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december 13, 2024
out today is the fourth afternoon freak album "turn on jupiter" and for this bambino, it was drummerman danny frankel who went first w/keyboardman matt mottel and myself on bass bringing responses to his most righteous and inventive temas, expressive percussion discussions and heartfelt inviting rythmic embraces - much respect to him!
december 7, 2024
out now on four finger records is a split seven inch vinyl that's got "block out the sun" from thousand dollar movie on one side and "even so" from mssv on the other. big respect to brother jeremy radio for getting this lit!
november 10, 2024
the debut dtr + mike watt + zak pischnotte release "bad news b/w more bad news" is out now... derek gedalecia, tori kudo and rich housh along w/watt on bass + zak pischnotte on reeds + flute
october 25, 2024
out now from org music is the carducci bros debut album (bandcamp page here)! from the org music website: "Carducci Bros is the collaborative release from brothers Mark and Joe Carducci, Mike Watt and Jerry Trebotic. The project was spurred into action when Watt heard a decades-old record from Mark’s high school rock band Midknight. The songs are accented with spoken word lyrics from Joe, with some penned by SST Records’ house producer/engineer Spot, who passed during the record’s creation."
september 6, 2024
out today is the corsano baiza watt trio debut album on yucca alta records - we're touring this baby from october 17 to november 2!
september 2, 2024
 
out last week from the almighty opp is "untitled one" which is the first ten of nineteen songs larry mullins and myself did w/the almighty at most historic united recording in 2022 w/most happening engineer/producerman johnny morgan ...out today is "untitled two" which contains the other nine
august 11, 2024
coming this september 6 is the debut corsano baiza watt trio album on yucca alta records and to go along w/it, a tour for the band from october 17 - november 2! detials to emerge real soon now...
june 23, 2024
out now on public eyesore records is the third bong watt collab "if it works, it's obsolete" involving al margolis, walter wright and mike watt - bandcamp page here
may 15, 2024
the il sogno del marinaio "terzo tour 2024" is underway... catch us LIVE doing it to you in the ear-hole!
april 29, 2024
out now from bifocal media is a watt "anchor" tshirt designed by jay holmes in a limited run of 300
april 1, 2024
happy bday d boon!
march 20, 2024
out today on joyful noise recordings is this live recording from oneida joined by mike watt at the "nightmare before chistmas" atp festival on december 4, 2010 performing "tusko"
february 2, 2024
you can pre-order this david pajo (as papa m) / mike watt split seven inch vinyl 45 single of "fireman hurley" / "long may you burn" w/two different cover versions on red parakeet records NOW!
january 23, 2024
the third dtr + mike watt release "music is not music" is out now... derek gedalecia, tori kudo and rich housh along w/watt on bass
january 9, 2024
the vinyl has arrived for "round two" from the jumpstarted plowhards on recess records (bandcamp page here). this is the second release from a proj involving bof todd congelliere and mike watt along w/what eventually will be forty fuckin different drummers - I shit thee not!
december 28, 2023
david gebroe over at discograffiti asked me to rate the recorded releases from the minutemen and you can hear all three parts here: one • two • three
december 21, 2023
day after my sixtysix bday was the debut gig for the corsano • baiza • watt trio at the sardine here in my pedro town and you can hear/seen it here
december 11, 2023
j mascis and myself were joined by cherie currie, joey killingsworth and dik ledoux on a version of "ramblin' rose" for the "call me animal: a tribute to the mc5" compilation which is out now on saustex records w/15% of sales going to the jail guitar doors usa organization
november 22, 2023
the second dtr + mike watt release "en quoi puis - je vous aider?" is out now...is out now... derek gedalecia, tori kudo and rich housh along w/watt on bass
november 10, 2023
out today on red parakeet records is a special xmas 45 from mike watt + the bobblymen (the bobblymen being bob lee, tom watson + pete mazich) doing "surfin' with the claus" on the a-side and "the wassail song" on the b-side. vinyl will ship in one week
october 6, 2023
out today is "number six" which is the sixth jaded azurites release and features karen schoemer and mike watt
september 5, 2023
it's on! mssv (mike baggetta, stephen hodges and mike watt) shove off for the "aki tour 2023" - fiftyeight gigs in the u.s. and canada done in two legs - going from today to four november saturday. read the tour diary here
august 29, 2023
brother matthew has enlightened me to the fact his most happening fluke zine's issue 20 "the big mud" is packed w/a huge spiel w/watt and is available now
august 23, 2023
karen schoemer has been very kind to write up a watt bio that's current up to this point and I am most grateful - my last one here at the hoot page was like eleven years old! crimony...
august 4, 2023
starting today, you can pre-order the upcoming il sogno del marinaio three song seven inch vinyl tribute to miles cooper seaton on red parakeet records (due out on october 20, 2023)
here
july 21, 2023
out today on kill rock stars is the third release from slw cc watt, called "purple pie plow" - sam locke ward made a video for "boring out" from it, see it here
june 16, 2023
out today from org music is the pelicanman opera (charley plymell wrote the libretto) "planet chernobyl" - read benito vita's overview here
june 13, 2023
out now from bifocal media is the designed by jay holmes watt tshirt in a limited run of 300
may 30, 2023
slw cc watt has a video sam locke ward made for a tune called "be the bones" from their upcoming album "purple pie plow" on kill rock stars - see it here and then maybe check out the slw cc watt bandcamp page
april 22, 2023
today me and larry celebrate record store day w/a the release of our fourth tribute to the stooges vinyl seven inch, "tv eye" (parts 1 + 2) via org music
april 13, 2023
today is the release of the dtr + mike watt debut album "it's not a hippocampus, it's a sea horse" - my connect w/this proj is via headboggle and his cmons invite to me to bring bass
april 1, 2023
happy bday d boon!
also...
out today from aaahh!!! real records is "zen" from tim holehouse where watt did the bass on all its eighteen tunes from studio tHUNDERpANTS here in his pedro town - thanks much for having me aboard, brother tim!
march 17, 2023
out now is the spirit of hamlet debut album "northwest of hamuretto" on broken sound tapes. this proj's first recording began w/drummerman scotty irving sending watt eight "tunes" of just him drummming (I asked him to, it was my idea after having him as a guest on the watt from pedro show) so bass could be bof inspired and applied. up next was guitarman makoto kawabata who also used the the internet (like scotty and myself did) to get his stuff on over from where he lives in japan (like watt did but from pedro). finally, the earthtones recording studio knobman who recorded scotty, benjy johnson, came on board not only to mix the stuff but also to play guitar and sing on it - crimony - what a great proj to be a part of... very spontaneous! see the video for one of the tunes "float" here
february 2, 2023
announced now but coming out on march 23 on feeding tube records is the album "live in fishtown" which is a live recording of charley plymell reading poems of his while I backed him on bass in the "fishtown" part of philadelphia, pa on august 9, 2008 - hear it here
january 24, 2023
I know the release date is still more than eight months away but I just heard the final mixes for the next mssv album "human reaction" and am WAY into it! we recorded this the day after we got back from the "haru tour 2022" (may day 2022) - me and hodge got our stuff pretty much done that ONE day! crimony. pre-orders maybe a month before the release date? prolly... I know for sure though it's coming out on big ego records - count on it!
december 20, 2022
I turneed sixtyfive today... crimony!
november 10, 2022
out in eight days on big ego records is the second baggetta / keltner / watt album "everywhen we go" where proj mainman mike baggetta had me this time contribute a song so I brought "yank it out" for him and mr keltner most specifically! can't tell you what a righteous time I had recording this w/these guys, truly.
october 7, 2022
pre-orders are being taken now here for the split seven inch vinyl on red parakeet records that's got up around the sun (featuring tim kerr) covering "history lesson (part II)" from the minutemen on one side and mike watt + the secondmissingmen covering the big boys' "we got soul" on the other. the bandcamp link is here
october 1, 2022
I've been informed by the coordinator at corwood industries that bof a cd and a dvd capturing the
jandek performance at the "houston free press summer fest" on june 1, 2013 "houston saturday" (titled 0813) including stefan gonzales on drums and mike watt on bass is availble now here
september 22, 2022
good people, my port-side knee took a huge hit and has blown out big time so cuz of this I have had to scissor all gigs 'til it gets shipshape. I'm so sorry about this but there's nothing I can do except to focus my health right now. I promise to get back to gigs soon as I can. thank you much for bearing w/me, truly...
august 17, 2022
clint over at aggronautix yesterday let me know their warehouse is getting version two of the mike watt throbblehead TODAY, yatta! says their website: "limited to 500 hand-numbered figures"
august 5, 2022
coming the twentyninth of this month is the debut lemonademakers six song release coming straight out of pedro, made by pedro dudes! you can hear the opening track "moment with a creature" at lemonademakers.band
august 4, 2022
I got to spiel w/giles for his "I wanna jump like dee dee" show last month and it's up now here. much respect to him for having me aboard, truly!
july 5, 2022
available now is a new chili salsa at el enojado called "watt sauce" developed by the jefe there kevin chanel after he asked me for ingredient suggests - what I would like in it - so I told him habaneros, roasted serranos, garlic, ginger and lime. handmade himself in small batches, gran respeto. yeah, he ended up roasting the garlic as well as the serranos - great idea - I think this stuff is the result of a most happening collab!
july 1, 2022
out today is the third album from afternoon freak entitled "the low go" and what really makes this different than the other two is watt wrote all the tunes this time. matt mottel on keys and danny frankel on drums. we traded files via the internet to do this... fourth album is gonna be written by danny!
june 18, 2022
to help celebrate record store day, I'm on these two releases, bof via org music:
the first one is me and larry mullins' third seven inch vinyl tribute to the stooges and this time we get into the ring (same pad as the other two: casa hanzo here in pedro) to take on their most bitchin "fun house" tune in two parts - more info here
and the second one is a double-lp comp put together by the incredible bob lee for his loteria proj called simply "loteria" where he assembled fourteen bands-in-the-moment for it and I got to be part of one called the suckerboys that had on board w/me bill woodcock, john collinson, dave travis and crane who all pulled together via online trading files to be part of the tune I wrote for this proj called "the suckerboy lotto" which I'm truly grateful to be part of. thank you everyone involved!
june 9, 2022
out now is ponzi piece: re-boot #1 from ponzi quartet #3 of the ponzi ensemble which is al margolis, n.b. aldrich and steve norton (I know, actually it's a trio) and an octet version that includes also steve norton, kevin cheli, tom law, ron anderson and mike watt (I also join the quartet version for "ponzi qt: version claw" that has on board ron anderson instead of steve norton and tom law instead of n.b. aldrich) - is this confusing? who cares, I dig big time being a part of it - I got to also use the "bass string exciter" bryan day so kindly made himself for me!
may 2, 2022
out now is "five for five" which is the fifth release from jaded azurites featuring karen schoemer on poems/voice and mike watt on bass - see the video karen made for "dreamland fire" here
april 1, 2022
happy bday d boon!
march 21, 2022
out today is the second elka bong/watt collab "bong watt collab #2" which again is me trading files via the internet w/al margolis and walter wright but this time al went first, then me and then walter and also I used a string exciter built special for bass for me by bryan day which is the first time ever I tried to use such a thing, much respect to him and the same to al and walter
march 14, 2022
today begins the mssv fortyeight gigs in fortyeight days "haru tour 2022" which has mike baggetta, stephen hodges and mike watt touring the u.s. playing material from their first album, first two seven inchers and their upcoming second album which is gonna be recorded immediately after we get done w/this... should be way prac'd up by then w/the new tunes, correct?!
march 4, 2022
out today is a seven inch vinyl 45 courtesy of the good folks at striped light records called "mssv meets nels cline" which is a collab between mssv and nels cline where mike baggetta wrote "(what's so funny 'bout) social justice?" (the a side) and nels cline wrote "loose stone, fresh oil" (the b side) - another proj done by trading files which to me might not be perfect but is way better than sitting on your hands and whining about stuff beyond your control. much respect to mike and nels having hodge and me aboard - all four of us layering it up!
february 17, 2022
out now is the debut collab between elka bong (al margolis and walter wright) and myself that they're calling "bong watt: collab #1" - we traded files over the internet to do this: walter went first, then me and finally al put on his stuff and mixed it. this has got to be one the trippiest albums I have ever been part of... and I want more - thank you big time, al and walter!
january 14, 2022
coming soon as possible on nomad eel records is the debut album from the proj to connect which is composed of watt on bass and karl m v waugh from brighton, england (his photo/poetry page here) on everything else. here's a list of the tunes:
• step forwards
• early rising
• trust in people
• when putsch comes to shove
• we shall get through this
december 12, 2021
pre-orders now being taken from nomad eel records for the scott aicher ep from mssv. cover art by scott aicher, much respect to him
december 10, 2021
I got to do the bass for the latest cutthroat brothers album "the devil in berlin" out on hound gawd! records - get it here here in the u.s. and here for europe
november 24, 2021
out now from bifocal media is the "mike watt celebrates bringing his bass 'bluey' back" tshirt in a limited run of 500 w/blue printing on white and artwork from raeghan buchanan, much respect to her
october 17, 2021
coming soon is the third release from the island (a proj I got w/quebecois s.howe), a cassette ep called "3 2s & 2 3s" courtesy of the good people at geertruida
october 1, 2021
out today is the second release from slw cc watt which is called the "let's make a logjam" ep and is available on bof cassette and digitally. it has fortyfive tiny tunes and sam made a video for each, see them all here... keepin that iowa city/san pedro connect ALIVE!
