with much certainty then is that some severe animosity would split this group into some bizarre camps of royalties and artistic rights. Oh well.
