Well, save whatever eyes you have left, because one month from now, you’ll need those peepers to enjoy the live Bug experience, comin’ at ya in both DVD and BluRay formats February 21 and entitled In the Hands of the Fans. Why the name? Well, the six cinematographer types behind the camera were all rabid Dino J fans who won a fucking contest (awwww!) granting them the privilege of  filming Bug, performed live by the original Dinosaur Jr. trio.

Mike Watt, Henry Rollins, Keith Morris, and of course Murph, Lou, and J. Mascis all make appearances, and I just bet there are cameos of their children doing something cute before the show (“Dinosaur Jr. Juniors!” as Allison Anders calls them). If all that, plus the excitement of seeing Dinosaur Jr. reformed, rehearsed, and rapacious isn’t enough to sell you on the project, get this: all the footage was directed and patched together by none other than Dave Markey, director of such amazing films as The Year Punk Broke, The Reinactors, and my perennial favorite, Rap Damage (In Seearch of the Hip Hop Rabbit). If any man knows how to make cinematic magic out of guitars feeding back, it’s Markey, who also does a little interviewing: check out the back of his head in this here trailer!

So, get enthused! And look here very soon for information on how to buy your copy.

-Dan Collins

P.S. Though I’m looking forward to seeing this footage from a venue in D.C. (I’ve heard the set there was one of the best all tour), when will bands start to shoot more live concert footage in one of L.A.’s many beautiful historic venues, e.g. the Palace, the Orpheum, or the Wiltern? Do these buildings have greedy lawyers or something? I love seeing my favorite bands on film, but I would enjoy it even more lit by the romantic flicker of a familiar Art Deco sconce. Sigh…

Mike Watt somehow knew that Thundercat was coming. When he said people thought the Minutemen were Martians from planet Jazz, well … that is pretty much exactly what we get with Thundercat’s The Golden Age of Apocalypse, made by a kid who played bass for Stanley Clarke and Suicidal Tendencies both. Thundercat speaks now about the sublime and the ridiculous, but not in that order. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