september 2, 2021
out now from bifocal media is "the man in the van (again)" tshirt in a limited run of 300, gray w/black printing only and w/artwork again from jer warren, much respect to him
august 6, 2021
out today is "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" which is the debut collab between brent gutzeit and mike watt via trading files via the internet
july 17, 2021
out today to celebrate record store day 2021 is first time ever vinyl for the third dos release, 1996's "justamente tres" on kill rock stars
june 12, 2021
to celebrate record store day 2021 is "the king is dead" on hound gawd! records which is the new album by the cutthroat brothers where they had watt (me) join them on bass! well, I recorded here in my own studio tHUNDERpANTS and then jack endino mixed me in w/brothers jason and donny up in seattle. really honored to be aboard and last month we recorded another album the same way! one day I'm gonna get to meet these guys in person... hell, I wanna do some gigs w/them! raymond pettibon did the cover art
also to celebrate record store day 2021 is "I mean alarmed, the pedro - toulon connect" on orgmusic which is an album/booklet celebrating a collab between toulon, france musicians including hifiklub and san pedro, ca, usa trios secondmen and missingmen plus two/thirds itialiano trio il sogno del marinaio. bandcamp link here and the one for orgmusic here. again, raymond pettibon did the cover art
june 4, 2021
out today is the fourth jaded azurites ep "fourthwrite" w/karen schoemer reading her poems and watt on bass. the first video for it is here
may 31, 2021
out a couple of days ago is the second afternoon freak album "open sky shuffle" w/synthesizers/guitar/production by matt mottel, drums/percussion by danny frankel and mike watt on bass. this album is dedicated to joyful music's jonathan horne
may 14, 2021
out today is three-layer cake's debut album "stove top" on rare noise records w/drums/percussion/mixing by mike pride, guitar/banjo/tapes by brandon seabrook and bass by mike watt. see the video for "big burner" here
may 1, 2021
happy may day! out online now is the debut slw cc watt album "real manic time" - there's a wait on the vinyl version cuz of the log-jam at the pressing plants cuz of the covid19 sitch HOWEVER we keep on keepin on... sam locke ward kicked this proj off by sending me tunes from where he's at in iowa city, ia and I added bass and spiel from my very own studio tHUNDERpANTS here in pedro, a most happening collab! this summer we do album number two the same way... right now though here's videos for all thirty fucking songs that are on our album that sam made for our proj on his fuckin leash here - crimony!
april 1, 2021
happy bday d boon!
march 9, 2021
out now for digital download only on columbia/legacy is the gary davis february 8, 1998 live recording of watt's first opera "contemplating the engine room" that captured a very rare performance: the "five man opera" featuring bof nels cline and joe baiza on guitar, stephen hodges on drums, steve reed on the soundboard and backup singing along w/watt on bass and spiel - only time I think this ever happened. get it from itunes here
february 28, 2021
out now is the emma goldman bust-out brigade debut album on nomad eel records featuring devin hoff on ampeg baby bass, mike watt on fender bass and joe berardi on drums
january 18, 2021
out today is a mike watt + the black gang cover of bikini kill's most righteous "rebel girl" to help kill rock stars celebrate their thirty year bday
december 15, 2020
out today is mouthful which is the result of a few days in memphis, tn during january of 2012 where willie waldman, terry saffold, dr herman green, dave aron, steve mackay and mike watt recorded these nine tunes. it was a one-off proj thought up by willie and watt in regards to working w/stooges saxman brother steve plus watt's first time making a record in memphis. on purpose there are no guitars or keyboards - only drums, bass and horns - hence the proj name
december 11, 2020
out today is "tres" which is the third release from jaded azurites featuring karen schoemer on poems/voice and mike watt on bass
december 4, 2020
out today is the wylde ratttz three song ep "shed" featuring ron asheton on guitar, thurston moore on guitar/electronics, sean ono lennon on multitronics, steve shelley on drums/percussion and mike "pipe" watt on bass/beam - "The Wylde Ratttz recorded an epic late night of improvised instrumental space jams during their 1997 album sessions. SHED/SACK/PLUG is the fourth and final of a series of singles and eps of those recordings" (the other "three" - actually five - are "flow" and "gas huffer" and "smoke" and "fun house" plus the self-titled album "wylde ratttz")
november 27, 2020
out today on orgmusic in celebration of record store day black friday of is a seven inch vinyl fortyfive of me + larry mullins doing another tribute to the stooges w/our version of their "1970" in two parts
november 1, 2020
out now on improved sequence in bologna, italy is the "media kittens"/"when the hoarding has ended" seven inch vinyl (imp013) from mssv w/mike baggetta on guitar, stephen hodges on drums and mike watt on bass. improved sequence bandcamp link here
october 27, 2020
the organs & mike watt ep cd is now out w/me (watt) giving ian pearce and andrew bushe additional bass for one tune ("3.5") and then me reading a poem of mine for the other ("dancing flurry kachina jury"). bof mixed by tommy o'sullivan
october 21, 2020
coming november thirteen will be "a love supreme electric: a love supreme and meditiations" out on cuneiform records and featuring henry kaiser on guitar, john hanrahan on drums, vinny golia on saxophones, wayne peet on organs and mike watt on bass w/a salvo inspired by john coltrane's "a love supreme" and "meditations" - bandcamp link here
october 16, 2020
out today is the mssv album main steam stop valve on big ego records. recorded/mixed/produced by chris schlarb. mike baggetta on guitar, stephen hodges on drums and mike watt on bass and spiel
september 26, 2020
out today on yep roc records in celebration record store day of is a seven inch vinyl fortyfive of me + my secondmen (pete mazich and jerry trebotic) w/the squeeze cover "in quintessence" w/an instrumental version of it on the other side (SI-YEP-2720). this was the first recording we ever did at our casa hanzo studio in here in our pedro town. steve mandel mixed it. you can now get this via bandcamp.com - go here
september 9, 2020
out now on bifocal media is the mike watt tshirt w/the caption "the man in the van w/a bass in his hand" under a drawing of watt at the wheel of the boat by jer warren in yellow ink on black
september 1, 2020
to help celebrate record store day, sock-tight released "smudge" (ORGM-2174) on org music last saturday. dirk vandenberg, steve mackay, jerry trebotic, ulises bella, alex zhang hungtai, vince meghrouni and bob stires joined raymond pettibon and myself for nine tunes full of va-vooms and book walk-intos
august 1, 2020
out today on nomad eel records is a lathe-cut limited edition of a mike watt seven inch vinyl (NER-030) w/one side containing a cover of captain beefheart's "my head is my only house unless it rains" from a mike watt + the black gang (w/nels cline on guitar and bob lee on drums) live recording made in olympia, wa in 1998 and on the other side the debut release from east meets west (w/tom surgal on drums and watt on bass) on an original tune called "out the chute" recorded at casa hanzo here in pedro in 2015. cover art by incredible pedro artist scott aicher. each cover signed by bof scott and myself
july 10, 2020
out now on calimucho is the mike watt 52nd bday tshirt w/photo by ray barbee
june 16, 2020
happy bday raymond which is also bloomsday!
may 8, 2020
 
tom herman has started a two-man proj w/me called ship to shore and he sent me the first files for the first tune today - he flowed him playing drums and now I'll come up w/some bass and then he'll come back and put everything on himself except maybe some spiel from me. it's a "cleveland to pedro connect" via trading wav files. the "modern dance" and right before era of pere ubu was an incredible influence on d boon, myself and georgie even before we were minutemen... an incredible honor to get to work w/tom for me, incredible.
april 1, 2020
happy bday d boon!
my ma took this shot of d boon right before we left on what would be our last minutmen tour... that's her writing at the bottom of the photo
march 13, 2020
due to this current covid19 nightmare, the mssv "haru tour 2020" has been POSTPONED - all gigs will hopefully be rescheduled for this upcoming september and october and become the "aki tour 2020" where we charge hard!
february 25, 2020
out now on bifocal media is the mike watt + the secondmen tshirt w/the caption "off the docks from san pedro, california!" under a drawing of the boat by jer warren
january 21, 2020
out today is "the second time" ep which is the second release from jaded azurites which is a proj made up of karen schoemer on voice/poems and watt on bass
december 18, 2019
those five gigs we did before going into big ego studio in long beach (chris schlarb producing and on the knobs) yesterday to record the debut mssv stuido album really paid off - all we had was one sesh for spiel to do today! crimony... I'm gonna use this technique for the upcoming secondmen and missingmen albums... great idea, mike baggetta, really good one!
november 29, 2019
today is record store day black friday and to celebrate the fiftieth bday of the first stooges album, me and larry are releasing our two part version of their tune "1969" on org music, each part on one side of a seven inch vinyl fortyfive (ORGM-2158), some are black and some are blue/yellow. big love for stooges forever!
november 6, 2019
out in two days on org music is the debut fitted album "first fits" (ORGM-2147) - you can hear the tunes from it here
october 15, 2019
coming december 1 on striped light records is the debut album from mssv (mike baggetta's new proj w/stephen hodges on drums and myself on bass) called "live flowers" which is composed of tunes recorded live by chris schlarb during their first tour together (a tiny one) last march
september 22, 2019
coming november 15 on recess records/water under the bridge records from the wish granters is their debut release, a 12" vinyl ep w/mainman jamie morrison singing and playing guitar, vince meghrouni on the sax and harmonica, mike felix on the drums and myself on bass
august 26, 2019
coming november 23 on nomad eel records is a split seven inch 33 1/3 vinyl called the "l.a. to pedro ep" that's got on one side two tunes from the zig-zags and two tunes from me + my secondmen on the other
july 30, 2019
jumpstarted plowhards is a new proj I got w/todd congelliere and our debut eight song 12" 45 rpm ep "round one" will come out this october 4 on recess records and will feature a different drummer for each tune: nick aguilar, george hurley, jimmy felix, patty schemel, brian brunak, trevor rounseville, jerry trebotic and raul morales - I wrote the songs on bass, then todd brought the guitar parts and spiel (including words) plus all these stick people. trippy proj and very VERY pedro. expect after this another four rounds from us...
june 27, 2019
coming this november on org music is the debut release from fitted which is an album entitled "first fits" that features bof graham lewis and matthew simms from wire, bob lee and myself
may 24, 2019
got a missingmen tour coming this fall, the "dick watt tour 2019"
april 1, 2019
happy bday d boon!
(us at godzilla's in north hollywood, ca on march 19, 1982)
march 15, 2019
original flipper drummerman stephen depace has asked me to join him and original guitarman ted falconi along w/former scratch acid/jesus lizard singerman david yow for a european flipper tour this upcoming july/august... I'm way into it!
flipper europe tour 2019
february 1, 2019
just in time for the upcoming 2019 version of record store day (it's happening this april 13), is the debut release from new proj ocampo, ocampo + watt - a seven inch vinyl (ORGM-2138) w/a side being a devin ocampo/renata ocampo composition "apparatus" and b side "better than a dirtnap" written by myself. we traded appropriate files (me: bass, everything else: them except some spiel from me for my tune) and then they mixed/produced their side and I did the same for mine. a definite duality! we're planning on a entire album sometime this year, very into it!
january 16, 2019
e fatta! me and the fratelli recorded our third il sogno del marinaio album "terzo" w/secondmen organman pete mazich at casa hanzo here in our pedro town. bof il sogno del marinaio guitarman stefano pilia and newest il sogno del marinaio member drummerman paolo mongardi are flying back tomorrow to italy, fratello ste w/all the stuff for him to mix and produce back in his bologna town. oh yeah, we also did our part of a tribute for glenn branca (written by fratello ste) organized by frere regis of hifiklub - more news about that as it develops...
december 20, 2018
sunrise in pedro this morning on my sixone bday - tug headed out the angels gate...
novmeber 30, 2018
last year I got to record on a mike baggetta album called "wall of flowers" w/drummerman jim keltner at big ego studio in long beach, ca. it's coming out early next year and so that's means a small tour from march 21 through 30 and though mr keltner (love this man!) can't make it, taking his place is the righteous stickman stephen hodges - the same man who did drums for my first opera - can't wait!
october 31, 2018
ok, it's finally getting there... just mixed the fourth album from the unknown instructors that's gonna be called "unwilling to explain" (ORGM-2130) and is due to be released on org music during february of 2019. this time unknown instructor mainman dan mcguire had me write nine tunes for drummerman george hurley and myself to accompany his spiels (contrasting w/the other three previous unknown instructors albums being all improvised) and then j mascis made it a four-way instead of joe baiza on guitar this time though joe does do three spiels that are real good ones!
september 23, 2018
out this upcoming november 23 will be the debut release from the tone scientists - a seven inch vinyl (ORGM-2129) ("nuts" b/w "tiny pyramids" limited edition, half will be pressed in silver) for record store day 2018 black friday on org music - the tone scientists are bucky pope, john herndon, vince meghrouni, pete mazich and mike watt - check out the bandcamp page here
august 19, 2018
today the real oh my recorded an xmas version of "loose" from the stooges called "claus" (w/bob lee on drums/vocals, nick reinhart on guitar and watt on bass) at casa hanzo here in my pedro town (w/pete mazich engineering) for a xmas-themed compilation album called "something shocking from the stocking!" that'll also include the deadbeats, the freeks, the insect surfers, the rotters plus many more to be announced. release date planned for somewhere near the end of this upcoming november on jozee records...
july 31, 2018
what's going on here, some sort of experimental wattplower or what? I'm working w/the good people at reverend guitars right now on maybe some wattplower evolution... maybe a wattplower mark II prototype or something like that? I think for sure two new color schemes are coming also... hey, forgot to say a left-handed version just came out!
june 30, 2018
new proj tone scientists will have bucky pope on guitar, vince meghrouni on sax and fluet, john herndon on drums and watt on bass for a two song seven inch vinyl to be recorded in the first week of august at casa hanzo here in my pedro town. the plan is to release it for record store day 2018 black friday. the proj name is a tribute to sun ra (I just read the john szwed bio on him) and the b-side of this fortyfive will be our take on his tune "little pyramids" - the other side will have an original from bucky
may 4, 2018
out today as part of their white label series (which the good people at joyful noise recordings had me curate this month) is "the blind strut" which is the debut album from afternoon freak, a trio made of matt mottel on keys, danny frankel on drums and myself working bass. arrrgghhhh, the subscription is already sold out but you can still get this music here
april 21, 2018
today is record store day and so we celebrate w/a second sock-tight release, "second wind" three song seven inch vinyl via org music (ORGM-2113) where once again raymond pettibon gives you his words-eye view but this time w/alex hung-tai chang, vince meghrouni and ulises bella joining me and dirk vandenberg as his crew. he's got his art all over the gatefold cover
april 3, 2018
out in twelve days on kingfisher bluez is a seven inch vinyl single "lamia" w/b-side "auto-flush" from a proj I got w/quebecois s.howe called the island who, by the way, got an e.p. planned we're working on soon...
april 1, 2018
happy bday d boon, happy easter!
