Mike Watt: Whisperin' while hollerin' with the Missingmen / Interview

Mike Watt plays Seattle. (All Andy photos, except where noted)

By Andy

Mike Watt was dizzy, he was slammed with a fever. But for the econo-man, king of the bass jam... the show must go on.

And he's an ultra-busy man, as well. During the last week, Watt joined Iggy Pop to belt out Stooges tunes in front of massive crowds in France and Italy. He got sick along the way, but pulled together and traveled to Seattle with fellow Missingmen Tom Watson (guitar) and Raul Morales (drums) to perform their "Hyphenated-man" opera at the Tractor Tavern on Friday. They'll be on the road through November.

I met Watt in the early '80s while hanging around the SST Records office on Phelan Avenue in Redondo Beach. He was with the Minutemen then, and he and the SST guys had a big influence on me with their extraordinary work ethic.

Thanks to friend Travis, he set up the following interview with Watt after Friday's gig in "return" for helping to haul some of the band's gear into the van. Bobo and Cat get credit for sticking it out after the gig while I got the job done backstage.

'HYPHENATED-MAN'

You see that piece, man, it's got I don't how many hundred parts. It's one big song, 30 main parts, but then each part has parts-- there was parts when I fucking didn't know where I was.
I don't wanna make excuses. In Vaudeville, I would sit on the stage and you work the room. It ain't a top-40 band anyway, we've got the unique flavor.

Crowd, very kind-- for one thing, to tolerate a piece like that "Hyphenated-man"... (they may say) "What the fuck's that about?" And they're interested, they wanna see where it's going-- they become part of it.

That's the difference in recording the thing and playing it for people-- they were really with it. Yeah, there was some yamming, there was a bar over there and sometimes we whisper... You know what? That's part of the reality. Any farmer would tell you, "You want a good crop, use a lot of manure." You don't get mad at people for that, you just say, "Wow, that's the situation and let's try to grow something in this petri dish." Maybe some of that stuff made people uncomfortable, like, "Why is he whisperin'?"

What's a gig without people to play to? (Otherwise) It's just a prac.

PLAYING SICK, RISING ABOVE

It's part of the journey, like driving around the U.S., Europe, too, or Canada or wherever, Japan ... there's mountains, there's bayou, there's beach, hills and valleys. You know, if it got all same-ol, same-ol, it would probably be lame. But you get dealt a hand, and I think it's up to you to either shirk or give it your best shot....

One good thing is one life hopefully is many gigs. And I learned from my buddy getting killed, D. Boon in the accident, you never know when the last gig is, so do you really wanna go down on one where you tried half way?

GOOD OLE DAYS STICK WITH YOU

You know coming from them SST days, that's where I learned a lot of this.

If that rubbed off, that means you were open minded enough to let some crazy guys (influence me, as in Andy)...It was all about people being open enough to check out other stuff-- it was not a popular thing. So I don't even have to explain... you know and you feel it and that's why you're writing about music still-- cuz it's in you, right? You're compelled, right?

Well, that's why Watt's in it. It's work, it's my job--- work ethic, it's not just a master-slave thing, it's like, "Whoa, I'm here to learn, everybody's got something to teach me." OK, I'll bring some stuff, but that's only half that equation..... (Editor's note: A guy from the opening band, Hounds of the Wild Hunt, comes in and shakes Watt's hand and thanks him for playing with them... Watt: "Thanks for sharing the stage, that was very kind of you-- your band's great.")

MINUTEMEN AND BEYOND

We're still touring on the circuit Chuck Dukowski built-- I wish they could get a lot more acknowledgement, Black Flag (Editor's note: At that point, a woman comes in and tells Watt that her name is Kira; she was named after Black Flag bassist and Watt's ex-wife, Kira Roessler)...

What you saw out there, in a weird way, is a product of that movement. It's just the weird Pedro-Watt-via-the Minutemen-D. Boon-Georgie (Hurley) kind of thing. I'm a part of that--- It was not a stepping-stone thing, it was the get-go, it was the shove.

