I never miss a chance to write something about The Minutemen, the greatest punk band ever to crawl out of Los Angeles. Maybe it’s the fact that D. Boon died way too soon, or that Mike Watt works way too hard. But since today is Labor Day, what better band is there to write about? And what better song is there than “This Ain’t No Picnic” when it comes to all things labor? That’s right, there isn’t one. I spieled onward about it for Wired today.

“This Ain’t No Picnic:” Best Labor Tune Ever?

It certainly has all the ingredients. Three blue-collar heroes descended from naval families who became punk icons. A power trio that used the art of noise to rail against the economic policies of Reaganism, whose figurehead was derided in Detroit as the “beast” or “Ronald Wilson Reagan 666.” A hilarious mashup video featuring its unkempt San Pedro protagonists ducking gunfire from an airborne Reagan, spliced, like the president’s memory itself, from one of his old war films.

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