(us at foolkillers in kc july 10, 1984)
march 16, 2018
what started out as a contribution to the waywords and meansigns proj organized by derek pyle which celebrated "finnegans wake" by james joyce has now developed into the shem project courtesy of the cat I collaboarated w/for the dealio, adam harvey and man, has he been putting in time supplementing our audio work w/a visual component - crimony! here's the result: our part seven (pages 169 - 216) of book I
february 1, 2018
whoa, I spaced on this: back in october the debut album from hidden rifles titled "across the neighborhoods" came out on tedium house. this proj was put togther by the singerman matt wascovich and he had mark shippy do one guitar, norman westberg do the other guitar, jim sykes on the drums and me on bass (via my tHUNDERpANTS man-alone tiny studio here in my pad in my pedro town). dan goodwin did a great job connecting all the flow and mixing it up good
january 16, 2018
out today is the debut release from the jaded azurites: a self-titled ep w/words and voice by karen schoemer and watt on bass. a HUGE blagodaram to brother vasko
december 20, 2017
here's old friend concepcion tadeo giving me a cake at the bottom of the hill for my sixtieth bday:
november 24, 2017
 
out today as part of record store day - black friday is the first time ever vinyl version of my first opera "contemplating the engine room" which I did twenty years ago and also "a tav falco christmas" (ORGM-1059) where I worked bass this past summer for tav in memphis - w/larry on drums!
november 2, 2017
I got to be part of band ben lee put together to back up daniel johnston for a kcrw radio appearance this morning and then gig at the orpheum theatre later in the evening. hear us on jason bentley's "morning becomes eclectic" show here
october 23, 2017
petra and me as pelicanman will record the opera "planet chernobyl" w/the libretto from charley plymell sometime in 2018, prolly earlier than later cuz I got three other albums I wanna record at casa hanzo this upcoming year: a missingmen one, a secondmen one and an il sogno del marinaio one. 2018 is not only my sixtieth trip around the sun, it's also my year of composing and recording! I'm gonna try real hard to do a second cuz one w/brother sam also, that's where we trade files and make the pedro-brighton connect!
september 27, 2017
pale angels bassman jamie morrison (also mind jail guitarman) has enlisted me on a proj called the wish granters which will have him, me, jimmy from toys that kill on drums and vince meghrouni from the atomic sherpas on harmonica and sax. the plan is to record twenty minutes of music for a twelve inch fortyfive e.p. this upcoming march at casa hanzo right here in my pedro town, can't wait!
august 10, 2017
fitted member matt simms found a tune on a recording from our one and only fitted prac, titled "first fit" by fitted member graham lewis and given big time thumbs up by other two fitted members bob lee and mike watt to be included w/the other five tunes recorded back in apirl at casa hanzo here in my pedro town where me and bob lee did bass and drums and then sent them overseas to be fortified w/guitars, spiel and more bass from matt (in england) and graham (in sweden). the debut fitted album will have six tunes and prolly come out some time next year. fitted was put together by graham for one gig proj but now has become a full-on album proj!
july 11, 2017
just back from memphis... me and larry helped tav falco make an xmas album at sam phillips recording
june 30, 2017
JUST ANNOUNCED: first gigs for the "nuovo spirito tour 2017" in europe that il sogno del marinaio will sally forth on this upcoming september and october. on board for the first time will be new drummerman paolo mongardi
may 5, 2017
OUT NOW on sargent house is the eponymous debut album by big walnuts yonder which is nels cline, nick reinhart, greg saunier and watt doing it to you in the earhole!
april 22, 2017
in celebration of record store day 2017 out today on org music is the four song seven inch vinyl ep (ORGM-2092) "balkans-pedro four-way" that includes thee melomen, vasko atanasoski, disciplin a kitschme along w/me + my secondmen where we cover each others' tunes. special gatefold cover has art by darko kujundzic inside when you open it (see above) and half the 1800 being pressed are on green vinyl (the other half being the usual black)
april 1, 2017
happy bday, d boon!
march 31, 2017
coming this fall via legacy recordings and org music will be the twentieth anniversary and first time ever vinyl release for my first opera, "contemplating the engine room"
february 16, 2017
I got three tours coming right up: the 'toys missing tour' starting in february, the 'first time in china' starting in march and 'the tour tour two' starting in may - the first one's first gig is in a week!
january 19, 2017
reverend guitars tomorrow at namm will make the BIG ANNOUNCE for the wattplower bass! it's been a long time working w/these good folks on this but it was way worth it - much respect to joe, ken and everyone there who helped make this happen! hear me talk about it w/one of the reverb people dan (great cat) here
december 20, 2016
I turned fiftynine!
november 25, 2016
damn me, I spaced on letting you know about another seven inch vinyl I'm on in celebration of black friday record store day 2016 - it's me and larry doing rhythm section for panther burns on the tav falco release on org music of "sway"/"where the rio de rosa flows" (ORGM-2077) - I am so very sorry!
november 16, 2016
bob lee must be given credit for this brain child of his: the bobblymen ep 3 song sevin inch vinyl (ORGM-2080) which is coming out in nine days on org music in celebration of black friday record store day 2016
october 31, 2016
fuck, first halloween I ain't played in I don't how long but some good news is that coming out november eleven will be "ring spiel tour '95" which is a un-remixed live recording of an entire gig I was part of twentyone years ago, courtesy of leagcy recordings
september 6, 2016
bifocal media now has a black version of the raymond pettibon + mike watt t-shirt - "two cats from the old days"
august 14, 2016
from bifocal media is this raymond pettibon + mike watt t-shirt that's limited to a run of three hundred
july 15, 2016
the "canto secondo tour 2016" is now COMPLETELY BOOKED - a big GRAZIE to bookerman ricky over at swamp booking!
june 30, 2016
all but one gig now booked for the "canto secondo tour 2016" that il sogno del marinaio is doing in europe this fall for the 'canto secondo' album
may 25, 2016
pre-orders are being taken now for the bernays propaganda/mike watt + the secondmen split seven inch vinyl on asian man records that's got bernays propaganda doing "lie to me, lie to me" on one side and "the back of the hand" from mike watt + the missingmen on the other
april 16, 2016
happy record store day 2016! we celebrate w/special il sogno del marinaio three song seven inch vinyl on org music called the "the whistling e.p." (ORGM-2063) to let everyone know we support this cause
april 1, 2016
happy bday, d boon!
march 9, 2016
out now from re/search is limited edition of the zine "a visit from mike watt" put together by v. vale. bof him and mariane wallace I respect much and it was HUGE honor to get to spiel and konk at their pad last december
february 18, 2016
out real soon from org music is a seven inch vinyl (ORGM-2058) from tav falco doing "my chauffeur blues" and "whistle blower blues" w/me on bass for bof as part of the legendary panther burns
january 26, 2016
org music now have a mike watt page at their site
december 30, 2015
coming out this upcoming spring on asian man records will be a split seven inch vinyl that's got bernays propaganda doing "lie to me, lie to me" on one side and mike watt + the secondmen doing "the back of the hand" on the other
november 27, 2015
me + my secondmen along w/the chronics (from ravenna, italy) help celebrate record store day black friday 2015 w/a split seven inch vinyl single release on org music (org music catalog # ORGM-2049) called "back in the microwave" - see the chronics video for "I backed up into my self" (which I wrote for them) here and the video by mike muscarella of me + my secondmen doing "microwave up in flames" (written by the chronics' stefano toma) here
october 28, 2015
from piaptk on a limited run is the watt: on bass eulerian circle 3-sided record which is actually a one-side rectangular piece of vinyl that has three separate sets of grooves, each w/it's own "bass lick" watt recorded special for it.
october 10, 2015
from bifocal media is this tshirt created by ron liberti of mike watt for the watt from pedro show that's limited to a run of three hundred
september 17, 2015
available now is the ebook version of my "on and off bass" book of some pedro pictures I've taken and tour spiel I've chimped on three rooms press. you can get it from either amazon.com (kindle), barnes and noble (nook) or itunes (ibook)
september 12, 2015
out yesterday on the audacious art experiment is a two song seven inch vinyl record that howie reeve and mike watt collaborated on, each writing each a tune and then some lyrics, bof on bass and spiel. you can get it here and/or read what guy at 'lounder than war' said about it
august 3, 2015
total mindblow and HUGE honor to have tav falco ask me to work bass in his panther burns for the "whistle blower tour" 2015 which will run this fall from october 12 - november 1 across the u.s. crimony, I'm gonna work flatwounds - I look up to tav much... plus he's got toby dammit on drums now! tour dates and press release here
july 29, 2015
one month from today's starts the first cuz tour ever, the cuz 2015 tour where this longtime proj from me and brother sam gets put on the road, playing every tune from our "tamatebako" debut album for eighteen gigs in england, scotland, wales, belgium and netherlands
june 30, 2015
"missing more of the minutemen" is available for mailorder via angrry propagande - an eight song ten inch brown vinyl ep that was slung on the "3rd + 30 opera tour" 2015 where me + my missingmen did our take on a tribute to some of the tunes from the minutemen album "what makes a man start fires?" for an encore after performing my third opera
may 1, 2015
tonight's the first gig of the "3rd + 30 opera tour" 2015 where me + my missingmen once again bring my third opera "hyphenated-man" to europe. sharing the stage w/us on the whole journey is uz jsme doma from the czech republic
april 18, 2015
happy record store day and to help celebrate this year, from org music here's a split seven inch vinyl single (org music catalog # ORGM-2041) w/me + my secondmen doing the dicks "shit on me" on one side and ev kain doing their "strike out" on the other
march 27, 2015
hector valmassoi has just finished a book where he translated my three operas ("contemplating the engine room" and "the secondman's middle stand" and "hyphenated-man") from my baka english into italian - it's called "the three operas" (english version of page here) - hector's offering this for free, much respect to him putting into so much work into this proj.
january 27, 2015
bifocal media are now taking pre-orders now for a mike watt as drawn by chris shary tshirt that will be limited to a run of three hundred
november 2, 2014
just out is the first brother's sister's daughter album "bsd" on rallye - get the itunes version here
october 19, 2014
out now is tribute comic put together by warren craig w/contributions from many artists called "double nickels forever" which shows much respect to the mintuemen - respect back!
september 10, 2014
tonight's the first il sogno del marinaio gig of fiftythree in fiftythree days for the "canto secondo tour 2014" of the u.s.
august 26, 2014
out today on clenchedwrench is second album "canto secondo" from il sogno del marinaio as clenched005
july 17, 2014
nels cline, nick reinhart, myself and greg saunier finish recording big walnuts yonder album for sargent house w/bassbrother tony maimone at studio g in brooklyn, ny
may 15, 2014
out today is cuz debut album "tamatebako" out on bleeding heart recordings - me and brother sam finally got it out! read the bob stires essay here
also out today on asian man records is seven inch vinyl split single "from ciro's to starwood" which has on one side the chronics from ravenna, italy and mike watt + the secondmen from san pedro, california on the other
april 19, 2014
for record store day the good people at org music put out an il sogno del marinaio seven inch vinyl (org music catalog # ORGM-2015) in order to celebrate. has two tunes from the "canto secondo" sessions that weren't on that release
april 1, 2014
happy bday, d boon!
march 6, 2014
"missing the minutemen" is available for mailorder via angrry propagande - a six song ten inch green vinyl ep that was slung on the "third opera europe tour 2014" where me + my missingmen did our take on a tribute to some of the tunes from the minutemen album "double nickels on the dime" for an encore after performing my third opera
february 23, 2014
"the sum of a sun" and "from calais to dover" are the two tunes I bof spoke and wrote the spiel for on the detective instinct proj "black floral" on sickroom records
february 20, 2014
tonight's the first mike watt + the missingmen gig of fiftythree in fiftysix days for the "third opera europe tour 2014" of europe in support of watt's third opera "hyphenated-man"
december 15, 2013
got to record a buttload of improvised stuff at casa hanzo here in san pedro today: me on bass, joe berardi on drums and motoko honda on the keyboards... she's taking all the stuff w/her back to oaktown and will distill it down to an album - can't wait to hear what she bakes!
