The Politics of Time is the seventh overall release, third album-length release, and first compilation by American hardcore punk band the Minutemen. Released in between their Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat 12-inch EP and Double Nickels on the Dime double album on their own New Alliance Records label, the album compiles seven tracks meant for a non-SST Minutemen studio album that never materialized, a variety of live tracks of varying recording quality (most done with ordinary cassette machines), and a recording by the Minutemen’s predecessor band The Reactionaries. Part of the sleeve note on the back cover facetiously asks listeners to “note the quality of the recording” on the live version of “Fanatics” (from The Punch Line). While the recording is an almost undiscernible mess, the cut is apparently included for its historical importance as according to Henry Rollins in his book Get In The Van, on this night at the end of the song, D. Boon had jumped into the audience with his guitar on, hollering the title word of the song while “knock[ing] those skinheads [in the audience] over like bowling pins”. Also of note is a live recording of “Futurism Restated”, which had earlier appeared on the 7-inch EP Bean-Spill. The version that appears on this album contains a full extra verse of lyrics not found in the other version (although the lyrics are almost completely undiscernable and the album lacks a lyric sheet.) The Politics of Time would later end up as a song title on Double Nickels on the Dime. SST Records, after buying New Alliance from Mike Watt and Martin Tamburovich in 1987, reissued The Politics of Time on SST in 1987 on vinyl and cassette, as part of the Post-Mersh Vol. 3 CD in 1989, and as its own CD in 1991.
01. BASE KING 02. WORKING MEN ARE PISSED 03. I SHOOK HANDS 04. BELOW THE BELT 05. SH*T YOU HEAR AT PARTIES 06. THE BIG LOUNGE SCENE 07. MATERIAL RITE 08. TUNE FOR WIND GOD 09. PARTY WITH ME PUNKER 10. THE PROCESS 11. JOY JAM 12. TONY GETS WASTED IN PEDRO 13. SWING TO THE RIGHT 14. RAZA SI 15. TIMES 16. BADGES 17. FODDER 18. FUTURISM RESTATED 19. HOLLERING 20. SUBURBAN DIALECTIC 21. CONTAINED 22. ON TRAIL 23. SPRAYCAN WARS 24. MY PART 25. FANATICS 26. ACK ACK ACK ACK 27. THE BIG BLAST FOR YOUTH
