la dimension de trastos: mike watt

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Monday, April 12, 2021

PARTY WITH ME PUNKER

Henry Kaiser has be floating just outside my listening sphere for years. I don't think I have anything by him but I know the name. I've seen it a thousand times. I know he plays guitar and is affiliated with free jazz, experimental and arty music. You know, the brainy genres. Now comes an outfit called "A Love Supreme Electric", with Kaiser and four others, one of them Mike Watt.

How Watt got together with Kaiser is anybody's guess, but then again, is there anybody he isn't connected to? As the bass player with the Minutemen he was around the whole SST crowd (Black Flag, etc) but the amount of clout he had became apparent when he released his 1995 solo LP, Ball-Hog Or Tugboat? I doubt any bass players have had as many familiar names as guests on a single LP. On that record: Frank Black (Pixies), Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill) Adam Horowitz (Beastie Boys), Dave Grohl and Kris Novolesic (Nirvana), J. Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) Cris and Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets), Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo (Sonic Youth), Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum), Evan Dando (Lemonheads), Pat Smear (Germs), Henry Rollins, Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers)., Paul Rosseler (Screamers) and a shitload of other namess that that I don't recognize. That was in 1995. I think I've been over all that before. I mention it now just to illustrate what a big net the guy has. Oh, and he went on to play in the reformed Stooges.

So, Kaiser and Watt get together with three other dudes (Vinny Golia, John Hanrahan, and Wayne Peet) and cover Coltrane. It works. Here's a couple videos of what appears to be different line ups of Kaiser's outfit. It's cool, if you're not such a tight ass to think of it as blasphemy. There's also a link to the Bandcamp page for the project (more samples) and just for good measure, a couple Coltrane originals.

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Listen:
John Coltrane - Acknowledgement mp3 at Get The Curse
John Coltrane - Resolution mp3 at Drummer World
A Love Supreme Electric: A Love Supreme and Meditations at Bandcamp Samples and downloads/CDs for purchase.
Video:
Henry Kaiser : Weekly Solo #22 : A Love Supreme Electric at YouTube
Henry Kaiser : Weekly Solo #31 : John Coltrane's 'Meditations' at YouTube

Thursday, June 23, 2016

WATT'S ROLL CALL

Among dozens of reasons to like Mike Watt, and one of the reasons he gets respect in this house, is because he recognizes greatness amongst his peers, punk related or not. To wit, on his 1994 LP Ball-Hog or Tugboat he covers Cowboy Nation's "Big Train". Now, you're scratching your head, who the hell is Cowboy Nation? They were an old school type cowboy country band that included Chip and Tony Kinman, brothers that began their careers as the Dils, one of the most potent California punk bands in the first wave of the late seventies. Come to think of it, "Big Train" may date back to the Dils. Whatever. Memories fade. Look it up if you're so inclined. After the Dils, the Kinman brothers were in Rank and File, Blackbird and then Cowboy Nation. They're deserved of a long-ass post all their own, but that'll have to come after I finish moving. In the meantime, I direct you to Watt's version of "Big Train", which features members of Nirvana, Wilco, Pearl Jam, Dinosaur Jr., and two Meat Puppets. Yeah. On a song written by two thirds of the Dils. F-huck yeah.

The Dils, ca 1979

In case you're dying to know, the personnel on the song is Watt (bass, vocals), Dave Grohl (drums), Nels Cline (slide guitar), Eddie Vedder (vocals, guitar), J. Mascis (guitar), Chris Kirkwood (banjo) and Curt Kirkwood (guitar). And that's just one song. The album also features members or former members of Bikini Kill, Soul Asylum, the Germs, Black Flag, Sonic Youth, the Pixies, the Screamers, the Lemonheads, the Screaming Trees, That Dog, the Beastie Boys, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Dude gets respect in a lot of houses. And the Kinmans get respect in his house.

Here's Watt's studio version, Cowboy Nation's version, and above, a video of a live TV appearance with a stripped down four piece band (with Grohl, Vedder, and Pat Smear of the Germs/Nirvana/Foo Fighters). A super special bonus in a recent video of Chip Kinman's latest project Ford Maddox Ford doing the song, with Tony Kinman sitting in on vocals, and another video of the Dils from 1979 doing Class War (thirty seven years goes by quick!). Because I couldn't find mp3s of any version of "Big Train", a consolation prize: the first two Dils 45s from way back in the day. Much more on the Kinmans, past and present, later. Now, back to packing.

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Listen:

Mike Watt - Big Train (streaming) at YouTube
Cowboy Nation - Big Train (streaming) at YouTube
The Dils - I Hate the Rich, and You're Not Blank at Killed By Death Go there to get them
The Dils - Class War, and Mr. Big at Killed By Death Ditto
Video:
Ford Maddox Ford with Tony Kinman - Big Train (live) at YouTube 2016, Shitty quality sound, but, man, is it good to see these two guys on the same stage again.
The Dils - Class War (live) at YouTube 1979

Saturday, September 27, 2014

WATT'S HIS NAME

Oh no, I'm not stepping a foot towards this black hole. Too deep, not tonight. The black hole in question is Mike Watt, or rather his output over the years. There's just too much to do a comprehensive overview. I'm not a full on fiend of Watt, which isn't to say I don't dig his work. It's just that my high regard for him is tainted by a long list of non-musical reasons, all based on general impressions. First and foremost, he seems like a regular guy. If he didn't, the whole thing would go bust. He's also hardworking, always playing with this person or that, and, from what I've seen in interviews, he's a good conversationalist, coming off as genuine, humble, and excitable, the type of guy you could imagine having a beer with.