You recently posted a photo of a really colossal dick someone drew on a backstage wall at a show you played. As someone who has spent much of their adult life as a touring musician, what is it that makes people draw dicks on backstage walls?
I think it’s a code of silence—when you don’t see one, something tells you instinctively to draw one on the wall. The secret society of penis drawers—that’s exactly what it is.
How many dicks have you drawn?
A few hundred. Different sizes, different shaped penises, people’s faces shaped like penises—all kinds of stuff.
Do you get any kind of special hotel discounts once you’ve done like 500?
Oh—The Dick-Drawer’s Membership Club? Yeah, you get a membership card, a box of condoms and a vintage Playboy.
On Pitchfork, you reminded Flying Lotus that although PBS’ Bob Ross is a completely delightful, positive guy on camera, he may well be hiding a terrifying dark side off camera. Since you are also a delightful, positive guy … what terrifying dark side are you concealing from the world?
I try not to have one at all. But everybody’s had their point where they had all they can stand and they can’t have any more. There’s always that. Other than that, I just try and … you know, be cool. I’ll say it like this—as a kid, I wasn’t evil, but … I would hide things a lot. I’d have dual things going on. My parents would think I was at the studio, but I was really hanging out with my girlfriend. ‘Yeah, I’m at the studio—but I’m really Downtown, drunk, hanging out at the Standard!’
Did you ever get busted when your parents were like, ‘So, son—you’ve sure been at the studio a lot! Can we check out those demos?’
The sad part is I actually was working. I’d be doing this, and all this debauchery would be going on, but it’d go hand in hand. I’d come home and play my parents something new, and they’d have no clue that I was wil’in out. That I was butt naked on the street with a sword the other day!
What?
In the past. I used to be kinda crazy when I was younger. Take fireworks and shoot ’em into oncoming traffic. Run around naked.
Naked on the street with a sword? I couldn’t even pull off two-thirds of that.
It’s not something I planned out. I have tons and tons of random moments in life that occur, like, ‘How did that happen?’ I don’t know, but it happened!
Did you develop your mind-boggling mastery of your instrument simply because you had to fit music into the tiny amount of non-debaucherous time available to you?
No, no—growing up I spent a lot of time just being very exposed to different things.
Exposing yourself to different things?
Yeah, exposing myself to different people—all kinds of stuff! As a child, I was very much into my visual my art. They kinda went hand in hand. They had different emotional pulls on me. Playing bass—around the age of 10 is when I got really serious, from my dad playing me Jaco Pastorius’ ‘Portrait of Tracy.’ It blew my socks off. I couldn’t believe it was possible to be that beautiful on an instrument, so I took to my instrument even more. It developed naturally, but also there was part of me that wanted to get better—I’m still like that.
How did it affect you as a musician to have a parent who’d already done it?
Things were not very far off because I had an example to understand—‘This is how the business works, this is how these kind of people work, this is where you wanna be, this is where you don’t wanna be …’ I had all that at my fingertips. That’s part of what gave me an advantage in functioning properly in different scenarios and situations. It wasn’t new to me. When I started traveling, I just felt like it was part of what I was supposed to do.
What sort of hard-way things do you think you got to skip?
I was reared in a very Christian home, so it was more perspective. It wasn’t ‘DON’T DO THINGS.’ My parents were very open to me being who I wanted to be. They didn’t try to stop me. They just wanted to make sure I had these moral values before I left their house. They drilled it very deep into me, but at the same time I got an opportunity to be in the world—to be myself. They encouraged me to dress how I wanted to. My mom used to have purple hair! For the last ten years! Well, maybe last four or five years. She has a mohawk now!
Didn’t your mom name the record? You’re the second person in two issues to have a record named after the Apocalypse. Why is the Apocalypse on people’s minds?
Spiritually speaking, you can feel it in the air. Everything is just so weird. It’s almost like … something bigger than you moving faster than you. And then the different things biblically that are talked about going on that we’re seeing happening in front of us—wars and rumors of wars, people rising against each other, all that stuff that’s been talked about before. It’s not saying … we’ve been in the last days a long time. Just because they did a movie called 2012 and everyone’s paying attention to 2012—this has been going on for some time.
Supposedly every generation thinks it’s going to see the world end. Maybe I’m falling for that too. But it is a weird time.
Absolutely. We been experiencing the end age for a long time, and it has nothing to do with this generation. We never know the generation it is who’s gonna see it. But somebody’s gonna see it, even if it’s our grandkids’ grandkids. We’re seeing pieces of it. People can feel it in the air, you’re starting to see things come to the front. Creatively, artistically—that’s why it gets described by so many people in music. That’s how you feel! It’s not to be taken advantage or publicized like, ‘OH NO! THE END OF THE WORLD! OH NOOOOOO! THE MAYANS PREDICTED IT!’ It’s not one of those things. You can feel it in your spirit. And that’s all you got a lot of the time—your spirit. Calling the album The Golden Age of Apocalypse, it’s like a very … it’s a precursor. It means, ‘Watch what’s going on around you.’
What is your role as a creative person in these times?
A lot of the time, I just wanna be used by God. That’s just what I really want out of what I do. Whatever that entails. I try my hardest to listen to God and what he’s trying to say to me, or if he’s trying to say something to me—if there’s nothing to be said. It’s imperative that you pay attention and try and see where God wants you. It could be as small as … like when God told you to go left and you went right. And you know it was God talking to you! A lot of people try and downplay, like, ‘Wasn’t that just you talking to yourself?’ But the truth is—you can take it or leave it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. He’s there. It’s just that time you should play closer attention, and try and figure out where you’re supposed to be.
A lot of times when we talk to people, we talk about how complete examination and knowledge of self can be a pathway to powerful art. But this is the opposite. It’s about total humility, about losing the ego to become a vessel.
Yes—absolutely. The more you can be selfless, the closer you can get to Him—where God wants you. You stop holding on to things that block you from trying to get further and get into different places. I try not to be blocked by anything! One thing that can be a block is money—it seems so funny, but it’s true.
Yes, I laughed painfully.
Your ability to feel comfortable in your own skin can sometimes be connected to the fact that you don’t know where your next check is coming from so you can’t think properly—I’m not saying that’s me, but there’s so many different places insecurity can come from that can hinder you from doing what you’re supposed to do. The key word in a lot of it is just having faith. Other than that, it does not make a lot of sense. There’s always the opportunity to not make sense of something—you can find a reason why not to do something, but sometimes it’s better for you to put yourself in the line of fire and figure out where you fit in. That’s how I treated everybody’s music I’ve ever worked on. I wanna be used and utilized by a person to convey what they wanna convey.
Mike Watt told me the same thing—the bassist is there to serve the song.
I know Mike Watt! Absolutely. Stanley Clarke said that to me: ‘Your job—you’re a servant.’ He was trying to explain the difference between being a servant and being the artist. I was so used to being a person who put myself in other scenarios. He was trying to get in my head like, ‘Look, you’re always gonna have a mentality in your head that allows you to be a servant. But that’s part of bigger picture of being an artist. You got to know when to pull it out and when not to because it can be easily taken advantage of.’ I was like, ‘Huh.’ I never necessarily looked at it like that but the truth is yeah, everything I’ve done musically … you’re finding where you go.
You’ve played with so many kinds of visionary people—is there anything that you can connect between them? Is there something they’ve done that could help other people make breakthroughs in their own work?
You just gotta be where you’re supposed to be. It sounds corny, but that’s all we got. One of my favorite sayings is, ‘It’s not supposed to be fair.’ You wish it was and you want it to be, but it’s just not supposed to be fair. Anybody that’s a hard worker is gonna see the result of what they put their hands to on whatever level it is, but you can’t define a person’s success in that they’re rich or everybody can see them doing what they’re doing. You gotta look at a little more than that and see where their head is and what their point was and what they were trying to get to and what they consider success. It’s the funniest thing on this planet when you see like a Michael Jackson. Let’s go with a dude that tall. Michael Jackson was a star since he was a kid. The truth is, it wouldn’t matter. You can try to follow the same formula, which the record companies used to do, and try and put a group together to find the one Michael Jackson and focus on him and try and make him into a star. Yes, you can definitely monetarily try to recreate that. But the truth is you can’t mistake the funk, and Michael Jackson was the funk. He didn’t need to be a formula that was created. This dude had four brothers that were killin’, and their dad beat ’em into shape. It was in his nature to be a star.
You can’t really plan it—you just have to make your work something you’re proud of. Because you could win the lottery the next day or get hit by a bus.
As funny as it is, that’s the truth. And here’s another thing. When it comes to how girls perceive guys that are musicians or stars—the girl gets with you—
This could be a whole other interview!
But the same scenario, where the girl gets with you cuz you’re rich and famous and then she leaves you. Is that really a successful situation? Or is it actually successful when you have a person who is genuinely loving and it has nothing to do with the money and the situation surrounding you? What do you consider success? ‘You know, man, I found that one girl I’m supposed to be with, and I could lose all my limbs, or I could have golden limbs dipped in platinum with lasers shooting out of the fingers, and she wouldn’t care.’
Those limbs just kept getting better.
Gold limbs? Platinum? Lasers? Garlands and wreaths hanging from them—all kinds of cool stuff, man!
Is there a 6-year-old Stephen somewhere deep inside you who is so proud you still sport Thundercat outfits?
I’m definitely like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m free enough in my own skin to dress the way I wanna!’ I love the association cuz the truth is it’s all love and it’s a beautiful thing, but people always tell me I look like Will.I.Am or like—‘Look, it’s Kanye!’ I’m gonna take the compliment, but that’s just people’s way of trying to associate what they see because they only see greatness like them. So if you see me like Will.I.Am, I don’t look at it as a dis or a downplay—I feel like I have the potential to be that great, too! I’m happy to do stuff like that. People are like, ‘You’re just trying to be different.’ But for me, it’s about connecting to what I’ve always been. I could show you a picture of me when I was 5 and I dressed the same way. I’d have a voice-changing helmet and some boots and a cape and glasses and a toy guitar with Lion-O hanging out of my pocket. Not to say I don’t grow, but certain things are the fabric of who you are. And the aesthetic is something I’ve held on to, and I’m proud to be able to be my own person in front of everybody.
Mike Watt says the Minutemen really confused people—that people thought they were Martians from planet Jazz. Do you think you’ve finally delivered the Martian jazz record planet Earth has been craving?
I don’t know if I put out the ultimate Martian jazz album, but I’d hope it definitely made some waves and changed the way people write and see and do music. A lot of the times people see music and see stuff that takes you a little bit out, and then they’re like, ‘Ah, this stuff is too difficult—this is not something people wanna hear.’ But there’s gotta be something there! It happened before. Jazz mixed with hip-hop and punk is nothing new! It’s not something I’m gonna take credit for. It’s definitely my take—my understanding. I’d hope I make an album that worthy of the title—‘This is the Martian album I’ve been waiting for for so long.’
The album is so fluid—the songs feel like they could flow in any direction.
I definitely have to give it up to Flying Lotus for his ability to hear things. I’m the kind of guy who’s scatterbrained naturally. I remember I’d be playing this stuff, but I never heard any sort of flow—I was just creating music. Lotus rearranged everything and put it in this order, and I was like, ‘Whoa!’ It all made sense. We’re very in sync with stuff like that.
Where’s the overlap? What matters most to you both about music?
Other than the basics which everybody would know … you have to have a certain amount of understanding to be able to go further, and not just be playing somebody else’s song or playing a bass line like, ‘Is this good enough?’ We hit points where we were just flowing. I remember when we were recording ‘MmmHmm,’ we were in the middle of doing stuff and that started coming out and he just started recording. Even with ‘Dance of the Pseudo Nymph,’ when we did that, I literally remember dancing around his living room, playing bass and dancing with the Indian headdress on. … And the funniest thing about ‘Dance of the Pseudo Nymph’—if you ever sit me and Lotus down, we will argue to this day where the ‘one’ is in that song. That’s how in sync we were! Neither of us could tell we were on a different ‘one.’ We were still in sync—but in two different places! When it came out, he was like, ‘No, this is where I was.’ ‘Well, this is where I was!’ We went through seven minutes of a song—we were just creating! In all honesty, that’s the fun part of the music to me—the unknown. There’s always a chance to know what you’re doing—‘Oh, OK, we’re gonna retake this part and you’re gonna slow down and …’ There’s always that. Let’s just go wherever we’re going. It’s the freedom in the music.
John Coltrane supposedly once said something like, ‘The more I know, the more I know I don’t know.’ One of those times when people asked him why he never stopped practicing.
I would never compare myself to Coltrane, but that’s super-freakin’-awesome. That’s the truth. You could know everything and still know nothing.
So is this what you want from music? As many of those moments as possible?
Heck yeah, man! I always wanna connect like that—have my heart in what I’m playing. As I get older … I think the word is ‘jaded.’ I always ask myself how to keep that zealousness about being a young artist. You can lose that. We just get old. I always say to myself, ‘I never wanna get old.’ When it comes to the music, I always wanna be in search of these moments where it’s … beautiful.
You were joking in another interview about hosing down crowds with DMT to help them break through—does that mean DMT is just a shortcut to get to the same place your music is going?
I just want people to break out of their stuff. I remember one time I saw my older brother taking a drum solo—he’s the most amazing drummer hands down in the world right now—and he starts taking a solo, and I see this guy jump out of his chair and start dancing. But not dancing—he was almost like a Deadhead. He was twirling—he was gone! Some people were making fun of it, like, ‘Look at this crazy guy!’ But they didn’t see what was going on—this guy was completely connecting to God through this music right now! He’s gone somewhere! And also just knowing it’s possible to be that connected. … Yeah, I wanna see people come out of their selves a little bit. Especially in L.A.—I definitely wanna see people go to a higher level.
So have you ever done DMT?
No—just watched a video on it one time.
You’re into gore movies—what’s your sentimental gore favorite?
Faces of Death! The first time when I got to watch Faces of Death—
Were you under 18 so it was illegal?
Oh, hell yeah. It was on the internet. I was with my cousin and we used to go get on the internet just to download crazy clips like that. It was so trippy. We’d watch some clip of a guy’s head being bit off by an alligator, then go eat Yoshinoya and write music.
You talked before about how you get frustrated with anime directors who deliver one masterpiece and then disappear—you seem obviously concerned with longevity. What is it you need to give people in the future so they aren’t like, ‘Man, Thundercat—there was so much more he could have done!’
I see the music as part of a bigger picture with me of course. I’m not just a musician—I’m an artist. I’m ready to start on my second album. I just wanna make sure people always know where to find me. Naturally I wanna be huge and all the crazy Hollywood dreams—
A bass-shaped pool?
Thundercat-shaped pool! Red in the hot-tub for the eye—hell yeah! Check this out. The rest of the pool is actually hot—like where the cat is. And the eye is actually cold as hell, but it’s red so it looks like it’s hot! You got me all excited—I sound like an idiot!
You once threw your bass into a crowd of 60,000 people—that’s got to be like throwing your child into a crowd of 60,000 people. What happened? Did you ever get it back?
No, I gave it away, man. This was one of Rage Against the Machine’s final concerts. It was Suicidal, Mars Volta and Rage Against the Machine, and we were on right before Rage Against the Machine. You think Europe has hardcore fans? South America … I don’t even wanna call it hardcore. It’s demonically possessed! Blackened hardcore metal fans! They’re insane! The emotion was so flying while we were playing—they were so excited because apparently Suicidal hadn’t been there in twenty years. You could feel the energy—it was so inspiring. It wasn’t that I didn’t love my bass, but what happened was … right at the end of the set, we were going off and I took my bass off and threw it in the audience! And the promoter told me no one had done that ever—they don’t really have instruments like that over there because it was kind of a higher-end instrument, and they don’t get those down there. I was so happy about that moment, I said, ‘I hope I blessed somebody.’ It felt like that to me—let’s go somewhere else, let’s take this further! The funny thing was it was like throwing a dead cow into shark-infested waters. When Rage Against the Machine went up on stage, people were like lighting stuff on fire. They couldn’t go on for an hour. It was like, ‘Oh, look—the Apocalypse is coming! Let me put on this bow tie and play the ‘Bon Voyage’ song like on the Titanic!’ When Rage started playing … they started the intro and couldn’t come on for twenty minutes. People were ripping chairs out of the stadium! But it felt like it was all in love. People weren’t trying to hurt each other. They were just so excited. It was intense! I felt happy to be part of that moment. I threw my bass out because that’s how I felt. ‘Take it—it belongs to you.’

