Mike Watt
Pop at eight bells but let tom and big man konk a little longer cuz i know they’re tuckered. cat who put us up after the louisville gig knows a bitchin’ coffee pad so we chug, fuel the boat and pull anchor. 175 miles to music city but no traff so we shovel some chow at swett’s and get a short stay in before bam bam at that spunk pad exit/in. one month into hell-ride and homesick for pedro town but grateful the south’s treated us kind. byebye till next time...
This is my imagined version of Missingmen bassist-vocalist Mike Watt’s tour diary entry for his trio’s Exit/In gig on Sunday. With his self-taught writing style, nautically inspired lexicon (“the boat” is the band’s tour van, in case you couldn’t tell) and commitment to no-frills DIY touring — or “jamming econo” — Watt is one of a kind. The co-founder of Minutemen is the pride of San Pedro, Calif., one of the best living bass players on the planet, and at 61, a punk icon who’s walked the walk like few before or since.
“His slang, it tends to rub off on everyone around,” guitarist-vocalist and longtime Watt collaborator Tom Watson says with a laugh. “And it brings us all together, too.”
The band, rounded out by 22-year-old drummer Nick Aguilar (whom Watt affectionately refers to as “Big Man”), is 11 days into a 45-date tour with no breaks. Watt is trying to save his voice, so Watson speaks to the Scene on his behalf. He’s calling from Denver, where The Missingmen are enjoying their first real breather since leaving California — not a day off, technically, but a chance to split up and have some alone time before reconvening for their second gig at Denver’s Lion’s Lair Lounge, which they sold out the night before.
Watson, a former member of the whip-smart, wildly underrated post-punk combo Slovenly, has known Watt since they were young bucks in L.A.’s suburban South Bay in the 1980s. They were labelmates on SST Records, which released Double Nickels on the Dime, Minutemen’s unabashedly funky, aggressively leftist four-sided bizarro punk odyssey, in July 1984.
Double Nickels would be the last Minutemen album before singer-guitarist D. Boon’s untimely death in ’85. But the trio’s transgressive, self-reliant streak would make it a focal point of Michael Azerrad’s essential 2001 chronicle of the ’80s American underground, Our Band Could Be Your Life. The book takes its title from a lyric in “History Lesson — Part II,” Double Nickels’ earnest ode to Watt and Boon’s modest rock ’n’ roll dreams growing up in blue-collar Pedro — geographically close to the glitz and glamour of L.A., but worlds away psychologically and socioeconomically.
Watt’s 1994 solo album Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, meanwhile, proved his influence was broad, and cred unparalleled. It features guest spots from Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, J Mascis, Thurston Moore, Frank Black, Evan Dando, Kathleen Hanna and heaps of other Clinton-era rock fixtures.
In 2006, Watt, Watson and drummer Raul Morales formed The Missingmen. Currently, Watson is on leave from his day job as an art handler to do the tour. Though Morales couldn’t make the trip, they didn’t have to look far to find Aguilar, his replacement.
“Mike went to high school with Nick’s father Rudy, so there’s a connection from Pedro,” Watson explains. “He’d sit in on a song here and there when we’d play, and when Raul couldn’t do the tour, he was the perfect choice.”
The Missingmen aren’t to be confused with The Secondmen — Watt’s early-2000s ensemble, which featured a different lineup and organ in place of guitar. The Missingmen pull from a songbook of mostly Minutemen tunes, with a smattering of tracks from a record Watt, Watson and Morales plan to record and tour next year. The set lists also feature a pair of covers, “Sweet Honey Pie” and “I’ve Always Been Here Before,” from psych-rock hero Roky Erikson of the 13th Floor Elevators, who died in May.
From a musical standpoint, no one has ever wielded the four-string quite like Watt has, making it alternately groove, sing, lock in or go off, depending on what the song calls for. But his legacy — teaching future generations how to tour right — is universal. Keep it spartan, sing your truth, be humble, be safe, have fun. Be good to yourself, and each other. (I strongly recommend keeping up with the tour diaries on Watt’s site, hootpage.com — they put you right there in “the boat” with the band.)
“Mike is just a really strong-willed guy,” Watson says. “It is a lot of work with him. You want to do your best. Sometimes you don’t quite make it, and you’ll hear about it. But he’s always straight-up with his intentions and wanting to do it better. I love hanging out and working with him. He’s been a great thing in my life.”