Even when I doubt myself, when that fever got me tonight, the momentum of those days -- and it's not a "Happy Days," Fonzie and Potsie and that shit -- it's the kind of ethics that were built with that shit, still apply now, and that's why I do call it a movement... there's a lot of autonomy, not much hierarchy. There would have been no "Double Nickels" if Husker didn't do "Zen Arcade" -- shit like that.

(Editor's note: Speaking of "Double Nickels on the Dime" -- Watt and the Missingmen cranked out a few Minutemen tunes to close the set, including "The Glory of Man.")


George Hurley and Mike Watt in fIREHOSE. (Cat Rose photo)

Cheers, Artcore, for putting us in print

Thanks to Welly of Artcore fanzine out of Cardiff, Wales, a pair of There's Something Hard in There entries have made it into print in issue #30.

Piggy's Ron Reyes (former Black Flag singer) and the Faith/Void interviews get the nod. One of Cat's Reyes photos is also featured, bottom right.

Mould and company kick out solid tunes from the past and present in Seattle

Bob Mould lets loose in Seattle. (Andy photos)
 

By Andy

The first time I saw Bob Mould live 30 years ago with his Husker Du trio, the band charged through its set and throttled the crowd with its ultracore tunes in San Diego.

When the Minneapolis men were finished, they simply unplugged their instruments, tossed drumsticks aside and exited the small stage.

I can't remember much clapping from the attendees, maybe a few yells of approval -- certainly one from me.

Last Tuesday night, the former scenario was toppled upside down with full force when Mould and his current bandmates Jason Narducy on bass and Jon Wurster on drums performed at the Showbox Market in Seattle.

And after the band completed its 20-song set of Sugar, Mould Band and Husker songs, the man with the blazing guitar and howling voice was left on stage -- alone.

He was face to face with the loudly cheering, massive crowd. There was no usual guitar and microphone to act as a security blanket.

As he stood there smiling, the 51-year-old had a look of pride and appreciation in his eyes. Although his hands were tightly clasped together, they managed to shake a little and it seemed as if he was even a bit nervous in the moment.

After about 20 seconds, Mould stepped back, gave the crowd a thumb's up and strolled off stage.

The events leading up to that moment were stellar and brought me back to my first Husker show three decades ago.

First up was the entire Sugar "Copper Blue" album, which the trio laid into with a vigor that the crowd matched song by song.

Five songs from Mould's latest album "Silver Age" came next, and the energy level rose even higher when the band unleashed "Star Machine," "The Descent," "Round the City Square," "Steam of Hercules" and "Silver Age."

As if the up-in-front slammers and pogoers weren't getting enough, it was Husker song time. "I Apologize" and an extended "Chartered Trips" came first, and then Mould wedged the new Husker-like "Keep Believing" in there to seam the past and present together.

"Celebrated Summer" and "Makes No Sense at All" were the perfect closers. For those who hadn't experienced these songs live before, it was a treat ... For me, I will never tire of having those tunes firmly placed into my eardrums.

Ladies and gentlemen: Chixdiggit

K.J. Jansen of Chixdiggit. (All Cat Rose photos)

By Andy

Henry Rollins may be no fun, according to a Chixdiggit song, but the former Black Flag singer surely knows how to hold a microphone properly.

At Friday's Seattle gig at the Funhouse, Chixdiggit frontman K.J. Jansen's white Gibson SG rebelled against him with some broken strings and the singer had to go guitarless for two songs.

Jansen pulled it off and continued to work the crowd into a frenzy, but after the gig, he joked: "I hate that, I don't wanna do that again. A couple times it happens, but it's not my thing... I don't know, I can't dance. There's got to be on You Tube, a tutorial on how to wrap a microphone around your hand, and I'll take that tutorial. I should probably learn that, I should probably do a little bit of homework if we're gonna be doing this still."

From left, Tyler Pickering, Mark O'Flaherty, James Gamble and Jansen.

And the Calgary, Alberta, Canada, pop-punkers are still doing it well, about 21 years into their career.

On Friday, an enthusiastic crowd jammed onto the dance floor during the band's raucous set -- some folks threw beer cans on stage, slammed into each other and some even got rammed into the monitors and plowed head-first onto the small stage.

All the while, Jansen, lead guitarist Mark O'Flaherty, drummer Tyler Pickering and bassist James Gamble served up their infectious, spirited and humorous tunes, like "Spanish Fever," "I Should Have Played Football in High School," "I Wanna Hump You," "Gettin' Air" and much more.

"We did not expect this," said Jansen, whose band last played Seattle opening for Me First and the Gimme Gimmes seven years ago. "Somebody on the Internet was betting that nobody was gonna come tonight. I was like, 'Fuck, I kind of hope that happens,' just to see what happens, but it didn't -- we're a super lucky band."

Jeff Stone, former lead guitarist for the Best Kissers in the World, was on hand and smiled the whole time while watching his former tour mates.

"They're amazing!" he said. "It doesn't seem like anybody's aged at all, and that was a long time ago. They're awesome. I'd forgotten how great they are. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I knew I didn't wanna miss it."

Seattle is a special, memorable music city for Chixdiggit, which released its first album on Sub Pop Records back in the day. Jansen remembers playing great gigs with the Fastbacks, Best Kissers, Flop, Supersuckers, Presidents of the USA and Model Rockets.

Speaking of the Fastbacks, Jansen reveres the legendary band and was bummed he couldn't attend one of their reunion gigs in West Seattle and San Francisco about a year ago.

"They played these shows, and honestly, if I would have known, I would have been here," he said. "I saw pictures and I cried. I love Kim Warnick so much it's insane... she's the sweetest, fuckin' most awesome, talented, amazing person in the world-- that's bar-none."

Perhaps it's the spirit of bands like the Fastbacks that keeps Chixdiggit going. Jansen said they threw in the towel for a while after releasing "Pink Razors" in 2005 because the band had run its course.

But the band wouldn't die, and last year they dusted off their guitars and returned to the music world by releasing the "Safeways Here We Come" EP.

"When we started doing it again, every single thing, we're always totally surprised and totally charmed," Jansen said. "We're fucking lazy, we never do anything... and we don't deserve a night like this, but it happens. I don't mean to get all maudlin or anything."

"We still get to do this," he added. "We're in Seattle right now playing rock and roll-- still, you know? This shit should have ended years ago. I get to travel around with my best friend (O'Flaherty), get drunk and be a jackass and do interviews... it's like, fucked up."

Pickering and Gamble are new to the Chixdiggit fold, joining founders Jansen and O'Flaherty for the ride. (Jason Hirsch and Mike Eggermont were the original drummer and bassist, respectively; Dave Alcock drummed for six years and Kepi Ghoulie even handled bass duties for a spell.)

With some younger guys on board, Jansen said that he and O'Flaherty now call Chixdiggit tours "the father-and-son fishing trip." They all work regular jobs when they're not playing some Canadian gigs, traveling to Europe a few times a year and jumping into the U.S. for occasional shows. Next on their docket is a Calgary hometown New Year's show.

Jansen said road trips are a blast with the Chixdiggit guys.

"Every day is like today, you know? We show up, we walk around, we make stupid jokes and laugh, have dinner together. The shows are great and everything, but the all-day-long bullshit is just as good, if not better," he said.

And new songs are on the way, according to Jansen, who is married to Kathy Camaro of the pop-punk trio the Riff Randells. They have a 2-year-old girl, whom Jansen has been trying his new songs out on, believe it or not.

"So I have all these songs, cuz I just keep playing to her and she just loves it," he said. "They will be Chixdiggit songs, but they're all about diapers and poop now."

"I'll have to change the lyrics around a little bit -- that's the difficult part. I can't just get used to singing: 'I gotta diaper that needs changing.'"

In true Chixdiggit fashion, Jansen air guitars while singing those words. And he's smiling.
Sounds like a good one, however the lyrics end up.

EXTRA CHIX BITS:

Chixdiggit's first tour with the Best Kissers in the early '90s featured an "over-the-top food fight" on the last night in Sacramento that left both bands covered in beer, soda, eggs and more, Stone recalled.