The thing I like most about Mike Watt is that you just know that, at every milestone in his post-Minuteman career, he's paused to think about the late D,Boon, his childhood friend and band mate in the Minutemen. At least that's the type of guy he seems to be. The two met as kids, they were thirteen, when D, Boon fell out of a tree, right when Watt happened to be walking by. I forget all the details, but that's how they met. They discovered punk rock together, started a band together, the Reactionaries, and then the Minutemen, Then, in 1985, Boon was killed in a traffic accident. These guys were tight, like brothers. It had to hurt. Yet, Watt continued, and still does, to grind away.

Watt started another band, firehouse, and after that did some solo stuff and a lot of collaborating (a big part of any black hole), There was the band with Thurston Moore and Ron Asheton, another with Nels Cline and two drummers. There was the Ball-Hog or Tugboat LP with one hell of a cast, members of Black Flag, the Germs, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Parliament, the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., the Screamers, and that's only about half of them (check the entry at Wikipedia). The collaboration that got me thinking about Watt a couple of days ago was a TV appearance from the Jon Stewart show, in 1995. The song was "Big Train", written by Chip and Tony Kinman, two ex-Dils, Assembled to play the song, Eddie Vedder on rhythm guitar, ex-Germ Pat Smear on lead guitar (slide of all things), and ex-Nirvana Dave Grohl on drums, Of course all these guys were in other subsequent bands, I'm just mentioning the early ones for some historical context. I think the song is from the Kinman's Blackbird period, several years after the Dils. (Those Kinmans are another black hole.) I almost forgot to mention that Watt was a latter day member of the Stooges, and might still be off and on. I don't know, I don't keep track of these things.

Here's a mess of stuff, beginning with the Reactionaries, Watt and Boon's pre-Minutemen band. There's a few Minutemen cuts, and some solo stuff. The live cuts aren't the best quality, but included because of the telling choices in covers. If you want to know the story of the Minutemen, there's a link to the documentary We Jam Econo. There's another documentary about Watt, Eyegifts From Minnesota, And to get an idea of what winds his watch, and hear him shooting the shit with on air guests. check out his radio show.

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Listen:
The Reactionaries - Cheap False Teeth mp3 at Corn Dogs
The Reactionaries - Brigate Rose mp3 at Corn Dogs
The Reactionaries - Video Madonna mp3 at Corn Dogs
The Reactionaries - Innuendo mp3 at Corn Dogs
The Reactionaries - Four more mp3s at Corn Dogs

Minutemen - Fortunate Son mp3 at Corn Dogs Creedence cover

Minutemen - Corona mp3 at Internet Archive

Minutemen - Party With Me Punker mp3 at We Got Power

Mike Watt and the Pair of Pliers mp3 at Corn Dogs Blackbird cover
Mike Watt - Liars Beware (live) mp3 at Corn Dogs Richard Hell cover

Mike Watt - She Don't Know Why I'm Here (live) mp3 at Corn Dogs The Last cover

The Crew of the Flying Saucer - The Little Drummer Boys (streaming) at Groove Shark With Nels Cline and two drummers

Video:

We Jam Econo - Minutemen documentary at YouTube

Eyegifts From Minnesota - Mike Watt documentary at YouTube

Mike Watt - Big Train at YouTube From the Jon Stewart Show 1995, with Pat Smear, Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder

Visit:
CornDogs.org - Mike Watt fan site with tons of stuff
Mike Watt's Hoot Page
Mike Watts Tour Diary - From the 2011 Stooges European tour (with James Williamson)
The Watt from Pedro Show - Mike Watt's online radio show. A regular salad bowl.

The Watt from Pedro Show - Past shows

I Stand for Language, I Speak for Truth, I Shout for History at The Adios Lounge Excellent post about the Minutemen

Monday, February 7, 2011

PRIDE OF PEDRO

If you were buying records in the 80s, and still had one toe in punk rock, it's almost guaranteed that you had a copy of the Minutemen's "Double Nickles On The Dime." The 1984 double LP was stylistically all over the place, and hardly punk sounding, but that was part of why it is a landmark album; because "Double Nickles" was where American punk rock really became more than just music, clothes and flicking cigarette butts. Everything about it, and the Minutemen, was about doing whatever you wanted, however you wanted, without fanfare. They were everyman, they were punk rock, and they were grunge before it became a genre. They had day jobs and were proud of their San Pedro roots, and their lack of "cool" is precisely what was cool about them. The Minutemen liberated punk rockers, freeing them from the pigeonholes they themselves had dug. They were a great fucking band.

Trailer for We Jam Econo, the Minutemen documentary

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Music: