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Mike Watt 9 minute treat.

The Captain

The Captain

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A real gem I stumbled upon. The young drummer & Watt are stunning. Two Minutemen songs, & two covers, in 9 mins flat.

Although I'll always have antipathy towards any guitarist 'taking D.Boon's place' (just can't help it) & as such fIREHOSE & onward never floated my boat.. this bucks the trend: I think the guitar & vox low in the mix helps me cope.


Capt
 
My wife and I caught him & the Missing Men back in 2014 at the Ruby Lounge in Manchester. Really great show and even better that Mike stood with us during Buzz or Howls set...... with my wife thinking why has this rando wandered in from the outside and why is he talking to us 😂
 
That was amazing. Great to see Mike still knocking it out of the park. One of the best rock bassists ever IMHO, jazz level greatness. Fantastic drummer/band too.

PS FWIW I absolutely loved fIREHOSE, Ragin’ Full On has to be one of my most played albums. Just next level stuff and so funky.
 
YouTube’s wonderfully smart and well-dressed algorithm just burped this up for me:


Prime-period Minutemen! Amazing band!
 
@Tony L I thought you'd enjoy these 9 mins. And a fine burp that! I recognise this from the mighty We Jam Econo doco- clips in it were from this show. DB's gtr fairly out of tune unfortunately [edit: until 28mins hey he tunes it!], but vintage stuff especially GH & Watt.

[My opinion on DB's tone, here, which sounds -identical- to DNOTDime: my ears say he used a Rivera-designed fender Concert (IE not a Twin Rev as the consensus of gtr bores on forums say) using a combination of the decent drive channel + diming it too. As you might spot it's -not- a Twin here but a fender 80's model perched behind him: uberampnerdery, I admit].

Capt
 
It should -possibly- have a ? at the end, but what I scrawled here in 1988 is still probably true..

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Capt
 
paulfromcamden said:
So I think he's pretty jazz anyway : )
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I read an interview with him in which he spoke about Mingus and Paul Chambers, much to the interviewer’s surprise and delight, so you are probably right.

On the other hand, he’s written that while playing with the Stooges one night he absent-mindedly played a couple of extra fill notes. Iggy rounded on him afterwards. ‘What the **** was that? A ****ing jazz solo?’ It might have been the free gig I saw, Rouen 2008. It’s on You Tube. If you listen very closely you can hear me yelling ‘…be your dog!!’
 
I saw fIREHOSE around 1990, it was a fun set. Mike Watt was manning the t-shirt booth before the show. I think he was wearing the same flannel shirt as in the video at the top of this thread.

Their encore was a cover of "A Quick One" by The Who. They rocked it.
 
Yank said:
I saw fIREHOSE around 1990, it was a fun set. Mike Watt was manning the t-shirt booth before the show. I think he was wearing the same flannel shirt as in the video at the top of this thread.

Their encore was a cover of "A Quick One" by The Who. They rocked it.
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Nice one, tell us about the show/ where etc. I think that shirt he's worn since being on the cover of one album! The only one I have, Flying The Flannel is it? I'm coincidentally searching for just a shirt myself, I only wear same check types, quite possibly his look prompted me & I stuck with it.

@Marchbanks I'd murder someone to have ever seen the Stooges with the proper guitarist -forgets name- & I think MW jumped on board at their last period, before he died iirc. Saying that, I did cringe at his Dad rock pose during the whole glasto set.. man, I wish he hadn't done that. His only hiccup. The guitarist died shortly after iirc, so that very headline(?) show was a fabulous swansong for him though. Fab show (despite MW's dumb gurning) esp the stage invasion.

Capt
 
@Tony L I will revisit Ragin' after your post.. actually only a few years ago did I cotton on to the drums being GH! I just assumed at the time MW started afresh with two new players, & listened with half an ear only I admit. Plus anything a let down after DNOTDime (even other Minutemen albums: Double Nickels was so vastly better than any of the others before or after, to me).

Capt
 
From a rhythm section perspective Ragin Full Metal on is just astonishing. A superb sounding record too (as is DNOTD). I like the other fIREHOSE SST albums too, but they are less than Ragin Full On. To be honest Ragin Full On and DNOTD are the two I reach for despite having most of the output from both bands, i.e. I probably rate Ragin higher than the other Minutemen stuff.
 
I saw The Stooges with Ron Ashton in 2006 at All Tomorrows Parties - I'd completely forgotten Watt was in the band. They were pretty good!
 
I love the Stooges, but Mike Watt was totally wasted there. About five times the bassist needed for the job in hand!
 
Tony L said:
I love the Stooges, but Mike Watt was totally wasted there. About five times the bassist needed for the job in hand!
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Totally. You could tell he was bored as heck too ( hence the added jazz twiddles Iggy disapproved of, sounds like to me). Aha ok, then it seems like Ragin should prolly be my next Lp buy then. I hate to think how £much nowadays, though. I do recall Flannel as being surprisingly good sounding on the TT. DNickels.. has always kinda astonished me at how good it sounds: one of my reference " hifi Lp's " ( on SST?! Sort of crackers really).

Capt
 
I love a lot of SST recording. Sounds live in front of you, like sitting in a practice room with the band. The best of it, e.g. Minutemen, fIREHOSE. Meat Puppets, Blind Idiot God etc really is incredible IMO. Hüsker Dü being so much heavier maybe faired a little less well in the studio, but still amazing and wonderfully unpolished.
 
@Tony L listening to Ragin now (possibly for the 1st time) & is this one that passed me by or what? A must buy & now I know G.H is the drummer, it clicks for me. And what an impeccably-titled opening song.. I'm hooked from the first lyric! Urgh £75 on eBay tho, so unlikely I'll ever snag it on Lp. Sounds crisp as heck even via iPad.

George Hurley's hi-hats (& parrot photo).. stunning.

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Capt
 
Median on Discogs is £31. Not an album one sees too often, though I sold a shed-load of them at the time (I did a day a week in a Liverpool independent record shop around that time). I just kept on putting it on and people kept on buying it. Last copy I sent out through the pfm shop was at least a decade ago now.

FWIW it is one of those records I’d happily pay good money for. If you’ve ever compared the original vinyl of DNOTD to the CD version it is much the same; the vinyl is just explosive and alive in comparison. It is a great cut.
 
As a non-musician, I find it interesting to hear what musicians think about music I like.

 
@gordon I know what you mean- I've seen a few hardass young black US DJ dudes 1st time hearing/ reacting clips, to the Beasties 2MC's & 1DJ song, perplexed by a camera following a 'ghost-buster whitey dude' for ages without any music, into the depths of a NY basement..

Capt
 
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