HARDWAY by HECTOR ACOSTA + DOUBLE NICKELS ON THE DIME by MINUTEMEN

 

BY TIM P. WALKER

Hector Acosta’s Hardway (Shotgun Honey, 2017) is a novella that’s been making waves in the indie crime fiction community for a few years now, and it’s easy to see why. I mean, just look at it:

 

We all know how the maxim goes, but I want to go on record as saying that while I may not necessarily judge a book by its cover, I will absolutely judge what I want to read by its cover. Let’s face it—if there’s a cover that features Fabio or some other Greek sculpture of a guy dressed in a half-ripped puffy shirt with a head full of long, flowing locks, then chances are I don’t want to read that fucking thing. That said, even books I’m otherwise inclined to read tend to be saddled with dull, monotonous designs. Half the covers on the bestseller lists on any given week are indistinguishable from one another, so unless emerging and indie authors have rave reviews or word of mouth working for them, they don’t really have the luxury of releasing books with generic-looking covers. It takes an eye-catching visual to lure folks in, so hats off to Bad Fido for this alluring design. With its blue and green-hued luchador-inspired graphic, it certainly drew me in.

 

Of course, a quality cover can only get you so far; it takes good storytelling to the keep people in the arena, and Hardway tells a charming tale of a teenager named Spencer, who, along with Billy, his older brother, runs a backyard wrestling league. (Okay—common area wrestling league. The characters all live in apartments.). Spencer also nurses a massive crush on Tori, his brother’s girlfriend, and develops a rivalry with a total bastard named Eddie, who, with his own common area wrestling league, has not only a real wrestling ring and a custom-made championship belt, but also a cache of nude photos of Tori that he’s threatening to exhibit at an upcoming match. Tensions boil to a head when Tori ropes Spencer into a scheme to steal back those photos, and what they come away with is more than what they bargained for.

 

Plenty of page space is devoted to the actual art of scripted wrestling entertainment, and with the references to Social Distortion and the fashion choices of some of the characters (Eddie rocks a Mohawk), one can draw parallels between the wrestling scenes depicted here and the scenes associated with punk rock, particularly the hardcore scene in the 1980’s that gave rise to groups like Minutemen and Black Flag, especially in the get-in-the-van D.I.Y. aesthetics and sense of community shared by both. And there is no album that exemplifies that spirit more than Minutemen’s sprawling double LP opus Double Nickels on the Dime (SST, 1984).

 

Much like storytelling in Hardway, Double Nickels is consistently playful with a sense of danger, with tracks like “There Ain’t Shit on T.V. Tonight” and “History Lesson-Part II” defining for themselves what punk rock is and what it should sound like. There’s a few chairs to the head as well, such as the avant-garde jam “You Need the Glory” and a cover of Steely Dan’s “Dr. Wu.” And like the wrestlers in Spencer’s league, there’s a sense of community in this album—the band solicited contributions from fellow San Pedro, California scenesters, sometimes in the form of lyrics, other times in the form of guest musician spots.

 

The album is slightly truncated on CD (which is the edition I have, and which is also the version currently available to stream). That’s a shame because cut tracks like “Little Man with a Gun in His Hand” and the 40-second stripped-to-the-frame cover of Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” definitely pair well with certain scenes from Hardway, particularly in the closing chapters. An alternate version of “Little Man” appears on the EP Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat (SST, 1983). If you’re a page-a-minute type of reader (I’m not), then you can probably get through much of Hardway in a single run through Double Nickels and squeeze in Buzz or Howl as a supplemental pairing. If you need it (and really, you do need it), you can find “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0C0Yke9tww.

 

It’s worth pointing out that “Corona”, a song that appears on this album, served as the title theme for the show Jackass, and that only means that Double Nickels is no stranger to serving as the soundtrack to dudes risking serious bodily injury in the name of entertainment.

 

One last thing: Minutemen bassist Mike Watt’s solo debut, Ball-Hog or Tugboat? (Columbia, 1995) works as a spiritual sequel to Double Nickels, even going so far as to reprise a few tracks. With a bigger budget, its sense of community is a bit glitzier, sporting a Lollapalooza of a guest list. That guest list is visible on the cover, which—how about that—also features a wrestling motif to go along with the Raymond Pettibon sketch which graces the official cover. If Acosta ever writes a sequel to Hardway which finds Spencer in the big leagues, you’ll know what that will pair well with.

 

Hardway can be found here: https://www.shotgunhoney.com/books/hardway-by-hector-acosta/

 

Personal to Mike Watt and SST Records: Double Nickels on the Dime is in dire need of a reissue.