Mike Watt
Contemplating The Engine Room
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Mike Watt
Contemplating The Engine Room
Columbia, 1997
RiYL: Minutemen, Sonic Youth, Jimi Hendrix |
While on his previous album, 1995's Ball-hog Or Tugboat, Watt recruited a who's-who of alternative rockers to take to the mat in an all-star musical wrestling match, here the bassist has stripped his lineup to a three-piece including guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Stephen Hodges.
Engine Room is a tribute to Watt's father, who is featured on the cover in his U.S. Navy uniform. The songs mainly explore growing up in the '40s and '50s, how Watt's dad got to San Pedro, Calif., where Watt resides, and the old guy's travels as an engine room worker in the Navy.
Of course, Watt doesn't get all his material from his dad's life. In songs such as "The Boilerman," we find Watt making analogies. The song is an obscured tribute to Watt's former Minuteman bandmate, D. Boon. Boon died in a car crash in the early '80s, putting an end to one of alternative rock's most influential bands. But Watt trudges on.
His trio recorded and mixed Engine Room in three weeks. But don't let that short span fool you. Though many of today's artists need oodles of time to produce a decent-sounding record, the brevity is just another example of Watt's work ethic.
As rock music, the songs on Engine Room are unpredictable. Watt's lyrics are a breed unto themselves -- he mixes made-up slang with seafaring lingo and the odd "Yo-ho" here and there. The music is fresh, if nothing else. Watt doesn't stick to a particular style of music, but it somehow comes off sounding homogeneous. Each song might bring to mind various influences, but with Watt, one can never tell where he gets it. "Liberty Calls!" evokes G. Love and Sonic Youth and the same time -- go figure.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.