Earlier that evening, Chixdiggit exacted revenge on the Best Kissers guys, who had been playing pranks on them the whole West Coast tour. The Best Kissers knew their van would be a target, so they parked it five blocks away in a residential neighborhood, hoping it would be safe.

"They looked and they looked and they were about to give up... and they found it and they just destroyed it," Stone said. "It was covered in blown-up condoms, duct tape and peanut butter-- just shit everywhere. You couldn't see out the windows."

Stone joked that he and another former Best Kisser who couldn't attend Friday's Seattle show "talked about just coming down here and just fucking up their van and then leaving."

Bob Mould's 'Silver Age' is pure gold / Review

By Andy

"Whenever Bob calls, I'm ready."

That's what Jason Narducy told me about a year-and-a-half ago after he finished a gig with Telekinesis at the Crocodile in Seattle.

Bob Mould summoned Narducy about a year later to get his bass gear ready for some rock action. Drummer Jon Wurster got the nod, as well. And here we are with "Silver Age" in our faces -- and smiles are spread across them as far as Mould's guitar-worn hands can reach to dig into his past for inspiration for these 10 golden nuggets.

Mould is surely smiling, too, as he delivers these Sugar-coated, fierce tunes into our eardrums, and might as well be asking, "Do you remember... how it's properly done?"

To me, this album celebrates the past, but can also act as a companion piece in paving the path to where one stands today and hopes to journey in the years to come. It's uplifting yet forceful, as one often has to push to be heard and appreciated. 

"Star Machine" is the perfect opener, rolling along smoothly at the start, packing a wallop soon after and then reaching high above the roar with fists of vintage Mould vocal melody that transition into classic Mould guitar-solo work. If that isn't enough, there's nine more essential songs on the docket.

The crunchy "Silver Age" -- containing the older, wiser but still angrier line, "I'm never too old to contain my rage" -- paves the way for "The Descent," a song I would have begged my non-Husker-listening friends to check out alongside "Celebrated Summer" and "Makes No Sense At All" back in the day. "The Descent" and track nine, "Keep Believing," would have surely thrown a monkeywrench into their world (in a good way, of course) as the twosome roams into one's needful-things category. Hell, my non-Mould-listening friends should be on board with this pair ASAP.

Other standouts include the towering, bludgeoning "Steam of Hercules," which treads on Sugar's "Explode and Make Up" terrain; the crackling "Angels Rearrange" ("Don't be scared of change, because it may be time to rearrange"); and the fragile "First Time Joy," which closes the set in soul-searching "Workbook"-like fashion.

It's been a while since Mould's rocked this hard and really nailed it with each track on one of his albums. When he asks on "The Descent" ... "Can I try to make it up to you somehow?" ... we can only answer, "You've just done it."

(Merge Records)

Saturday in Seattle -- metal up your ass: EyeHateGod, Black Breath & Prong at Bumbershoot

EyeHateGod... on fire. (Angela Steel photo)

By Cat

Usually, Andy and I avoid Bumbershoot in Seattle like the plague... the crowds, the long lines for EVERYTHING, the posers, etc.

The last time we attended B Shoot (or BS, which really explains it better) was in 2007 for a Seaweed reunion gig. We avoided most of the crowds that time by hanging out across the street at our favorite punk dive the Funhouse, ran in for Seaweed, then left (we had not seen them in years, so we felt it was worth the Bumbershoot torture to get to see them, and they, of course, did not disappoint).

The BS we went to prior to that was for the Pixies in 2004.  That show was extremely annoying as they played in the large stadium. You had to wait a long time in line to get in, and there wasn't any beer in there.  Every poser who never saw the Pixies in small venues like we used to, and/or never knew who the Pixies were before Nirvana touted them, were in there. Good thing we weren't allowed to bring in any firearms --ha ha. 

So, BS 2012 was coming up and I took a peek at the lineup for the hell of it... and lo and behold, on Saturday (Sept. 1), several great bands were playing in the same area all in a row with some kick-ass comedy nearby.  When you see bands like Black Breath and EyeHateGod playing at this BS festival, we couldn't help but be intrigued.  I had visions of these bands playing outside with flying hair and many amps and people covering their children's ears and running away screaming-- some heads were gonna roll.  Right at the time we were looking at the festival ad, we got a text from our friends Jeb, Angela and Bowie, stating they were going, too, so it was a sign and we got those tickets. 