december 13, 2013
out now is "schoemer songs" brought to you courtesy of detective instinct on third uncle records where I do the spiel that karen schoemer wrote plus the bass and drum machine while oli heffernan plays everything else
december 4, 2013
out now from detective instinct is "falling in lilacs" on third uncle records where karen schoemer reads the spiel she wrote along w/me on the bass and oli heffernan on the rest of it
november 13, 2013
out now is sock-tight which is a proj featuring raymond pettibon, saxman steve mackay, drummers jerry trebotic and dirk vandenberg plus myself on bass blowing it out on four tunes stuffed w/raymond's righteous and original spiel, released on edition-fieber as two seven inch vinyl disks in a gatefold cover full of raymond's art and photos
july 20, 2013
qui got andrew over at org music to get mike watt + the secondmen to do a seven inch split-single seven inch vinyl (ORGM-2003) w/them so like that it was so
may 1, 2013
happy may day! yesterday "ready to die" by iggy and the stooges came out on fat possum records and you can hear me work bass there
april 20, 2013
for record store day the good people at org music put out a mike watt + the black gang seven inch vinyl (org music catalog # ORGM-2001) in order to celebrate. has versions of "rebel girl" (bikini kill) and "30 days in the hole" (humble pie) recorded live w/bof nels cline and bob lee joining me
april 1, 2013
happy bday, d boon!
february 15, 2013
me and my fratelli andrea and stefano tonight begin our il sogno del marinaio 'euro tour 2013' and we'll play in italy, france, switzerland, germany, netherlands, england, scotland, northern ireland and ireland 'til march nine. if you can, please see what we bring!
january 25, 2013
out today on clenchedwrench is "la busta gialla" as clenched003 which is the debut album from a trio made up of andrea belfi, stefano pilia and myself called il sogno del marinaio
december 20, 2012
today I turn double nickels... I'm fiftyfive years old today - I played all of the vinyl version of "double nickels on the dime" on my radio show today in celebration!
december 19, 2012
third and final day in the studio up here at post-consumer in oakland, ca to record second album by the hand to man band where michael guarino did drums, myself on bass, john dieterich did guitar and tholem mcdonas on fender rhodes. [unfortunately this whole thing later was scrapped, damn]
november 20, 2012
out now is the mike watt flannel from the good folks at altamont apparel - they had me come on over to their pad and put into a flannel design stuff that I dig, for example the pattern is from the shirt I wore on the "double nickels on the dime" and "flying the flannel" album covers... I wore one of these every gig on the last tour of my third opera and it held up like a champ - you know it was 'pert-near every night of stenching and then washing for six weeks straight
october 12, 2012
you can pre-order the mike watt throbblehead which has me in "rubber face" bassworker mode (based on this picture but slinging "the andy bass" instead of the one here that got stolen) coming out on aggronautix that should be available in mid december
september 18, 2012
me and my secondmen did an interpretation of fear song "let's have a war" for the "a tribute to 'repo man'" compilation album out today on american laundromat records
july 11, 2012
here we go again, time for me and my missingmen's "2nd heapin' helpin' of 3rd opera u.s. tour 2012" gigs just announced for this fall!
june 25, 2012
coming out next month is the debut album by a proj called anywhere on atp recordings where christian beaulieu on guitar and cedric bixler-zavala on drums had me put bass on what they had done as a twofer and then they had rachel fannan do some singing - here's an interview w/christian spieling about it and also a wikipedia link on the matter.
may 22, 2012
it's here, the hand to man band "you are always on our minds" debut album was released today on post-consumer and you can see "the down moveables" video here... bandcamp link here
april 30, 2012
my book "mike watt: on and off bass" is out may second on three rooms press - you can order it from them now.
april 21, 2012
happy record store day and to help celebrate this year, from and to help celebrate this year, from org music here's a split seven inch vinyl single (org music catalog # ORGM-1061) w/me + my missingmen doing a live version roky erickson's "sweet honey pie" on one side and the chuck dukowski sextet doing chuck's "my war" on the other
march 13, 2012
lowFLOWs: the columbia anthology ('91 - '93) is coming out april 3 to coincide w/two weeks of gigs fIREHOSE is doing on the west side of the u.s.
february 25, 2012
yet another clenchedwrench release! the il sogno del marinaio debut album "la busta gialla" is coming in january of 2013.
janaury 17, 2012
out now on clenchedwrench as clenched004 is spielgusher - its time has come!
december 20, 2011
I turned fiftyfour today!
november 14, 2011
just back from tokyo (home only one day after missingmen europe tour before that!), recorded third brother's sister's daugher album - yes, I know the other two haven't been released yet but "no wine before its time" a great person once said.
november 5, 2011
the hoot page is fifteen years old!
october 12, 2011
me and my missingmen have shoved off for the hyphenated-man in europe 2011 tour. of course there's gonna be tour diary chimped by watt but maybe some from tom and raul too? (turns out it was 'yes' for tom but raul stumbled - bof played their asses off though - HUGE respect to them bof!)
september 21, 2011
starting yesterday, they're taking pre-orders for the first release from ANYWHERE which is a proj of christian beaulieu and cedric bixler zavala where they had me do bass w/their guitar and drums. this'll be a seven inch vinyl that's got "pyramid mirrors" on one side and "dead golden west" on the other. toshi kasai recorded and mixed it. this was a trip to do and I am sure grateful to these cats, respect! valley king records is putting it out.
september 17, 2011
out now! steve mackay has a new album called "north beach jazz" where I got to record all the bass w/him in sunset beach, ca a couple of years ago w/none other than dick deluxe on guitar! yes, brother steve did play the same tenor sax as he did on "fun house" and on drums he had his old carnal kitchen comrade marco lampert on drums on it was like fortieth anniversary for bof of them - I'm go glad to be a part of this!
august 29, 2011
man, I 'pert-near spaced on this one - sorry! the book of knots had me aboard for their chapter II ("traineater") and here in chapter III you can find me again doing spiel this time for "yeager's approach" on their new "garden of fainting stars" album that came out back in june. much respect to this team of most together and righteous folks!
july 31, 2011
I just heard the final mastering of the debut album coming from the hand to man band on post-consumer this fall. "you are always on our minds" is the album's title and the band is made up of john dieterich, thollem mcdonas, tim barnes and myself (watt). the whole thing was recorded during three days last summer in austin, tx by nicholas taplin and is one serious wild trip. these cats brought out another side of me, much respect.
june 29, 2011
coming out july twefth (in two weeks) is the fourth dos album "dos y dos" as clenched002 on my very own clenchedwrench label as from org music in partnership w/bof org music and finetunes. you can see a video for one of the songs on the album ("number eight") here.
may 31, 2011
happy birthday d boon!
coming out this fall on three rooms press will be a book by me called "on and off bass" that will contain pictures of mine from my spring 2010 track 16 "eye-gifts from pedro" show plus some poems and tour spiel diary excerpts I've chimped that were selected by kat georges and peter carlaftes. also working very hard to help get this together is laurie steelink.
april 1, 2011
happy birthday d boon!
I'm still on out w/my missingmen (started march tenth) on the "north american hyphenated-man tour 2011" - read the tour diary here!
march 1, 2011
my third opera "hyphenated-man" was released today on my new label clenchedwrench as clenched001 in partnership w/the folks at org music
february 16, 2011
mastered the spielgusher album at golden mastering w/old buddy john golden today - man, is he a great cat w/just the best ears and a great sense of what music is. I've been working w/him since the early 80s. spielgusher is what happened when richard meltzer gave me fortyeight spoken word pieces he recorded in portland, or and then mr shimmy, ms yuko and myself spent three days in tokyo coming up w/sixtythree pieces of music to go w/it. it will be from org music . the fourth dos album "dos y dos" will be clenched002 and the debut album by il sogno del marinaio called "la busta gialla" will be clenched003. all these will come out through clenchedwrench every view months - I don't want them getting smothered by releasing them all at the same time cuz they very much have lives of their own.
january 9, 2011
my new label clenchedwrench just got started - yatta!
december 28, 2010
dates just announced for my "north american hyphenated-man tour 2011" that's coming down march tenth and going 'til april thirty. come and see me and my missingmen work the third opera live! already out in japan, "hyphenated-man" gets released everywhere else march first!
november 30, 2010
me and my secondmen (pete mazich + jerry trebotic) just turned in our helios creed tune called "mountain mystery" as part of a tribute album dedicated to the man and his music. recorded at casa hanzo here in pedro... as we speak, petezo is knocking a hole in the bulkhead for a control room porthole!
october 6, 2010
my third opera "hyphenated-man" album came out today in japan!
get at cdjapan
september 28, 2010
the debut floored by floor album came out today!
floored by floor myspace page
floored by floor facebook page
august 19, 2010
yatta! today I mastered "hyphenated-man" at golden mastering w/my buddy john golden, who's worked w/me since the early 80s. he did righteous job, much respect! almost done w/the artwork... looking for japan release on parabolica records on october sixth to coincide w/upcoming tour there.
july 31, 2010
the very first live performances of my third opera "hyphenated-man" will be a tour of japan w/my missingmen (tom watson: guitar and raul morales: drums) - yatta! touring w/us will be our good buddies from tokyo lite who along w/doushi kazuto-san are totally making this possible - HUGE RESPECT to them!
"hyphenated-man in japan" tour 2010
october 17: tokyo - superdeluxe
october 18: yamagata - sandinista
october 19: aomori - sublime
october 20: morioka - club change
october 21: sendai - park square
october 22: toyama - club mairo
october 23: kanazawa - double
october 24: nara - zico studio
october 25: hiroshima - 4.14
october 26: fukuoka - vivre hall
october 27: kagoshima - sr hall
october 28: kumamoto city - django
october 29: okayama - pepperland
october 30: tokushima - crowbar
october 31: matsuyama - salonkitty
november 1: osaka - club quattro
november 2: nagoya - club quattro
november 3: matsumoto - alecx
november 4: tokyo - club quattro
november 5: asahikawa - casino drive
november 6: sapporo - hall spiritual lounge
november 7: sapporo - sound crue
june 30, 2010
the debut floored by floor album is all done and ready for release on september twentyeight - yatta!
may 30, 2010
just out now! gimmie gimmie gimmie: reinterpreting black flag is a six-song tribute to black flag where I played bass on bof the "six pack" and "in the jailhouse now" tracks. trippy thing is black flag never covered "in the jailhouse now" (I think jimmie rodgers wrote it, webb pierce had the biggest hit w/it) but kieth morris here is singing part of it. this was a righteous proj to be part of. k did some singing like patsy too! big respect to drummerman evan taylor who put this together and had me aboard.
april 26, 2010
april first: happy bday, d boon!
also on april one was the opening of my first-ever exibition called eye-gifts from pedro which are some of the shots I take at the crack of dawn of my town and it's at the track 16 gallery in santa monica, ca. it continues showing 'til may 16th.
last week was the start of iggy and the stooges touring for 2010 - crimony, what a rush! very emotional for me, playing ronnie's bass line but I try my best. my words-eye view of me working bass for them is up here on the hoot page now.
march 29, 2010
thollem mcdonas (piano) has invited me to join him, john dieterich (guitar) and tim barnes (drums/percussion) in as-of-yet-unamed proj to record an improvised album together in austin, tx at the end of august of this year and then do some gigs! whoa...
february 25, 2010
on the third of this month I was a guest on bass at a recording in long beach, ca w/a new proj started by tabor allen (drums/vocals) and danny miller (guitar/vocals) of the late great widow babies (aaarrrgggghhhh, the band has broken up!) called rare grooves that has resulted in the rare grooves seven inch which is now out on sounds are active. danny and tabor are very cool people and label boss chris schlarb even played lead guitar on one of the tunes!
available now is "channels" by the island - which are compositions by steve howe (of the band schooner from montreal, canada - not from the yes band in england) combined w/bass from me at his request. trippy stuff! thanks for having me aboard, steve.
january 28, 2010
belated happy new year greets to all the peeps! no polar bear swim for me in my pedro town cuz I was in tokyo recording second brother's sister's daughter album - this time we brought aboard yuka honda to make it a five piece! yes, I know "where's the first album?" you're probably wondering but that's still being mixed by mister shimmy and of course we all don't want any pressure put on him. he has all my respect.
december 29, 2009
from the end of last month to the beginning of this month I was in italy to do six gigs and record an album for il sogno del marinaio which is an new band I have w/italian musicans stefano pilia and andrea belfi who are really happening cats. we had a great time - you can read the our little diary here.
november 27, 2009
earlier this month at the planeta terra festival in sao paulo, brazil iggy & the stooges did their first gig in their "raw power" incarnation - the first time w/out ron asheton on guitar. it was a very emotional gig for me. it was for james williamson the first time in many MANY years that he was playing again w/ig, scotty and steve. there's gonna be a bunch of gigs for us next year starting in april. I try my hardest to work bass the best I can for these men I respect so much.
august 30, 2009
halfway through a four day adventure at gok sound here in the kichijoji part of tokyo, japan w/ mr jim o'rourke for duo album proj called "no red light flashing" we're just now cooking up the beginnings for. he wants me to later flow spiel when I get back to my pedro town (I'm on a two week trip here) and even some mandolin (!) but here now I'm just working bass, doing the duece w/him while he's on piano, drums and even bass also (kind of dos-like... a little!). I think this is the first time I went into a studio for something like this w/nothing prepared - did that on purpose cuz it's the nature of this proj. mr jim's teaching me how to "layer things up" as it were, he's set to add all kinds of things later. big BIG respect to him.