THUNDERCAT WITH ROY AYERS, PETE ROCK AND J. ROCC ON THUR., NOV. 17, AT EXCHANGE LA, 618 S. SPRING ST., DOWNTOWN. 8 PM / $30 / 21+. EXCHANGELA.COM. THUNDERCAT’S THE GOLDEN AGE OF APOCALYPSE IS OUT NOW ON BRAINFEEDER. VISIT THUNDERCAT AT THUNDERCATTHEAMAZING.TUMBLR.COM.

(out now on clenchedwrench)

This minimal, jazzy two-bass band (with no other instruments!) stars Mike Watt, but it was started by in the mid-80s by Kira Roessler (Twisted Roots, late-era Black Flag) as background music for taped bedtime stories for her nephews.  Four albums and 26 years later, there are songs on dos y dos that still hold the late-night feel of someone reading you a story, a story that comes from a safe place but may not always have a happy ending.  Mostly instrumental, these songs feel somber yet warm, like an old dog being petted.  And when Roessler does sing, her broken, flat, whispery voice sounds both motherly and like a warning—like on “Ties to Bind,” which may be a sinister description of the War on Terror but may mean something else, something utterly private.  Without any other instrumentation, these bass duets feel insular, not meant to impress anyone but the immediate members of their fan family.  Like any family, dos has been through death and divorce (Roessler and Watt they were married once, and rumor has it Watt is still in love), but over the course of the last 17 years since justamente tres, their last release, Roessler and Watt have somehow taken all those tragedies and wonders and turned them into these songs.  And you don’t have to listen if you don’t want—this album isn’t going anywhere.  But when it’s late and you’re alone, they invite you to sit, play dos y dos, and become a part of the quiet, melodic, throbbing conversation.

-Dan Collins

Mike Watt is a wise man. The Minutemen bassist rediscovered nature some time ago riding a bicycle around San Pedro. But there was a time in his life when his leg kept falling off. He’s full of facts about birds absorbed from Stooges drummer, Scotty Asheton, over the years—knowledge he relishes like a librarian. Watt recently released Hyphenated-Man, an existential opera and surreal expression of Watt’s head broken into 30 mirror pieces, each piece inhabited by a creature from a Hieronymus Bosch painting: 30 evil beings that reside in a man’s mind, rather than reality. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