But, of course, BS would not allow this music to be for the outside masses, and we were directed to the Exhibition Hall, which was down a flight of stairs, way underground. Frankly, that was perfect for us vampires, anyway -- we prefer the pits of hell.  We ended up staying down there for 6 hours, avoiding the sun, crowds and lines-- they had a beer garden down there, too, so what more could you ask for?  It never got too crowded down there and in between bands it was wide open.
 
The Spittin' Cobras were the first ones on-- a Motley Crue-esque band, circa '88 on the Sunset Strip, so we weren't too into that (clearly too much cowbell).

Black Breath's Eric Wallace. (Andy photo)

Black Breath was next. Due to the signs that stated "absolutely no crowd surfing or moshing" warning you before you came in, it was not your normal Black Breath gig with everyone slamming around.  But this did not stop my head from banging into oblivion and not being able to move the next morning.

Prong's Tommy Victor. (Andy photo)

Next up was Prong. While Prong did "Snap your fingers/Snap your neck" during a lot of their set, some of the newer songs may be more like treating your neck to a gentle massage with essential oils. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Then EyeHateGod came on and blew out what was left of my eardrums with their dirty, sludgy metal/punk concoction -- a perfect end to our fun times in the metal cabal.

EHG's Mike Williams and Gary Mader, top. Jimmy Bower, below. (Andy photos)

Then we emerged from our underground lair to walk across the patio to the building next door to check out the comedy stylings of Brian Posehn----whom Angela saw earlier descending into the hall to enjoy some of the metal himself. 
 
All in all, a great day and night...Horns up, BS!

Keith Morris Interview Part 2 / Getting OFF! with the Chili Peppers, bodysurfing, etc.

Dimitri Coats, left, and Keith Morris go OFF! (Andy photo)

By Andy

On a recent Wednesday evening while the weather blazed in the mid-90s in Los Angeles, Keith Morris was pleased to have a light breeze blowing through his front window.

He was comfortable. He was ready to talk.

After turning down the volume knob on his latest favorite tuneage, an album by the War on Drugs (a folky, rocky indie band out of Philadelphia featuring some John Lennon-, Bob Dylan-like vocals), the 56-year-old OFF! screamer tackled a variety of topics, ranging from OFF!'s recent opening slot for the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the massive Staples Center in LA to the tranquility of bodysurfing in his hometown of Hermosa Beach when he was younger.

Past and present wedge together in harmony for Morris. Here's a taste of what resides in his mind these days:

Courtesy graphic

Hot weather... religion and chocolate

All of these global-warming detractors-- they can go fuck themselves. They get to experience hell on Earth... if they believe that hell is hot. I personally believe that hell is filled with all of those people, and who would wanna hang out with them? So, I'm gonna be good, I'm gonna be as good as I can. I'm gonna be friendly, oh, I'm gonna go to church and donate all my money to the church; that way, I buy my way into heaven. That seems like a great plan. I don't know if I would really do that.

I grew up around church people, and they were all very nice people, but some of them were racists, some of them are attached to (people behind Proposition 8 in Pennsylvania), anti-gay, that's pretty narrow-minded, maybe it's from all of the chocolate (in Hershey) that they've consumed. Maybe chocolate does affect people's thought process or brings on Alzheimer's early -- just fucks with their mentality.

I'm a diabetic, so my chocolate consumption, I try to keep it at a minimum. I don't do a very good job at it, but that's life. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do drugs, so I might as well get to eat some chocolate.

Flea and Anthony Kiedis. (Courtesy photo)

Chili Peppers gig

It was a very weird experience for me. We get a lot of haters (on Facebook), from the punk-rock community, the people that listen to us. Those people don't like the Red Hot Chili Peppers because they sell millions of records and they jump around and they get really hot chicks and get to go to all of these different places. I pretty much adhere to a rule that if you go out and you do the work, you deserve some kind of a reward. And they're obviously being rewarded, and hooray for them because they worked hard. It wasn't like some record company just handed it to them.