july 31, 2009
the third and final day of recording at n.y. hed studio in the lower east side of manhattan, ny for the debut album of a new band I'm part of called floored by four featuring nels cline on guitar, yuka honda on keyboards, dougie bowne on drums and myself on bass (really?!) and spiel. I wrote a song for each of us and then we ended up doing a fifth one based on a beat of dougie's - he's mixing it up right now for a release as soon as we can do it on chimera records. everyone came together and kicked out quite a collaboration in the moment... it's a trip.
june 30, 2009
I've got a busy summer and fall for recording coming up... one thing coming up quick is me recording (bass for one tune, spiel for another) here in pedro for an album called "1979" which has a different lineup of current musicans somehow connected w/the present san pedro scene for each of the ten songs on it - these ten songs being the covers of those on a cassette tape made during practice by the reactionaries in 1979 which I think was the only recording ever made of the band. wow, thiry years ago... (by the way, twentyfiver year anniversary of "double nickels on the dime" is next month) - three of the four recationaries went on to become the final lineup for the minutemen... this was the first band I ever made songs for - of the ten tunes I wrote all the music (via the bass) and seven of the lyrics... boy, just a little embarrassing but I am grateful to craig ibarra for getting all this together in honor of that band cuz much respect to martin tamburovich, george hurley and d boon for letting me play w/them then. I know we had more songs but I can't remember them now - so important to record things, people! I know there was one about orange county... damn, my memory (or lack of it) - sorry! you can read about the making of this album here now though.
may 25, 2009
alright, got raul and tom back safe from the "prac'n the 3rd opera" tour 2009 and they did so good bof doing the gigs and recording the drum and guitar parts for my upcoming "hyphenated-man" album (the third opera). I can't ever thank them enough, what righteous, RIGHTEOUS cats they are. much respect. big thank yous go out also to all the gig-goers whe let us play our hearts out for them - it's much MUCH appreciated.
april 17, 2009
tour is underway - my first mike watt u.s. one in four and half years!
mike watt + the missingmen (w/tom watson on guitar and raul morales on drums) do the "prac'n the 3rd opera" tour 2009 and it starts today - here's the gigs:
april 17 tucson, az - plush
april 18 albuquerque, nm - launchpad
april 20 dallas, tx - granada theater
april 21 houston, tx - rudyard's
april 22 baton rouge, la - spanish moon
april 23 tallahassee, fl - the moon
april 24 jacksonville beach, fl - freebird live
april 25 charleston, sc - the music farm
april 26 asheville, sc - the orange peel
april 27 carrboro, nc - cat's cradle
april 29 charlotte, nc - neighborhood theatre
april 30 richmond, va - the national
may 1 lancaster, pa - chameleon club
may 2 baltimore, md - ottobar
may 6 cambridge, ma - t.t. the bear's
may 7 hoboken, nj - maxwell's
may 8 new york, ny - the mercury lounge
may 9 philadelphia, pa - north star bar
may 10 pittsburgh, pa - club cafe
may 11 cleveland heights, oh - grog shop
may 12 detroit, mi - shelter
may 13 grand rapids, mi - billy's lounge
may 14 chicago, il - schubas tavern
may 15 minneapolis, mn - 7th street entry
may 16 omaha, ne - the waiting room
may 18 denver, co - larimer lounge
may 19 salt lake city, ut - bar deluxe
may 20 boise, id - neurolux
may 21 portland, or - doug fir lounge
may 22 seattle, wa - crocodile cafe
may 23 bellingham, wa - the nightlight
may 24 quincy, wa - the gorge amphitheatre
may 3, 4 and 5 have no gigs cuz on those three days we record my third opera, "hyphenated-man" in brooklyn, ny at studio g w/bass brother tony maimone at the knobs!
read the tour diary!
march 26, 2009
last night flea, kira and myself were all on bass - bass and nothing but bass to record a version of "drippy eye" by black moth super rainbow. me and flea kind of layed down the background for kira to overdub many basses in what flea later called a "kirastra" (as in "orchestra"). man, did we have fun w/this one! mister tom asked us to do a song for record of people doing versions of his stuff. much respect to him.
february 27, 2009
three sessions and nine songs later, the los punkinhedz proj has manifested intself into a recording mode after being only a live experience for keyboard money mark, drummerman john wicks and myself on bass (surprised?) where we would throw down improvised jams for gigs. we've also expanded the three-way to include my best friend raymond pettibon on singing and lyric writing. I brought bass line parts into money mark's frogtown studio and then he helped pile them into song forms, me and wicky-wicky would wack out the rhythm track w/raymond after putting on the singing, doing this one at a time - not "assembly line" style. it is most interesting proj! money mark is overdubbing is keyboard parts now. this story still developing...
january 31, 2009
ron asheton - a beautiful man, musical pioneer and dear friend has passed away and I miss him very much. it's real hard for me to say what's way inside me so here's four excerpts of words from walt whitman's "leaves of grass" that resonate some of the big love and respect I have forever for him:
the yankee clipper is under her three
skysails . . . . she cuts the sparkle and scud,
my eyes settle the land . . . . I bend at her prow
or shout joyously from the deck.
the boatmen and clamdiggers arose early and
stopped for me,
I tucked my trowser-ends in my boots and went
and had a good time,
you should have been with us that day round
the chowder-kettle...
great is the quality of truth in man,
the quality of truth in man supports itself
through all changes,
it is inevitably in the man . . . . he and it are
in love, and never leave each other...
o truth of the earth! o truth of things! I am
determined to press the whole way toward you,
sound your voice! I scale mountains or dive in the
sea after you...
...I cannot define my life . . yet it is so.
I swear I see now that every thing has an
eternal soul!
the trees have, rooted in the ground . . . . the
weeds of the sea have . . . . the animals.
I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!
that the exquisite scheme is for it, and the nebulous
float is for it, and the cohering is for it,
and all preparation is for it . . and identity is for
it . . and life and death are for it.
...if you want me again look for me under
your bootsoles.
you will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
but I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
and filter and fibre your blood.
failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
missing me one place search another,
I stop some where waiting for you
december 27, 2008
we did it - brother's sister's daughter recorded their first album on december 21/22 in tokyo, japan - yatta!!! nels flew in the day before my 51st birthday (december 20) and we had a blowout gig the next night to celebrate it, a mini-festival called "we jam econo 08" - it was his first time ever in that land. now ms yuko is recording the poems for the album and soon after mister shimmy will mix it. you can imagine how happy we all are.
november 2, 2008
last night I received the bass blayer magazine lifetime achievement award from flea at the key club in west hollywood, ca after he gave a little spiel w/some very VERY kind words for me. much MUCH respect to him and I am very grateful for much kindness from bof him and bass player magazine people like bill leigh, chris jisi and brian fox (plus greg olwell in the older days) who have be just the best to me by letting folks know about my journey through life via the righteous musical classroom of bass.
september 30, 2008
ok, just got back safe to my pedro town, all the 2008 touring for the stooges is now done - read the tour diary here. lots of recording/mixing and local so cal gigs to do now...
august 31, 2008
it's been front-hoot-page-news since it happened but now I'm moving it here to the news page. on the morning of august 4, 2008 the stooges got all their music stuff stole outside the embassy suites hotel at 208 saint antoine ouest in montreal, quebec, canada. the rental truck everything was in was found the next day empty except for two mic stands. my 1963 gibson eb-3 (known as "the little bass") got took but I'm philosophical about it... I loved her much but maybe she had to go and I have to learn to let her go - like it was maybe somehow symbolic in my life. I'm really sad for scotty and ron loosing all their stuff, knobman rik too. it's very fortunate steve had his sax in his room w/him cuz that's the one he used on the "fun house" album. a very righteous thing that happened a couple days after the theft was a very generous man named andy driving up from his constableville, ny town and giving me his 1969 gibson eb-3 bass and what could be more kind than that? much MUCH respect to him and now I'm working the andy bass w/all my heart.
july 31, 2008
since the end of may I've been on the road w/the stooges and this will continue 'till october first - read the tour spiel I chimp here. after more than five years, it's still such a mindblow for me playing w/these cats - much respect!
last week in amsterdam, via my old buddy and euro bookerman carlos, I was invited by liesbeth who does gigs and records as solex to come by and record. she had made up forty loops for me to improvise and work my bass to so I went at it, one after the other. it was scary at first cuz I wanted to do good for her but I got a little calmer and by the end she said she dug it and had "like three albums worth" of stuff to use. she's great people and I'm very grateful for her kindness.
june 30, 2008
during june 10 - 12 I was in brighton, england (in between stooges gigs) to record as much bass from me and drums from my friend sam dook for an album's worth for our new proj cuz. I also got to paddle a kayak there - the first time in an ocean other than pacific!
then a day after bloomsday (yeah, the stooges played dublin, ireland on bloomsday!), myself and steve mackay (stooges sax man) recorded an album's worth of stuff w/our friends estel in their town. by the way, the five songs we did w/them last september are coming out in august.
may 30, 2008
during may 11 - 13 I was in tokyo, japan to record fiftythree pieces of music to go w/fiftythree spoken word pieces my friend richard meltzer had wrote and recorded for me. spielgusher is the name of this project. mister shimmy was on guitar and ms yuko was on drums/percussion while I did bass, trading improvisations off of motifs each of us would take turns in coming up w/for starting the creation of each piece. we actually ended up w/sixty pieces in three days even though we had planned for four. oh, for the last couple of pieces, mister nago joined us on guitar (all three make up the band mi-gu). I'm very grateful to my most kind friends, it was truly a righteous experience for me (you can hear rough mixes of six of the music pieces here). we're looking for this to be released as soon as we get it all together, music and spiel.
via internet, I've also put bass to some songs folks have flowed me: tobacco ("black yogurt"), the clubber lang gang ("for broken people"), kawaii kedo ("beat it up") and hiroshi-san ("pursuance"). much respect to them, they're all very kind and generous to have me aboard!
april 30, 2008
we did it! me, nels cline and bob lee did the new black gang album but it ain't done yet - just their parts along w/my bass. I still gotta mix it after doing the singing. it's trippy, it's called "my shubun no hi" and it's about autumn so yeah, it's like a "concept" record... but it's not an opera! but you know what? in a way... all the words are about trees! anyway, jimmy messer sure did a great job recording us - much respect to him as well as my guys.
back a couple a weeks while up in san francisco, eric mcfadden had me record four songs and a jam w/him and his trio and then the next day I recorded four tunes across the bay in oakland w/kit and bof these sessions were a gas to do - much respect to these cats for having me aboard. you can get the resulting seven inch here.
april 1, 2008
happy birthday d boon! big love always for the man and it's no accident I'm...
starting my black gang album today! it's not an opera but it does have a concept - autumn... my autumn! I know it's spring now but that's how things worked out... anyway, it's w/nels cline (his hurts are better now!) and bob lee in downtown los angeles w/knobman jimmy messer at his studio called the institution. oh yeah, bob lee did a recording diary cuz I was a little to emotional to chimp one after each session - I'll do one when I do the spiel and mix in the fall, after stooges touring whether I'm emotional or not (I will be - this is a heavy album for me!).
february 29, 2008
it's the second anniversary of the day I had the surgery that saved my life from the illness that 'per-near killed me. yes, it was eight years ago but since the day doc hopkins cut on me was a leap day, I only have to revisit it every four yeas. much respect to him for his dedicated work. I was too young to die and still have much to do. grazie dio, grazie mille.
just done w/the brother's sister's daughter "japan tiny tour 2008" and you can read my tour diary here. much gratitude to everyone who made it happen cuz it was much a righteous journey for me.
hey, I got a new funanori tune called "toumei sunday" to work on while on tour and submitted a bass part for it to miss kaori today. I know it'll take much work from me but her music is beautiful and every bit worth it. very exciting for me, I think she wants to make an album!
january 31, 2008
some bad news: nels cline has big neck/arm/hand pains/numbness and so we're gonna push back the black gang recording 'till april now. seems like shit is conspiring against my autumn record but early spring makes some sense to make it - opposite poles! and anyway, nels' healing up is top priority. I'm glad to say I got all my health back even though those bugs tried to make a comeback on me a couple of weeks ago.
good news: I got to record on a bunch of tunes last week w/the the book of knots folks in san francisco for their third album and that was a blast - they are some great cats (including a bass hero of mine, tony maimone).
the brother's sister's daughter "japan tiny tour 2008" kicks off february eighth.
december 20, 2007
I turned fifty years old today, whoa! got to paddle this morning... it was righteous, especially since I've been sick for 'pert-near two weeks and have been unable to get in my kayak or even pedal my bike. also for that reason (being laid out w/the flu), the black gang recording will happen now february 2 - 5 of next year cuz I just wasn't strong enough. I wanted to do it before the solstice cuz it's about autumn (my autumn) but it'll happen in winter now though it's still about autumn (my autumn).
november 11, 2007
aaaarrrgggghhhhhh!!! I try to put up a news trip at least once a month so sorry about october but I was out wailing on a 2,506 mile roll-through of the u.s. in the boat (steering wheel callouses on the palms to match the bass ones on the finger tips!) as soon as I got done w/the gigs I was talking about last month... I did at the last minute get to play halloween though, thanks to thurston inviting me to do a ten minute solo version of the mose allison tune "young man blues" on just bass and singing before he went on w/his solo proj band in visalia, ca. I came upon a pumpkin patch on the way to the venue and carved up the appropriate headgear after finding one fitting for the job - see me working it here. a big thanks from watt to thurst.