You seem to know about a lot of things. Do you like to learn?
Well, the drummer of Stooges is way into nature—Scotty. He teaches me a lot. When I started riding bicycle again, maybe 38 years old, I started riding and listening. This guy moved to Atlanta and sold me a 10-speed for $5 and every morning early, hardly anybody out, I’d ride and I started hearing things that I didn’t really hear before, like birds, even the ocean. We got wild conures from Chile, and these parrots got free and started their own flocks. I got a car when I was 16 and I stopped riding bicycle. I said, ‘This is for little kids.’ I was an asshole. I figure myself to have been one. The car just separates you so much. Instead of the rhythm of the motor it’s your own rhythm pedaling, but it was rough on my knees—so about eight years ago I started kayaking every other day and that’s a listening thing too, when you’re at sea. You have to be kind of conscious but you’re part of this thing. You get out past the breakers and there’s dolphins, sea lions and pelicans. Pelicans have no song. They’re quiet. No song. Maybe as a baby they do, but not the adults, none. They’re the only bird I know like that. I saw an albatross once. They’re giant, wow. Some albatrosses don’t land for five or six years, the wandering albatross. Birds are interesting.
Is it important to commune with nature?
It is. We forget about that. We can’t even see the stars because of the lights. In the old days, the stars was everything.
What wisdom can you learn from the birds?
Well, shit—they can fly! So it’s kind of a transcending quality there. They have a weird spirit resonance—maybe cuz they can fly, maybe cuz they’re eye creatures. They’re really about looking. I just think they’re amazing. When I was young I was way into dinosaurs. And now they’re pretty convinced dinosaurs weren’t lizards—they were birds. So maybe that’s part of it, our little versions of dinosaurs.
What wisdom have you gained from seeing the world change?
There’s plenty to learn. Life’s about learning. You get it too figured out, you’re going to miss out on that. What’d Scotty tell me? He was talking about birds, and he said, ‘Mike, you got to keep the child’s eye of wonder.’ So being around a little bit, that’s what I’ve gained. There’s always someone around who has something to teach me. Younger people, older people, middle ones like me. Work against getting cynical and fed up with everything.
Any advice about falling in love?
I think getting into it is OK. Try to be genuine with it. There’s so many archetypes that are pushed on us about what it’s supposed to be. I think everyone has their own idea about that so you have to find that inner voice in you that’s genuine to those feelings. I don’t really understand it as being a planned-out thing. A lot of it is having compassion and helping somebody when they’re in a nightmare. I remember once my knee went out in high school in the field and everyone was laughing at me. This one guy went and scooped me up and ran with me in his arms to the locker room. His name was—we didn’t have first names, really—his name was Castaneda, I remember. He could hardly speak English. He was just the sweetest guy to do that for me. Beautiful. This was 35 years ago and I still think, ‘Where is he now?’ He didn’t have to do that and didn’t expect anything from it. He just wanted to—he had to, and that was very sweet, very loving.
That’s the grander kind of love. Is romantic love similar?
Yeah—he put himself out there. Everyone was laughing but he followed his own prerogative. It was brave and romantic love is brave in some ways. Willing to share with somebody and be honest about it—not have an agenda for some other shit, not using it Machiavelli, but just pure feelings. Both are similar. Do you mean also physical? A lot of times when people are physical, I don’t know if there’s a lot of love involved. It’s a personal thing. It’s interesting. It’s a big force in the world.
Aside from getting a job, it’s what you’re supposed to do.
Love is, yeah. The hermit thing is kind of frowned on.
How is being a musician related to love?
It’s weird in a way. It’s expression and almost like foisting yourself, which isn’t too generous. It’s like ‘the possibility.’ You fall in love with the idea of possibility. You do something and maybe it gives you an angle on trying something else out and you love the interest that can pull you into that. It feels like genuine expression of yourself and not doing the same-o trot-out-some-march. If you can engage something in real time and be what you think you are. But because of ‘possibility,’ it’s what you can become too. You can change, maybe even transcend. Sometimes that’s an idea of love—transcend some very brutal reality. You can do that with expression. John Fogerty wasn’t born on the bayou, but when you hear that song you think he’s on the bayou and he’s got all these images going that are very romantic and it’s OK. They become allegorical. ‘Proud Mary,’ I never thought it was about a river boat. He’s talking about the universe and the wheels turning. Things can end up like that. That’s how I do it and keep at it and don’t get all jaded or think this is just to service a lifestyle—which is what? Shit-hoarding objects? There’s something about creating the works, especially now. The gigs are important, too. I’ve done that a long time and still will, but the works—for someone like me who never had children—the closest thing is these works. In a way you make them, but then they have a life of their own. They’re a lot like children. They’re here after you. When you’re not here you can’t do gigs anymore. But if you do works … For example, Bosch’s paintings. If he just talked about those things, I wouldn’t be here getting help from him with my imagery. So I’m grateful he made some works.
What’s your allegory? What do you romanticize?
Being a middle-aged punk rocker, it’s this idea of being combatant in the culture—playing the stuff no one else will play, shit like this. It’s kinda still like from when I was first a punk rocker. I still have that romanticized idea. Not like you’re better than anybody but you’re going to get out there and play your songs. You’re going to make a gig. It’s like a little mission. If you look at it that way, it’s not “I Love Lucy”—this week mayonnaise, next week pizzas. You have an ensemble, you try to make an interesting conversation. You have to fight against expectations or then it just becomes shtick and people are sleepwalking. The whole idea of being awake. That’s why when we first got involved with the movement, it was like, ‘These guys can hardly play but they had this energy to be expressive.’ Actually we never thought of music as expression. We thought it was, ‘Oh, this is how we hang out.’ We never thought, ‘Oh, you might have some kind of feelings that you might need to get out.’
Is it about making noise?
It might be noise. It depends where you are, what people think is noise or what’s music. What’s that called? Aesthetic. Before the Minutemen, me and D Boon, after school, we would jam along to records. Then with punk it was like, we’re going to write some songs, we’re going to play in front of people. That was a whole different idea. I didn’t know about clubs until punk. I’m 13 in 1970 so my teen years is arena rock. You’re in the dark sitting very far away. We didn’t think we could be part of that, although I ended up playing big pads later. When you went to a punk club, you could imagine doing that. The first thing I said to D Boon was, ‘Man, we can do this!’ They’d be in the audience after they played. It was a whole different scene and this intense way of wanting to be individuals. I didn’t see that with arena rock. It was distant and far and a version of hearing the record. The band was an 1/8 of an inch high. I didn’t even know the bass had thicker strings, I was so far away. I never saw one up close. The first few years I just played a guitar with four strings. I just left two strings off. Music wasn’t as accessible to young people as it is now. It was probably worse in the 1950s and 60s. Although in the 60s there was a big garage scene and playing clubs, but it got lost in the 1970s when rock got so huge. After punk, counterculture never died. It goes down a little but it wasn’t like the 1970s—just only arena rock. You could play backyards and you had to play covers—‘Great White Buffalo’ by Ted Nugent for half an hour. You had to play stuff that people knew. Like the 1930s with the swing bands, the whole idea of singing your own song was not happening. That’s why the punk movement wasn’t a style of music. It was a way of thinking about it. 1970s punk in Hollywood was different from the hardcore of the 1980s. In the 70s it was more like artist people being experimental, kinda being anti-rock ‘n’ roll.
Is electronic music anti-rock ‘n’ roll?
These guys playing laptops and stuff? Trippy. At the end of the day, it’s all sounds. Just maybe the sound’s already made and they’re pushing the buttons. I hate to be too judgmental because so many places in life, people can’t pick. People have only so much control over their life, so when they go to a gig, they should be able to pick. I know they can only pick from what’s available but I try to be loose and not so heavy about the heavy shit-shit-shit.
Speaking of heavy shit—this opera, Hyphenated-Man, you kind of go through every kind of shit in a person.
Those little men—I used Bosch in creating those creatures but I was also thinking of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. The scarecrow, the tin man and the lion, they’re the farm hands. ‘You were there! And you were there!’ And Dorothy is tripping out. I know a man wrote it, L. Frank Baum—and it seemed like she was tripping out on ‘Look what guys do to be guys?!’ That’s the big heavy thing on the ‘midlife crisis’—guys start worrying.
Is this your midlife crisis?
In a way, midlife is not that bad. The body is lamer but there’s some real good things. You have experiences you don’t have when you’re younger. A lot of guys are plugged into a situation a long time. I have been with music, but my dilemma comes up all the time. What’s the next thing I’m going to write? It’s not like I had to wait until midlife. Every time the last record got old, I have this crisis. How do I reinvent myself? Is it time to reinvent? What’s it about? My life half full, half empty? I think it’s important to think about these things, but to pretend you’re 20 again is a freak-out. That’s what some guys do, get the convertible.
Is your glass half full or half empty?
I’ve got a lot of projects right now because I’m fearful of half empty, or more than half.
When you get a really good idea and you know it’s good, are you ever worried that it’s your best?
I’m worried about dying before I get the good shit out. One of the best records I played on was 25 years ago with the Minutemen—Double Nickels on the Dime. 26 years now. 27? 26 and a 1/2. It was the summer of 1984. That shit is scary. Whether you get it together, whether people will like it. It’s like never leaving school—you have to get up in front of class and read your stupid report. Some people are born entertainers, like Ig, James Brown, John Coltrane—it seems they can plow into it and they don’t get scared.
Do you get scared?
Totally! But I’ve been doing it a while so there’s some momentum that pushes me through the doubt nightmare. Just saying something’s about middle age sounds gross. I remember being a kid. We knew old, we knew young, we didn’t really think about middle. As you get into the twenties, middle sounds really lame—then it’s there. The body part is lamer, but the experience part is not. I would not want to go through the young shit again. The twenties? No way! So stupid. It’s hard but you got to learn by making mistakes. That’s how you get experience for the other days, if it doesn’t kill you.
What’s going on with your knee? You were wobbling hardcore.
It’s fucking lame.
Can you tell me a really bad knee story?
Yeah, fuck, every time—
How about one of the worst?
Once it went out on stage and, of course, my whole body collapses. My bass is still strapped to me so when I go down to the deck, it follows me down and this peg hits me in the tooth and knocks it all the way back and I go into deep shock. I put my leg back together and no more pain, right, so I reach into the back of my mouth and pull my tooth forward and back in place. And it didn’t die.
You just put it back?
Yeah—I felt it under my eye. They’re long, your teeth. I pulled it back. [Since you can’t see Watt’s physical demonstration, imagine a loose fence post still attached at the top being yanked back then pushed back down so it’s vertical like the others again. The logic behind that game at the fair where you throw a ball at a big mouth is based on real teeth mechanics.]
Do you have to put your knee back in place often?
I did that time. This knee today is more ligaments.
Were you like Forrest Gump as a child?
It came more and more in my teens. Early twenties I had tO have surgeries. I have this disease where parts of your body grow at different speed so all the geometry gets fucked up. It’s a congenital gift.
Do you fear judgment? Do you believe in the afterlife?
Whenever you deal with another human being you should be aware of that idea, really. That would make for a better place, conscious of the moment and not waiting for the hereafter. If in the moment we could think, ‘Hey, am I treating this person OK?’ And hopefully they’re thinking the same thing, instead of putting it off. People get caught up in trends and what’s supposed to be and they can’t feel what’s right. A little humility. That’s what the afterlife judgment is supposed to be for—to make people a little more humble. Some use that philosophy as another stick to beat over people’s heads and say they’re better than others who don’t agree with them.
Isn’t the intention to help you navigate your life?
That gets taken to weird things. Humility: ‘Whoa, I might be wrong.’ People are afraid of doubt or collaboration. It’s tricky. There’s no easy way in it. But it seems like a lot of the ways we take are pretty fucking brutal with each other, which I don’t think is so cool.
Who is your favorite ‘man’ in the opera?
I like wheel-bound-man. In fact, there was a big change. I had him in the middle and I was going to end with man-shitting-man but I was thinking, ‘Man, thank you, Mr. Bosch for little creatures but I don’t want to get caught up in the big picture, reading left to right and so judgmental.’ I thought, ‘Let’s lay back here—people can be very bad to each other and you have to be conscious of that, but it’s too cynical of a thing for me.’ So in the studio with Tony I said I want to change the order and put wheel-bound last. In a wheel, maybe you get another shot. Like the kid on a skateboard, you fall off you can get back up—not forever off this gameboard. Some of that last judgment stuff is just too heavy.
Is there a man with the most of you in him?
All of them. They’re all different parts of me. I try to describe it as a mirror broke in my head in 30 pieces. So it’s kind of a funhouse mirror. Things are distorted and, obviously for the drama of the piece, I weirded out—but they’re all part of me. Even the lame things. I don’t want to be the man-shitting-man.
But isn’t that brave to admit it?
That’s the only way you can change—confronting certain shit. That’s the whole thing too about confronting myself. If there’s one message that comes out, I really think everybody has something to teach me. My life is for learning so it’s OK being where I’m at—this part of the classroom at this point in time.