I grew up with Flea and Anthony and watched them running with all of our peeps, being a part of our party, deciding to start a band. Granted, I don't like everything they do, but I like them as human beings, and think that's even more important than whatever kind of music they make.

(Editor's note: They grew up with X, Gun Club, Flesheaters and the Germs. Flea played in FEAR and the Circle Jerks, the Weirdos and wanted to play in Black Flag.)

So it's not like they're these guys who think that it's trendy to say, "Hey, we love this stuff," because they listen to a lot of different music, just like myself.

Chili Peppers rock Iguana's in Tijuana in 1989. (Cat Rose photo)

I started a new band, why adhere to some kind of fucking Rule No. 3? These are the bands you can play with and you can't play with. You're not cool if you play with these bands. You're not cool if you play a gig with these bands and it's really expensive and we can't afford to go to it. It's like, hey, life's unfair, life's unkind, we'll get around to coming back and playing in a club. Anthony made a statement on stage: "The next time OFF! plays a club show, I want all 14,000 of you to show up at the club." Just think about it, just think of all the different scenarios.

(The show) was extremely odd for me, because when you're in a building that big, you have security everywhere. Every time you turn around, there's somebody breathing down your neck. In order to get a simple "yes" or "no," you've gotta go through a minimum 2-3 people. That I don't like.
I just look at it as a big party. It was kind of intimidating. I looked down into the front row and there was a girl sleeping in the front row while we were playing. Maybe she had a little bit too much to drink, maybe she found a Quaalude dealer,  who knows?... the guy that she was with certainly wasn't enjoying what we were doing.

(Editor's note: They played to maybe 6,000 to 8,000 as openers. While living in Boston years ago, Morris sang Black Flag's "Fix Me" with Mudhoney -- who were opening for Pearl Jam -- in front of about 15,000 people at the Boston Garden. He also sang with the Chili Peppers in front of 70,000 to 80,000 when they opened for the Rolling Stones at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.)

Courtesy photo

Beach

I got a surfboard one Christmas morning with a westsuit, (the water) was fucking freezing. There were no waves, they were just 15-foot walls, you couldn't surf it, no matter how great a surfer you were. There were like 300 guys out there, a hundred of them had just gotten new surfboards from their parents. We'd smoke angel dust, so we were fucking high as kites, just got out there and it wasn't fun. I actually ended up surfing maybe two or three weeks, and decided, "You know what? Nah, I'm not into this."

I love bodysurfing. I grew up in Hermosa Beach... one of the last places I lived in Hermosa Beach was near the Strand on 9th Street. So, on a summer evening at about 5 o' clock, when everybody had left the beach, I remember there were quite a few days where I walked across the sand, there was nobody on the beach. I'm just out there swimming around, paddling around, floating around and catching a wave here or there. The brilliant thing about bodysurfing is, depending upon what time of year, of course, all you need is a pair of trunks, some shorts, and you're off. You're one with nature, whatever you would like to call it. 

Hippies

I grew up with hippies, and I love them and I love the mentality, and it would be great if we had that kind of mentality now. You would think because they smoked so much pot, that they were just passed out all day long, and that wasn't so. I was actually around a Yippie, and he would have blown up a police car or two, he would have blown up a Bank of America somewhere if he had the opportunity. But the hippies that I grew up around, they were down for the protest -- they weren't down with the man. They weren't buying into any of the program.....

OFF!

We're nothing more than a folk band. When you boil all of the flesh and the meat, the muscle and the skin off of the bones. When you're listening to OFF!, we're nothing more than a protest band, we're just a folk band -- but we're loud, we're obnoxious, we're in your face and we're angry about it.

IN CLOSING...

Morris noted that OFF!'s upcoming monthlong tour with Negative Approach, The Spits, Double Negative and Power Trip (not the Jeff Dahl outfit) won't have them sleeping on people's floors or living on $5 a day like in the old days:

"We're older and we need a reward," he said. End of interview. The road awaits.