I am recording a new black gang album w/nels cline and bob lee before my fiftieth birtday (this december twentieth, two days before the solstice).
you can now get the first three funanori songs via itunes, itunes uk or emusic.
finally, I am doing that tour in japan, february 8 - 21 of 2008. it's an improvised trip called brother's sister's daughter and will have kramer on fuzz bass and myself on thunderbroom plus samm bennett on drums for the first eleven gigs and yuko araki drumming for the last three. the band lite from tokyo will be on all the gigs w/us, good cats.
september 30, 2007
today me and petra did our version of "floating" - a migu song - cuz they asked us to do it for their upcoming release, whoa, thank you kindly. it's a beautiful song.
stooges touring (very much dug it) has just calmed down for the next while and right after I had some happening hellride and missingmen gigs.
oh, maybe in february I'm part of some gigs in japan for two weeks.
august 31, 2007
 people! next week, on september third, I am so happy to tell you the first three funanori songs me and kaori have ever done together are coming out as part of a split cd ep called "a tiny twofer" on transduction records along w/three songs by the tokyo band LITE. my friend raymond pettibon did the cover. thank you kaori and raymond!
july 30, 2007
just back from doing bass w/ the stooges for the fuji rock festival but in the days before it while I was in tokyo, I got a chance to be the bass on two songs w/one of my favorite bands ever mi-gu and it was a total mindblow for me. they're gonna be released ealry next year along w/me and petra haden (as pelicanman) doing a cover of their song "floating" where they're gonna add to the tracks we send them from cali. I also got to do bass on a bunch of things for kyoka so my first time ever recording in japan was very happening and I am very grateful.
june 29, 2007
ok, tour goes all summer w/ the stooges for me but the by the end of september it's time for them to do a break so I'll have time to get w/the new missingmen stuff plus a bunch of more projs... oh yeah, the funanori songs are recorded and just need to be mixed - can't wait to tell you more about that as it happens...
may 27, 2007
folks, summer's coming on and I got lots of gigs w/ the stooges in all kinds of places... just love working the bass and learning from these amazing cats! you can read watt's stooges 2007 tour diary and follow his quest for less clams and more clear thinking. yeah, right!
april 1, 2007
happy birthday to d boon, he was born on this day in 1958. much love to him.
you can now get michael t. fournier's "double nickels on the dime" on paperback.
it's part of the 33 1/3 series
march 20, 2007
two new records w/watt bass on them:
out today is the master's voice by the unknown instructors on smog veil records.
also now out (actually released two weeks ago) is the weirdness by the stooges on virgin records . I join them on a u.s. tour for it starting april 5th.
oh yeah, I collaborated on a song for the book of knots album called "traineater" - thank you much bass brother tony maimone!
february 28, 2007
I just did a cover of a blue oyster cult song called "burnin' for you" w/nels cline on guitar, chad smith on drums, petra haden on violin + backup singing, money mark nishita on organ and me on bass and spiel. we did it at satellite park w/paul roessler engineering and it's coming out real soon on a compilation called "guilt by association" on engine room recordings.
january 31, 2007
hey, I got yet another something going on! it's called funanori and first word of this proj was here. now kaori knows how to play all kinds of stuff and now she's working on shamisen. actually, she wanted me to know that the okinowa take on the shamisen is called a sanshin and that's what she's gonna use w/this. I pretty much knows only bass so I'm gonna work that. what were gonna try to do is something different than what we're known for but of course it'll bringing bof of our histories into one place so it won't be totally foreign to who we are. we're oceans apart but music is good for connects like that. we've been asked by the good folks at transduction records to be one half of a cd ep w/a tokyo band called lite so we're working on that right now. we'll have some music up here soon too. in this case, hearing can say so much more than reading.
oh yeah, the watt bbs is back in action - big thanks from watt to geoff and macdaddy.
december 29, 2006
I had my fortyninth birthday nine days ago and what more of a righteous b-day gift could one get but to have nels cline playing his heart out right next to you at a banyan gig? no greater present have I ever had, much respect to bof him and perk (who was on the other side of me) plus also the very generous gig-goers who filled the pad w/much good spirit to light watt up big time!
now on the online front, some problems here in mike watt land: folks have been telling me that the myway.com account for hoot page email contact has been fucked up big time so I now put into effect a hootpage [ a-t ] gmail [ d-o-t ] com one instead and have abandoned the myway.com crap. I apologize for all shit that might've been lost cuz of this... damn, I'm sorry. there's also been problems w/the mike watt bbs and it's been down for a couple of weeks now but my friends geoff and macdaddy are working together to get that back up and running real soon so I'll let you know the new url for the site when it's together. thanks everyone for bearing w/me through these bumps on the internet road.
november 5, 2006
hey folks, a big "happy birthday" to mike watt's hoot page and ain't a trip that it's now ten years old? whoa... man, does time seem like a train forever shoved down the track or what? thanks to everyone who gives the hoot page a look-see to learn about things watt and his wack life from the lunatic himself, trying to get it together enough to make the low flow. love and bass, bass and love... much respect to d boon.
start your own band, run your own web site!
october 27, 2006
the release of the second album by the unknown instructors, titled "the master's voice" on smog veil records has been pushed back to march, 2007 (content info in the july 29, 2006 news) due to getting things more together for it come forth. "no wine before its time" - I think orson wells said that and I'll let it apply here. in between now and then, a two song 7" 45 rpm single w/one of the tunes on the upcoming album I wrote words for and did the spiel called "in your town w/out you" is coming out on 1968 records.
speaking of writing words and doing spiel, I did just that for one tune on the estel album that came out today. I used my poem "the day I woke up w/cat eys" for their "regardez moi..." song. this is a great band from ireland and me + the secondstring secondmen (w/paul + raul instead of pete + jer) were very fortunate to meet them when we shared the stage together for a dublin gig last year.
september 30, 2006
hey, I've moved! the new pad is only two blocks east of where I just was though so don't worry cuz I'm still in my pedro town.
august 28, 2006
coming up at the end of september are the first ever mike watt + the missingmen gigs, my new trio w/tom watson and raul morales. we've been asked to open three gigs for m. ward and then three weeks worth of shows w/ the red hot chili peppers in europe (plus some gigs our our own on their days off) from november 20 - december 13 of this year but I'm still making time to do the stooges gigs at the all tomorrow's parties gigs that thurston is curating. can't wait to record w/tom and raul, that'll happen next year some time.
july 29, 2006
I just learned that "the master's voice" (the second album by the unknown instructors) will be out october 17 on smog veil records. this is improvised music jammed up in october of 2005 from joe baiza on guitar (also project co-producer), george hurley on drums w/spiels by maumee poet (and project organizer/co-producer) dan mcguire plus david thomas and raymond pettibon. I even do one spiel besides working all the bass.
track list (vocalist in parenthesis):
1. swarm (dan mcguire)
2. in your town without you (mike watt)
3. at the center (dan mcguire)
4. this black hat is rage (david thomas)
5. twing-twang (raymond pettibon)
6. end of the world (dan mcguire)
7. tar baby sees the rising sun (david thomas)
8. machine language (dan mcguire)
9. doghouse riley (david thomas)
10. maggot sludge (dan mcguire)
june 27, 2006
ok, it's now officially out - the double-dvd release of the minutemen documentary "we jam econo" on plexifilm and you can order it here!
may 28, 2006
the watt from pedro show will now be updated much quicker after I get one done due to the fine folks at sightworks making it now possible for me to use ftp to get things happening instead of a cd-r to them via snailmail. for example: the last show (the 103rd one, w/guest yuka honda) was done friday night and then posted the next day at noon... less lag is less of a drag! also available once again is the twfps archive of shows past.
april 25, 2006
the double-dvd release of the minutemen documentary "we jam econo" has been confirmed for june 27, 2006 on plexifilm. there's three hours and fortytwo minutes of extra content besides the ninety minute feature being show in theatres now. you can pre-order now to get it before it hits the shelves.
some other exciting news: I got a cd-r in the mail from iggy labeled "secret plan" and it's got thirteen song demos w/him singing into a minidisc recorder w/scotty on a little kid drum set and ron on a tiny guitar amp along w/him, all done at his pad in miami. these are songs meant for the first stooges studio album in over thirty years. my mind is totally blown as I work my bass to these babies. ig wants me to spend three days w/him in august - just me and him - so he can nail down what he wants out of me on bass for recording in the fall. I am very excited about this music!
april 1, 2006
it's that time of year again, it's d boon's birthday today and I'm missing him big time. I know he'd like to help out somehow so in his name I've set up stickers through cafe press where all the money received goes to doctors without borders. you don't have to get these though to remember him right, just a thought his way and I'd be very grateful... I owe him so much. man, did he give it his all - so inspiring and what a dear, dear friend.
march 30, 2006
last night I had the incredible opportunity to take part in peforming at the disney concert hall a tremendous piece written by glenn branca called "hallucination city" symphony #13. I was among sixtyfive guitarists, nineteen other bassists and the incredible drumming of virgil moorefield (who I got to sit right next to!), all amazingly conducted by john myers (whom had my total attention cuz otherwise I would've been way lost). to my starboard was bass brother alan deremo who very much helped me so too - I was sick w/flu and fever and barely together but hell if I was gonna miss an opportunity like this! it was a mindblow to the nth degree for me, one of my greatest musical experiences ever. much, much respect to glenn and reg for having me aboard plus all the musicians who passionately took part.
february 28, 2006
I got the word from rocket fuel films people tim irwin and keith schieron that the minutemen documentary "we jam econo" now has a tentative retail release date of june 27, 2006 on plexifilm as a double dvd set w/lots of extra stuff not included in the ninety minute version that's been screened in theatres for the last year. much respect to tim and keith from watt!
january 17, 2006
the beginning of a new year, coming on the tenth one now for the hoot page, damn! after all this time, I finally acquired the mikewatt.com domain name, crimony! I set it w/a pointer so if you type that in your url box, it'll bring up the hoot page and things will still be as you're used to it.
the good people at mcnally-smith college of music in saint paul, mn have set up an annual mike watt bass guitar scholarship for an incoming bass major. I am deeply honored by them doing this - making it possible for people to find creativity and expression in music has always been a big goal of mine ever since me and d boon started playing for people. much respect from me to jack mcnally, who I got to meet when I did a seminar on the campus last month and to steve mcclellan who helped make it happen.
december 20, 2005
yet another circlin' 'round ol' sol... I turned fortyeight today. had a good paddle this morning in my kayak (I named her "zaby" from a charachter in thomas pynchon's "mason & dixon") out from our harbor, past the angels gate lighthouse and into the open sea to celebrate. hell, tuesdays are a regular paddle day for me anyway. "one life is many days" - something I learned from of reading james joyce's "ulysses" - I'm still learning...
november 30, 2005
folks, I found a new anchor necklace to replace the one I lost in england last august! I feel a whole lot less naked now though I miss the vibes that came w/the original deal cuz someone was very generous that way. hopefully some of that somehow will get transferred from the original to this new one.
there was some confusion about whether it was really me on a certain myspace.com page (it's now gone) so I went and put up a simple mike watt one to help clear things up some. I'd like folks to know that the minutemen myspace.com page is a tribute one run by a friend named josh adams.
october 26, 2005
 got my first payment from cafe press for those "punk is whatever we made it to be" stickers and am sending doctors without borders all the proceeds. lots of thanks to everyone for helping out w/this cuz it's a cause I much support and will continue to do so. (in 2018 cafe press closed this account, oh well...)
on a much less important note, I'm asking if anyone has any idea where I can find a replacement for the anchor necklace I lost at the end of my last trip to england back in august. it's about an inch and a half long and was given to me by a gig-goer after a performance of my "contemplating the engine room" opera at tt the bear's in cambridge, ma during the "putting the opera to bed" tour '98 and I've worn it constantly ever since. I've been looking everywhere and feel 'pert-near naked w/out it.
september 29, 2005
"the way things work" by the unknown instructors has just come out on smog veil records. this is improvised music jammed up in august of 2003 from joe baiza on guitar, george hurley on drums and myself on bass w/spiels by poet dan mcguire of maumee, oh and jack brewer of saccharine trust (like joe baiza) spoken on top. two weeks from today the same line-up plus special guest david thomas (of pere ubu) w/his thoughts/words/voice will enter total access in redondo beach, ca (where the minutemen's "project mersh" e.p. was recorded in 1985) for round II two of this proj.
august 31, 2005
last night's double-take on the original "fun house" album for atp's "don't look back" series for a sold-out crowd at the hammersmith apollo in london, england was quite a capper to end this summer's stooges gigs in europe. all sixteen of them were total mindblows for me to be part of - you can see/hear three stooges songs from the reading festival 2005 a few days ago or read what I chimped for my own word's-eye view of each one (still got to get the last two posted though - hold on, I'm almost back in pedro!).
july 30, 2005
I'm very sad to say that art collins passed away a few days ago from a heart attack (here's a obit piece). we met through him being the manager for iggy pop and I loved him much, forever will. he always showed me much respect and was such a great cat to be around, his spirit was always up and much inspiring. he was not your typical "manager" at all - many times being in the pit, helping ig get back on stage after diving in. he was a kind and gentle man. all of us in the stooges camp have lost a dear friend. I'll think of him always working my bass for them.