MIKE WATT AND THE MISSINGMEN WITH LE BUTCHERETTES ON FRI., MAR. 11, AT THE ECHO, 1822 SUNSET BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8:30 PM / $10-$12 / 18+. ATTHEECHO.COM. MIKE WATT’S HYPHENATED-MAN IS OUT NOW ON CLENCHEDWRENCH. VISIT MIKE WATT AT HOOTPAGE.COM.

From Mike Watt:

arrow-pierced-egg-man
now what came first the thought or the man? a crack in the shell a 
busted-up plan thirty pieces of broken-up mirror stuffed in the head 
spilled out here one axis booted the other from a bow errant apparent 
out from the crack one eye is witness confused w/the facts every second 
word muted only half of the whole arrow-pierced-egg-man…

beak-holding-letter-man
fumblin’ for footin’ on fuckin’ ice skates funnel full of folly fitted 
firmly to head the message, the message is held in the beak speak?

hammering-castle-bird-man
thinkin’ there’s some solitude in starin’ off at the furthest view 
while closer up the assault begins the castle that’s a bird comes 
hammerin’ funnel-capped but steadfast too sharin’ some of your 
attributes the hammer blows, the hammer blows! the castle bird’s arms 
throw and throw while movin’ its wall w/creature feet nearer and nearer 
w/out retreat musterin’ resolve you get the clue you’ve met the enemy – 
guess who? it’s you

bird-in-the-helmet-man
the hankerin’ for other skin is trippy for middle man ripe for them 
pretendin’ they were more younger again bird-in-the-helmet-man armored 
tail in the sand arrow planted in the rump talon-toed for scratchin’ 
stuff danglin’ from the helmet’s hook by the bone a sawed-off foot 
panderin’ to work the shill procurin’ ink for the quill now here’s the 
deal, here’s the seal here’s exactly where to kneel the thought that 
got bought was fraught w/reality much too real

belly-stabbed-man
yeah, to know, to know is to feel it in the gut and not just w/spielin’ 
beyond spiel, that’s really feelin’ a belly w/ears stuck to some legs 
no arms or chest – not even a head stabbed w/truth fuckin’ gets bled 
gut kicked – hard truth hits – hard emotions gush – but no word hole in 
the dirt, knocked on the ass all sprawled, just boots and a cap 
thunderfucked and bellystabbed

stuffed-in-the-drum-man
inside the drum beat down dumb the orders come respondin’ numb can’t 
get plumb blows of thump bounced around beaten down outside the drum 
just wanna pound the drum! trapped inside nowhere to hide thumped in 
the bin merciless din

baby-cradling-tree-man
in the fucked-up parade ridin’ on a mouse cradlin’ the aka-chan w/a 
head for a treehouse leaves all gone peeled bark maybe just maybe maybe 
tannis root? ridin’ side-saddle the mouse marchin’ backwards the root 
like a tail danglin’ downwards cradlin’ the aka-chan, cradlin’ the 
aka-chan…

hollowed-out-man
in the shell of the belly of the hollow man some cats made it into a 
kind of party pad both legs planted w/boats for feet the melancholy 
face is an analogy now the hat that’s worn is like a horse track pairs 
of peckers promenadin’ ’round a sack, a swollen bagpipe waitin’ for the 
ear-knife castrate hack and up the stairs climbs another wack