june 19, 2005
happy late bloomsday to everyone (it was june 16th, also birthday time for raymond pettibon) - it's late cuz I've been very busy w/touring, doing a last go-round for the "sickness piece" in europe (tour diary here - that makes 105 times it was preformed total) and then back over there for stooges gigs (will continue w/more of that all summer - read watt's word-eye view here). speaking of those cats, there's a live album of last year's tokyo gig called "telluric chaos" w/me on bass just out now. also out in two days is "look at all the love we found: a tribute to sublime" where petra haden, stephen perkins and myself did the "work that we do" tune for our part on it.
april 1, 2005
d boon's birthday today and I'm thinking of him much. he would've been fortyseven like I am now. what would I be doing today w/out him in my life, where would I be? I pedaled past the pad we started the minuemen in early this morning. man, I miss that man much. gotta play that much harder then while I still got time to do some work. folks have asked me about d boon stickers and through cafe press, I made a version (ovals is what they got there) of the ones I've had at gigs and at the same time, you can help out an organization I support called doctors without borders cuz all the proceeds I get from these stickers will go to them. much respect to d boon, a cat w/a heart who gave his all. big love to him.
march 13, 2005
good news for folks in eruope who want to be able to get "the secondman's middle stand" w/out having to import it - easy action will be releasing it next month to coincide w/my "el mar cura todo in europe too" tour 2005 in those parts during april and may. included w/the ablum will be a free second dvd disk containing videos for "tied a reed 'round my waist" (by lance bangs) and "beltsandedman" (by mike muscarella).
february 8, 2005
keith schieron and tim irwin will premier their documentary on the minutemen which is called "we jam econo" friday, february 25, 2005 at the warner grand theatre (478 w. 6th st., san pedro, ca), doors at seven pm. the show will start at eight. george hurley and I will be doing a q and a thing right after. the piece has live footage of us minutemen playing and interviews w/bill morgan, brendan mullen, brother dale, brother matt, byron coley, carla bozulich, carlos guitarlos, chris morris, colin newman, dave markey, david rees, dez cadena, ed crawford, flea, george hurley, greg ginn, henry rollins, ian mackaye, j mascis, jack brewer, jean watt, jello biafra, joe baiza, joe carducci, john doe, john talley-jones, keith morris, kevin barrett, kira roessler, kjehl johansen, kurt schellenbach, lisa roeland, martin lyon, michel c. ford, mike martt, milo auckerman, nannette roeland, nels cline, pat hoed, randy johnson, ray farrell, raymond pettibon, richard bonney, richard derrick, richard hell, richard meltzer, robert holtzman, scott becker, thurston moore, tom watson, tony platon and vince meghrouni plus some watt spiel (of course). you can get tickets here. a big thanks from me to bof keith and tim for putting in so much work on this and being so patient w/a lunatic such as myself.
january 19, 2005
the mike watt bbs is now up! much thanks to geoff, macdaddy and cabral for getting this happening. on some sad news, pete mazich can no longer tour w/me cuz of reasons the same as former secondmen drummer jerry trebotic. taking his place for the upcoming europe tour (april/may) will be former screamers keybaord man paul roessler, who's a great cat. he helped out w/the last two weeks of the "the cord that spun its own top" tour 2003. me and raul look foreward much to playing w/him.
january 1, 2005
I just did the polar bear swim - here's the new year and watt would like to wish everyone hope for good things to come of it. a couple of days ago I got a new boat, a 2005 ford econoline e-350. hopefully it'll give me at least fourteen years like this one I'm now retiring. man, am I gonna miss that old boat and am so grateful for all the faithfulness she's showed me and my guys through some twenty tours. me and pete will get this new one set up in tour mode though our next tour won't be needing it's services seeing as I have to rent one to use where we're going: europe, sometime during april and may. more details to follow as they develop but one thing I can say for sure is that I'll have the secondmen w/me to do "the secondman's middle stand" for those folks in its entirety like what we just did here this past fall. can't wait... it's been 'pert-near seven years since I've done a watt tour in those parts.
december 21, 2004
happy winter solstice to everyone! yesterday I turned fortyseven years old and got a righteous sunrise to celebrate it here in pedro while I was on my pedalin' route. oh, you can see the video for "tied a reed 'round my waist" that lance bangs made at the wattage.com site that has scenes showing me paddlin' my 'yak (her name is "zaby").
november 30, 2004
whew, done w/the "el mar cura todo" tour 2004 (you can read the tour diaries when you got some time), got back last week but have been really busy playing the catch-up needed to do after one of those things plus getting ready for doing these two gigs me and george hurley got ahead of us as a duet doing minutemen songs in england coming up in a few days. sure is neat playing w/georgie again and just getting to hang out w/him.
september 18, 2004
it's tour time now and we're very much underway w/the "el mar cura todo" tour 2004 one - in fact, tonight's the tour's third gig and we're playing sacramento (there's sixtyfive shows in sixtysix days total charted out for this baby) but that's how busy I've been - just getting this up in the "a hoot and a holler" place on the hoot page now... sorry about that. bof pete and raul will be chimping tour spiel along w/me so look to see how our three voices interweave to hopefully produce some kind of semi-coherent narrative of how this journey develops. much respect to those who do get a chance to see us play the piece in its entirety in the next nine weeks.
august 24, 2004
"the secondman's middle stand" was released today on columbia/red ink. whew, finally - watt's first record in 'pert-near seven years! the minutemen weren't around that long! I promise to put out records way more regular from now on, I swear. tomorrow I shoot a video for a song from this record, the one called "tied a reed 'round my waist" w/ lance bangs, who's a great cat. he's gonna film me paddling my kayak here in the harbor by pedro and then the workspace in long beach that raymond pettibon does his art in since I put him in the song. raymond's been a big inspiration and a dear friend to me for a very long time. like I say in the song, he's my virgil.
july 31, 2004
back from a righteous stooges tour in europe - wow, a total mindblow for me. some big news regarding my next tour, "el mar cura todo" w/the secondmen of the u.s. + canada from september 16th to november 20th where we're doing "the secondman's middle stand" in its entirety: drummer jerry trebotic will be unable to do it so I've enlisted fellow pedroid raul morales (known to folks here as "rol") to take his spot on the trap kit. he's twenty years younger than I am but w/a real fire in the gut so me and organman pete mazich are learning him the sickness opera now. you can pre-order the new record at the wattage.com site. we'll perform the whole piece w/jer once more: thursday, august 5th over the air at midnight (so actually, that makes it friday, huh?) on kxlu (at 88.9 fm in the los angeles area and it'll also be streamed live on the web) for eric stringer and his "livation" show.
june 22, 2004
damn, looks like lollapalooza 2004 has been scissored. I'm very sad for perry farrell cuz I know he worked so so hard on this. I've alway had much respect for per and he's always been the best to me. much condolences to him on this. plans for me to tour the u.s. and canada are still on though for my own "el mar cura todo" one w/ the secondmen though from september 23 - november 20 so you can see us do my new "the secondman's middle stand" piece in its entirety pluse twenty minutes of encore stuff we're getting together that we've never played for folks before. dates will soon be up here on the hoot page.
june 21, 2004
happy solstice to all. just back from a righteous trip celebrating bloomsday in dublin, ireland. trippy going to a town and not having a gig there! much thanks to anto and family for the hospitality. june 16th is also the birthday of raymond pettibon too so that makes it even more special for me. last minute lameness prevented him from being there w/me but at least I got to see art he made for it at the royal hibernian academy. spent hours at the national library of ireland which had lots of original james joyce manuscript stuff besides hoofing 'pert-near three full days down the streets written about in that mindblow-for-watt "ulysses" book. got to chow monkfish by the irish sea too. wild.
may 24, 2004
tonight I'm a guest of hassan jamal on his "straight ahead" show on killradio.org at midnight (pdt). this last saturday I recorded "work that we do" w/ perk and petra at rick keeler's pad in torrance, ca. it's a sublime tune I was asked to do for an upcoming tribute record to them coming out on skunk records later in the year.
may 17, 2004
perry has asked me to headline the solar sound stage (solar powered) at lollapalooza 2004 this summer w/my secondmen guys. he's also asked me to chimp tour spiel like I do on my tours for the whole event, acting sort of like a "correspondent" of some kind - perry likes to call it "maintaining a boatman's log." much respect to him! also, I've been told by the columbia/red ink folks that the "the secondman's middle stand" album will be available for download a month before it's physical (now august 24) release - more details on that when I get them. on another note, us banyan guys (stephen perkins, nels cline, willie waldman and myself) just finished recording the third album last tuesday and now it just has to be mixed. I ended up writing a lot of the music on it but it's very much a collaborative thing between the four of us. perk leading his band is a great spirit to rally around - much respect to him too!
april 2, 2004
folks, things have come up that are gonna delay things some here from watt-land. the first thing is about the "the secondman's middle stand" album - it's now gonna come out in the summer, august 17. there just wasn't enough time to get things together enough - like my product manager (who I respect much), peter fletcher, said: "it's been a while since your last record and we should set this up right" and I couldn't agree more. it'll come out through a columbia imprint called red ink records which will help too, keeping things closer to the iron. all my columbia people will still be on board and helping me out so there's nothing different about that. one change though due to the record coming out later is me holding the upcoming tour off 'till the beginning of september and going nine weeks, a full-on u.s. one and not a little four weeker like what was planned to start at the end of this month. all and all, it's a much better plan and I hope no one's too disappointed by these changes. like orson wells said, "no wine before its time." amen.
april 1, 2004
happy birthday d boon!
march 16, 2004
 the dvd from that gig we did last august, "iggy and the stooges - live in detroit 2003" is out march 23! wow... I'm just about to leave for japan to play three gigs w/them now and that's great news! more good news: I paddled my kayak for the first time in over ten weeks yesterday! I started pedaling my bike again a few days before that. my forearm's so much better - tons of prac w/b my secondmen guys and the jom & terry show ones have helped me much cuz I had quite the atrophy going. also, this record I just finished, "the secondman's middle stand" looks like it'll be coming out april 27 on columbia. pete, jer and petra did such a great job - I'm so proud and honored to be on that w/them.
february 2, 2004
w/everything done but the singing and mixing for my next record, "the secondman's middle stand," I'm here now in ann arbor, mi to record a junior kimbrough song called "you better run" w/the stooges. pretty neat staying w/ron asheton (who I dig much) at his pad, even w/the heavy contrast weather-wise w/back home in pedro. it's in the twenties (farenheit) here - all white and snowy. "colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra," like my pop used to say but that's small potatoes compared to getting to play w/these cats. I'll get back to the record when I return thursday.
january 18, 2004
ok, we're underway... me and the secondmen (pete mazich and jer trebotic) started recording my next record, "the secondman's middle stand" two days ago (friday) here in pedro at karma studio. actually, we really started taping yesterday - read about it in a "the making of 'the secondman's middle stand' recording diary" I just put up here on the hoot page. my starboard forearm is really sore and far from healed but life has picked this situation to put me in now so that tape (or hard drive) is rolling! hopefully I can get this released in april, that's what I'm hoping for...
december 30, 2003
I met martin tamburovich in high school. he was born and raised in pedro and played sax in the san pedro high school marching band. we graduated in 1976 (along w/d boon and george hurley), right at the same time the punk thing was happening and we got into that scene much. we went to as many gigs and got as many records we could - we ate it up. I spent much time w/martin in those days, he was very influential on me. he was open-minded to all kinds of things and we did lots of stuff. in 1978 we started the reactionaries - martin, george, d boon and myself - the first time I actually wrote songs for people to play. our first gig was w/black flag (their second or third one) here in pedro at a teen post. we continued w/that band until the middle of 1979. martin, d boon and myself started a label, new alliance records, in 1980. as d boon and I formed the minutemen (and would later add george hurley, who had since joined hey taxi! but by then they had folded), martin went on to play w/the slivers and then the plebs. I have many great memories of us together. w/d boon getting killed and me making fIREHOSE and touring lots, I didn't see martin as much. in the late eighties, he moved to the san francisco area. I'd see him when we would play up there. I last talked to him a few months ago on the phone and he sounded in great spirits - I wanted to see him again cuz it had been so long. after I got done w/a benefit here in pedro a couple of weeks ago, I was told martin was killed by a bacterial infection after just a couple of days, on december second. he was only fortyfive.
I met rick van santen in the early days of the l.a. punk scene. I met a lot of people who weren't from pedro then, which was a trip for me. after moving to pedro from virginia at ten, my whole world was pedro and then w/punk, my eyes really got opened up. rick sold shirts for the screamers when he was like only sixteen or something! though he didn't play music, he loved the scene and fit in where he could make things work, like putting on gigs. in fact, when were a labeled a "violent sst band" (which was so fucking stupid cuz none of us sst bands were about that) and couldn't play clubs like the whisky and the roxy, it was rick who got the minutemen to play there, opening for bands like fear and x. the scene could sometimes be kind of cliquish, especially for mooks from pedro like us but rick was never ever about that and always open-minded to us. he went on to manage twisted roots and celebrity skin, some trippy hollywood bands w/their own sound. later, he went on to co-own goldenvoice w/paul tollett and gary tovar, which was very important for our scene, making gigs happen where there was opposition and prejudice to try and stop it. rick was so generous, always an ear for me or him to call up just to see if I was ok. he would invite me over to watch boxing or hoops, he was great to be around. I last saw him at the all tomorrow's parties festival close by in long beach last month. he was so happy about the stooges playing - he was part of the coachella festival that got the first gig going back in april. he died saturday night from flu sickness. he was only fortyone.