finger-pointing-man
conviction’s like some affliction w/out the clout of some doubt it’s 
fuckin’ nonsense ignorin’ content and lettin’ the mouth just spout it’s 
over here cuz of what’s over there hey! look over there what’s over 
there ain’t over here don’t look over here the only one w/the clothes 
on, the only one w/that face? that’s a good point but what’s the point, 
to finger someone or to warn? look what’s your way, comin’ our way 
packin’ a backhand of harm

own-horn-blowing-man
twistin’ the head all the way ’round workin’ it this way to embellish 
the sound wearin’ the boots to stomp w/the feet makin’ like it’s only 
cuz to stay in the beat blue in the face blowin’ the brains out makin’ 
damn sure that it’s showin’ it out now go figure the trigger to really 
holler fuckin’ holler and hoist yeah, foist expression from repression 
not badge-buffin’ or baggin’ wind but to get out what’s stuck w/in

fryingpan-man
in the pan parts of a man all cut up, gettin’ all cooked up over a fire 
that never tires a life of toil for the oil w/blood and sweat brought 
to boil relentless ain’t this fuckin’ hell? in the pan a face of a man 
intensely hurtin’, intensely blurtin’ “ain’t it done, ain’t I done?” 
but the fryer’s a liar and heats up higher

head-and-feet-only-man
again, feelin’ less than a man usin’ a cloak to hide what’s missin’ the 
look on the face: BAKA! and w/a knife in its scarboard – in the 
cloak… feathers stickin’ out the back waddle about, waddle about 
feathers in the back, stickin’ out no arms for the knife only feet to 
pace, head to wonder what a wonder, what a blunder! what a fucked up 
thing it is

shield-shouldered-man
swagger swagger stagger stagger fumble bumble stumble tumble noggin 
bobbin’ bobbin noggin hardened guarded shoulder-parted fuckin’ tail’s a 
fuckin’ flail probably end up self-impaled half a man is only half a 
man! fisted twisted knitted fitted scarlet hearted costume-parted

cherry-head-lover-man
in the garden green serene a crown of two cherries gently perched 
interestingly passion put-there borne of dream carved that way 
passion-painted reason fainted no, swooned unbalanced, balanced 
headspun swirlin’ and sloshin’ jumpin’ on tears

mouse-headed-man
like a mouse… like a mouse… and the mouse sings… like a mouse…

antlered-man
a hankerin’ yeah, a hunger actually stronger when more younger but 
sentimental ain’t so gentle actually comical when less younger tryin’ 
to act like somethin’ stronger but the ego just won’t let go so the 
shamin’ bursts out flamin’ a dynamic woman w/special skills abandon 
body hear her spiels but this costume fuckin’ blows so get naked let 
weakness show yank off antlers and fuckin’ chuck use the bass be old 
man punk 

pinned-to-the-table-man
loss and liberation forever the connection forever the question be 
brave, watt stop never reflectin’ the lesson ain’t ever less than the 
lesson never lessens

confused-parts-man
mangled-up parts together twisted didn’t realize most existed bafflin’ 
how they’re connected can’t understand what’s existin’ took half a life 
to get this way livin’ the other half in dismay got a hunch, got a 
notion this trip’s like an ocean some shit sinks, some shit floatin’ 
tripped and slipped took half a life to get this way livin’ the other 
half in dismay experience makes an appearance some wise but lots of it 
regret remedy for memory: forget? fuck that, man – learn from it

bell-rung-man
inside the bell as the clapper thighs beaten as they hit the lip cries 
deafened by punishin’ chimes above the yoke a huge horse skull unknown 
inside here in the bell knowin’ only groanin’ the sound of the toll of 
the soul the swinger thinkin’ and swingin’ keepin’ solemn time

boot-wearing-fish-man
ill-fittin’ boots, notice the stagger yeah, that’s right, a fish out of 
water waddle about in the middle of helltown searchin’ around for 
somethin’ to chow down mindless helmet head ridin’ on top mindless 
helmet head bein’ propped up mindless helmet head mouth wide open one 
day get bucked off, surely hopin’ oh yeah, wings – forgot to mention 
those things might be cuz they’re tacked on w/nothin’ to act on 
no-flyin’-fake-things only for posturin’ add to that housin’ the face 
of a mouse

thistle-headed-man
thistle-headed-man! w/hawks on your hand a mule that’s a jug is what 
you saddle up you spread your own feathers boastin’ you’re untethered 
from your place in line even the mouse you’re behind 
thistle-headed-man! butch for the show promenade your cocked-head bow 
ridin’ backwards you, not the mule! a crown of thistle fashioned for 
you to match your head match the swagger mock the mocked loose the 
bladder

funnel-capped-man
full of folly funnel-capped-man thinkin’ you had it happenin’ a 
solution maybe to the problem let go that ego that you’re trapped in

blowing-it-out-both-ends-man
blow the flute become the flute there’s no sound in flutes! throat 
veins throbbin’ eyeballs crossin’ insane ragin’ fuckin’ ravin’ god damn 
go off far too far off ‘pert-near ready to pop! (and no beards)

jug-footed-man
stumblin’ around tumblin’ down fumblin’ about all drown swimmin’ in 
wallow w/every swallow sentimental shmaltzy-bound make the leg a plug 
and stick it in the jug leg in the jug now sop it up

lute-and-dagger-man
green tunic red tights lute slung behind your back now dagger shinin’ 
bright what were you thinking? can’t see your face

mockery-robed-man
in the mirror: fuckin’ poser been around enough to know there’s nothin’ 
underneath those robes except a big time gorilla jones a book for fake 
readin’ a nest on the head w/egg in or funnel on top of beagle ears but 
very glad to admit this irony: one of the greatest devices kafka irony 
kierkegaard irony bosch’s irony cure the mockery cure the mockery cure 
the mockery work the paddle pedal jitensha work the BASS!