I will miss bof of these guys much, they were great cats and important to my life. I know as you get older, the odds of folks you know dying get higher but I still can't get used to it much. I do know I loved them so and will miss them bof big time. bye martin. bye rick. soft seas for you...
december 20, 2003
today I turn fortysix but the big news is I had a bike wreck yesterday at the crack of dawn. acutally, I was chasing the crack of dawn cuz the sky was lit intense w/red. my zeal to get a shot down at the land's end part of pedro (the southern end of pacific avenue) caused me to pedal like a maniac and forget my awareness for things coming up... like the big fucking bump (acutally bumps cuz there's two of them real close) on gaffey while you're going south and crossing eighteenth street. I flew through the air and landed on my arm and leg, then face but a helmet and a beanie under it (it's cold that time of day - even in cali!) kept my head safe and I actually puffed my mouth up w/air to cushion the blow when I planted it on the deck - no chipped teeth. there's scrapes on the left leg but nothing like my last wreck over three and half years ago when I tore a big chunk out of my left knee. the worst part is a real sore left forearm that makes it tough to use the fingers so tonight's two dos gigs are gonna be tough but I gotta do them cuz they're important benefits, stuff I always do this time of year. these hurts I have are my fault but I'm sure gonna learn from it and hopefully anyone reading this will too. the lesson: stay aware on a bicycle and look up the road in front of you at all times to make sure you can deal w/what's coming and the condition of the road you're gonna be rolling down!
december 1, 2003
I have to let you all know that the stooges gig in s.f. for december 12th has now been changed to an "iggy and the trolls" show so ron, scotty and myself won't be there to help ig out. I got some great stooges news though about playing overseas - looks like tokyo on march 19, 2004 and osaka the next night!
november 22, 2003
this has also just been brought to my attention by an old friend, marty lyon: he's now got a web site that's got pictures he's shot over the years for sale, including minutemen and fIREHOSE ones (speaking of minutemen, there's a new documentary by tim irwin and keith schieron called "we jam econo" that's being made right now). it's at http://martinlyon.com and he asked me to let folks know they click on over and check it out. in other news, looks like I'm doing four more songs w/the folks in listing ship where I man the stand-up bass in january for their next album. all right! oh, I'm in the new cobra verde video, "riot industry" from their new "easy listening" album. I play an "idle american" and end up doing a "fred sanford" when I can't get what I want on the television - I collapse to the deck w/a heart attack!
november 14, 2003
back from tour - another one done. it was a fun one, so many good times playing w/the red hot chili peppers and flaming lips. we had lots of jams together, flea joining us every gig on trumpet and as the tour went on, all the peps and lips joined us on stage - it was a blast. you can read the tour diaries me and pete wrote every day of the journey - jer brought a video camera and recorded his impressions that way. wish I could put some of that here on the hoot page but I don't have the capabilities yet. as soon as we did the thirty hellride from calgary to pedro, I played like halloween w/a costume on like I love to do. I wore a mask pete and jer got me in seattle called "leather licker" - it was all rubber so there was no air and hot as hell but it's worth it for halloween, my favorite holiday. then I had three gigs w/the stooges which was a total mindblow - at the new orleans gig (voodoo music festival 2003) just before we went on, iggy asked me to play the gig w/my shirt off - "show them you mean business, mike" - whoa, haven't played w/my shirt off in like twenty years! another blast to the past was playing last week w/minutemen/fIREHOSE drummer george hurley as a duo doing minutemen tunes at the all tomorrow's parties festival in long beach (only a few miles from pedro... I could've 'pert-near paddled my kayak over!) - hadn't played most of those tunes in like twenty years. george was amazing! I'm gonna play more w/him when I get time - no wonder we spent fourteen years as a rhythm section! the folks in the crowd were really righteous, they sang all of d boon's guitar parts and it touched me much. the next night of the festival was more stooges for me and that was a hoot - iggy and the asheton brothers were on fire (as was steve mackay on the sax)! at one point, near the end of "dirt," iggy came up to me and yanked a cigarette out of my mouth and hurled it off the front of the stage... no more smoking on stage for watt at stooges gigs!
october 1, 2003
it's been brought to my attention by richard derrick that he's released a cd of recordings containing d boon performances called "d boon and friends" on his own box-o-plenty label. he had me write some liner notes and I do appear on some minutemen songs that were recorded live at a strange gig we did in january of 1985 at ucla - strange cuz richard filled in on drums for george hurley - something that never ever happened except for this one time. there's recordings of d boon jamming at parties and in living rooms w/richard and crane plus d boon solo gig stuff.
september 23, 2003
those stooges gigs in europe were a blast though I got some sad news the day of the spanish one: johnny cash had passed on. I know he was sick and missed june much she died but it still hit me kind of hard. he had a huge influence on me and d boon, especially as boys cuz his pop (danny boon) was way into country and the only cat we heard more of than senor cash was buck owens. I liked johnny way better (so did d boon). his songs and his voice were intense and we'd heard him much in the boat on tours - he just wasn't w/us just as teenagers. much respect to the man in black. flea asked me to open up on a western leg for the red hot chili peppers so me and the secondmen (pete mazich and jerry trebotic) will be out w/them (flea wants to play trumpet on a couple of tunes w/us, dig!) and my old friend wayne coyne and his flaming lips in october. looks like us secondmen will start recording our first album together in december. until then, me and george hurley have been asked to do a duet of minutemen songs for the re-scheduled all tomorrow's parties festival at the queen mary in long beach, ca in november. the next night I'm playing there agaian w/mister iggy pop and the stooges. whoa!
august 24, 2003
very sad news about wesley willis passing away a couple days ago. he was always kind to me and even wrote a song for me on the spot at a chicago gig of mine, he called it "mike watt rocks!" yesterday I recorded w/joe baiza and george hurley in an improvised session at karma studio here in pedro to provide instrumentation for maumee poet dan mcguire to recite over, it being his brainchild. he had us do jams we made up on the spot for the pieces. so great to play w/these cats again! tomorrow, cuz of last week's northeast blackout where the show was scissored, I play w/iggy pop + the stooges at the same pad again to make up for that. am excited to wail!
july 31, 2003
recorded eight songs last saturday and sunday in burbank at a studio phillip haut runs (no name for it yet) w/the l.a. band listing ship in sidemouse mode. it's neat to help other folks out w/their music, especially when it's challenges your usual way of doing things. their music is minimal and delicate - hardly any percussion - mainly it's singing, guitar and viola w/some vibes and keyboards. I had to rein in the aggressive bass mode and try not to bogart the sound. I used the purple plower bass that darrin huff made me. this was a fun time!
july 19, 2003
very sad news: "double nickels on the dime" producer, ethan james died of liver cancer on june 19th (l.a. times obit here and an allmusic guide bio here). ethan james was a dear friend of mine in this music world. we spent much time together at his radio tokyo studio in venice, ca during the 80s. he's the man who recorded and mixed the minutemen's "double nickels on the dime" (mixed all fortyfive songs in one night!) as well as "project: mersh" and the first side of our "buzz or howl..." eps plus our final record, "three-way tie (for last)." he also recorded and mixed the first two fIREHOSE records and all three of the dos ones. I worked w/him producing saccharine trust's "we became snakes," the treacherous jaywalkers (josh haden's first band) first album, phantom opera's first album and joey eight's (w/carla bozulich) invisible chains album. I did the crimony (me and paul roessler) single and ep w/him. I actually played w/him too for my part of the ciccone youth single where he programmed the linn drum. I worked w/him lots when it came to me and recording music (along w/my good friend spot, who did all the early minutemen recordings). he was way into jamming econo and never tried to stick me up w/a money scam (quite a rarity in this racket). ethan also had much respect for another's music and was never dominating or controlling - it was always a pleasure working w/him. he was always patient w/me and such an insightful cat - he had tons of knowledge about all kinds of things - you could never be bored spending lots of time w/ethan! I liked ethan very much and will miss him so. I have many good memories of him and they will stay w/me always. he was very inspiring. I feel I was very fortunate to meet and work w/such an individual, he instilled much confidence in me to pursue music as an endeavor and not be afraid to take chances. love to you ethan and please rest easy.
june 6, 2003
ok, the "the cord that spun its own top" tour 2003 is done, whew! this one was pretty heavy on me in a physical as well as mental way - the mind for me is always getting twisted up by these things but this time my body took a bunch of blows - sick right before, in the middle and then right when we get back and do a san diego gig, damn! another bit of misfortune is me and george hurley doing a duet of minutemen songs for the l.a. version of all tomorrow's parties has been postponed 'till the end of september. oh well, you gotta roll w/these things. it'll be happening when it's ready. so glad these folks thought of us. I'm recovering from this sickness I just went through - weak but at least not all hurting. I had a lot of good experiences on this last tour, a lot of it made possible by the cats I got to play along side of: jer, pete and paul - great, great folks, I love and respect them much.
march 21, 2003
man, there's been a war going on in my body - the last week has been an intense hellride for me but I'm coming out of it now. the scariest part was some of it was where the illness was. there's a problem I'm having pedaling w/these bike seats - I just have weakness there. not an issue now much anyway cuz here comes another tour - no time for pedaling in pedro cuz it's "the cord that spun its own top" tour 2003 w/myself and the secondmen (pete mazich and jerry trebotic). we bail on d boon's birthday, april first. but let me you tell about stuff that happened this month: on march first, syd straw had me on stage at mccabe's in santa monica, ca to do bass for three songs. she's great - her ma was there too (on another "go play bass for three songs w/them at their gig thing" a week earlier, I got to once again jam w/brother wayne kramer and john sinclair at the baked potato in north hollywood). last week I found out I get to play bass (and cover for the ir-replaceable dave alexander, who died in 1975) w/at the first stooges gig in twentyeight years! it'll be at the coachella festival on april 27. all of the other three still-living cats will be there: bof asheton brothers and the iggster. very much a mindblow for me! I'll have to bail from my dear secondmen cats for three days (hence the hole in itinerary from memphis to carborro) which saddens me but they say they're behind me doing this, these are dear compadres - thank you pete and jer. one more thing: what would d boon think of this war (the one outside my body)?
january 23, 2003
last night I re-united the original black gang crew (the cats recorded my opera, "contemplating the engine room" - myself, nels cline and steve hodges) to do a session at the village in west los angeles backing rickie lee jones for a track called "it takes you there" for her next album. it's a beautiful song plus nels and hodge did a great job as did rickie in bof her performance and directing us. it was great playing w/my old buds again too.
january 10, 2003
a happy 2003 for all. very sad about joe strummer passing from this life, strangely on the same day as d boon did (december 22), seventeen years later. he will be missed. let me relate a funny thing about me and d boon when we were younger: as boys, we were way into the who but never realized that folks like them from england in those days sang rock w/u.s. accents. later, when we first heard english punk rockers sing, we were convinced that a cat like joe strummer sounded the way he did cuz he was singing w/a cigarette in his mouth or something. it was a mindblow for us to find out he was actually singing w/the same accent that he talked like. weren't we a couple of corndogs, huh? me and d boon liked that first clash record, the one w/the green cover and the singles that came out before it. we saw them w/the dils and bo diddly, saw kickboy get hurt by asshole bouncers. I put joe's name in a song I wrote for d boon back then called "history lesson, part two." bye, joe.
speaking of lyrics I wrote for the minutemen, my new book, "spiels of a minuteman" is out now on l and you can find out more about it here. I'm leaving for montreal later today to play the book launch organized for it by chapu.
november 28, 2002
happy turkey day for everyone. well, I had a hard disk crash - an ibm scsi ultrastar - aaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhh. then when I got a replacement, a seagate cheetah, the monitor went! oh well, I got more than ten years out of it w/lots of use. I got a 19" one now econo so now my weaker eyes get more of a break. enough w/'puter stuff, let me tell you about some music things I just did. up in vancouver, bc (canada), I recorded this past sunday w/ernie hawkins for a 7" vinyl single w/his band removal. I did the spiel to a backing tracking they had recorded some years ago - I did it sort of leonard cohen style. monies from sales of this record will go to doctors w/out borders, folks I've done benefits for in the past. the next night, I did bass on four tunes w/vancouver cats station a for their new record. their bassist barry fell from a roof earlier this fall and nearly died and it was quite an honor for me to help out here. barry played guitar on two of the tracks, he's healing up good. much respect to his bandmates sean, chris and jeff who were very dear and kind to me. I was kind of uptight at the beginning and the first tune took a few takes but they made it easy to loosen up and get the others quicker. great cats, great band.
I get to play w/nels cline three times this week and last night was the first one. it was at the hard rock cafe by the beverly center. need I say more? obviously, I'll play anywhere - especially if it's a chance to play w/nels and perk. there were five opening bands and a bunch of kids came from malibu in a rented bus! bizarre gig but nels was on fire! damn. perk too. lucky watt.
november 6, 2002
updated the hoot page to include this here news page. now I can give a holler out you folks' way via the hoot page when things of interest regarding such comes up. I also put up a watt bio. this was brewed up last spring before my "our oars became wings" tour by the cats at columbia records (you will be missed, howard wuelfing) so it's bof a little out of date and oriented towards my next record (coming this spring), which I was playing some of the songs from, along w/ the secondmen on that tour. my bud chris grier is working on a more comprehensive one. "soon," that's what I keep hearing from him so that's what I tell people when they ask: "soon."
loop back to mike watt's hoot page
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