hill-man
hey, arrow in the forehead whoa, woman at the back gate hey, face like 
a nitwit whoa, seein’ the sinkin’ ship up and down the fuckin’ hill 
hey, roots comin’ from the legs whoa, out the soil… must be stumps 
made of a hill planted here gotten somethin’ solid between the ears

hell-building-man
gettin’ caught up in it buildin’ this fuckin’ shit but back in the mind 
a truth’s realized the other men the better men the real men respect to 
them submit, retreat embrace defeat and get to work heave-ho the shirk 
and do the dance the wanna-be-man-dance and burn your ass from flamin’ 
hoop jumps compensatin’ for just what ain’t and up the ladder up the 
scaffold w/sacks of bullshit, many mouthfuls hammer for hammer crowbar 
for rod smoke and fire flames and fire higher and higher pile it up 
higher

man-shitting-man
at the heart is envy in the heart of no heart abandoned humanity all 
tore apart in the pit is pride boss of fraud slave of greed willfully 
lost man shittin’ man, man!

wheel-bound-man
many men make up the man the paintin’ and the painter’s hand I’ll never 
truly understand a life is many days? taiyo teaches me his name and 
tsuki dances through her phases I think I’ve learned that life’s for 
learnin’ as I’m goin’ through my trips – me on the wheel as it’s turnin’

—Daiana Feuer

Jandek with Mike Watt (on bass) and BJ Miller of Health (on drums) Saturday, January 8th, 2011, at Crystal Cove Auditorium, 7:30pm, $20.

—Luke Mcgowen

Bombón “El Cowboy”
(From Las Chicas del Bombón out now on 45 RPM)

Chances are you probably already know San Pedro is the proverbial underdog of the greater Los Angeles area when it comes to musical output. Yes, the Minutemen came out of San Pedro and yes, Mike Watt is still really involved in keeping its constantly burgeoning punk scene alive. But San Pedro rarely seems to represent itself beyond the south side of the 110 and the 405 these days. Bombón just may change that. The band’s debut LP, Las Chicas del Bombón, is 25 minutes of ’60s surf-inspired garage punk jams that ride the line between the charm of Beach Blanket Bingo and the soundtrack that might accompany Link Wray surfing on a coffin. The record’s opening track, “El Cowboy,” launches into a realm of swaggering rockabilly, which is quickly sideswiped by later tracks like “Fangbanger” and “Je Vous Veux” that showcase the band’s dark side with ghoulish organ, eerie soundscapes, and vocals that seem to float out of the ether of low tide. Despite the saccharine “ooohs” and “ahhhs” of poppier tracks “La Playa” and “Oh Baby,” Bombón’s members manage to escape the cliché of the cute all-girl neo-doo-wop trios we’ve seen so much of lately by seriously knowing how to rip on their instruments without masking them in a bunch of fuzz. That’s not to say this record isn’t awesomely raw: after all, it was recorded to 1⁄2 inch analog tape in a punk house in a little port town called San Pedro.

—Camella Lobo

Mike Watt is set to complete his third opera. Here is the message transmission exactly as we received it:

mike watt (minutemen, fIREHOSE, solo artist, Stooges’ bassist, missingmen and secondmen leader) sez:
“I’m finishing my third opera (“hyphenated-man”) w/bass brother tony maimone at studio g in brooklyn now.”

“the ‘third opera’ for watt (me) is called ‘hyphenated-man’ and it is w/tom watson and raul morales (mike watt + the missingmen) – different proj than ‘my shubun no hi.’”

It was recorded in the middle of the “prac’n the 3rd opera” tour 2009 in brooklyn, at tony maimone’s studio g (“tony was incredible pere ubu bassist and hero for me in early punk days on bass”)

“we’re doing practice on the songs on the tour but not actually playing the piece which is like one big song w/thirty parts…I put this trio together just for this proj but it’s been a little bit coming since of incredible time spent by me in the stooges classroom. by the way, my first two punk operas were 1997′s ‘contemplating the engine room’ and then ‘the secondman’s middle-stand’ in 2004.

“this one is different in that there’s no _beginning-middle-end_ like the other two… it’s more like all middle which makes some sense maybe since I’m fiftytwo and kind of weird type of middle-aged person, a punk one?!”

While we wait for this epic piece of work, Mike Watt has something to bide our time. On Sept 28 his “Manhattan Project” is debuting Floored By Four (Chimera Music). The “Manhattan project” includes Dougie Bowne on drums, guitarist Nels Cline, Yuka Honda on keys and bass, with Mike Watt on spiel and composing the songs. The album was recorded by Matt Vertaray, then mixed by Dougie, Yuka and Matt at Bowne’s basement studio on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Watt shuffled on stage sporting a fatherly paunch and disarming glasses. When he began to play, looking like a drunk, face glazed with sweat and mouth askew, it took a while to reconcile the image of Mike Watt with what was happening with his hands and face and body. Much like when you see something shocking on the street—like people having sex or a grizzly car accident—there’s a lag time between the sensory and intellectual registration of what’s going on.

It is sometimes gorgeous to watch a person play an instrument. Nobody told Mike Watt that bass guitar is for keeping time, so he plays like an alchemist, hungry, dissolving and coagulating sonic waves and atoms into electrons and back again. He’s not looking for gold. That moment of anticipation when the alchemist stares into the fire and sees promise is far more perfect than any lump he may end up with. His partners in disambiguation, Jerry Trebotic on drums and Pete Mazich on the Hammond organ are, in keeping with Watt’s well-worn “man in the van” ethos and Pedro (Peedrow please, not Paydrow) roots, longshoremen by day and alchemical wizards by night.

One can’t help but hear echoes of the Minutemen in the distinctive bass lines and quicksilver drumming of Mike Watt + the Secondmen, especially after Watt’s balls out rendition of Minutemen classic, “This Ain’t No Picnic.” The organ makes it feel like a revival, some black sky midnight ceremony officiated by Watt and the specters of Tom Waits and Frank Zappa as he bounces in place and gleefully slaps bandmate Trebotic’s cymbals. Like the anchor amulet hanging from his neck, Watt is holding it down, and if he doesn’t gain any converts tonight, you can be sure he’ll be back again.

—Ayse Arf

mi-gu – From space

Nels Cline – Coward

John Coltrane – 40 year anniversary of A Love Supreme

Tobacco – Fucked up Friends

Deerhoof – Milk Man

Melt-Banana – Teeny Shiny

Boris – Smile

Cat Power – You Are Free

Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Sleater-Kinney – One Beat

-Mike Watt