Mike Watt - Contemplating The Engine Room (1997)

Why wasn't this thing regarded as a fucking masterpiece when it came out?

i listened to the shit out of this back in the day

is this the mediocre record that had like a guest singer on every song and pettibon cover art?

no

i listened to the shit out of this back in the day

― CENSUS-DESIGNATED PLACE (get bent), Sunday, July 11, 2010 11:25 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'm listening to it right now and it's still awesome

TOPSIDERS!

I listened to the shit out of this back in the day on blue double vinyl

eventually bought a second-hand CD to listen to once every couple of years

Saw Watt perform the whole album straight through with the lineup that recorded it shortly after it came out at a show down here in OC. The moment when Nels Cline busted into the solo on "Liberty Calls" remains one of the most amazing things I've seen or heard.

And of course the man himself has the details about it all:

http://www.hootpage.com/hoot_cont-eng-rm.html

http://www.hootpage.com/hoot_cont-eng-lyrics.html

wait I was thinking of the one Shasta means. this I bought new on CD. <- vital information

Genius masterpiece fer shure.

http://www.hootpage.com/hoot_talkintheopera.html

this album is tremendous, definitely in my top 20 albums of the '90s. possibly my favorite album-length performance by my favorite guitarist.

Watt's next punk rock opera, 2004's The Secondman's Middle Stand, was a bit of a letdown, but I'm still really looking forward to what he does next. He recorded an album called My Shubun No Hi with Contemplating's Black Gang tour lineup (Nels Cline and Bob Lee) 2 years ago, but for some reason it still hasn't been released, but there's a Watt/Nels/Yuka Honda/Dougie Brown quartet called Floored By Four that's supposed to be dropping their album in September.

xpost

thanks for that! good lookin out. what were u doin in 1999, Jay?

is this the mediocre record that had like a guest singer on every song and pettibon cover art?

― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Sunday, July 11, 2010 11:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

btw fuck you Ball-Hog or Tugboat? has some serious jams

i hope he finishes his new concept album soon! saw him last year and the band was super awesome

Ball-Hog or Tugboat was my introduction to Kathleen Hanna being insufferable

have been thinking about a Ball-Hog poll thread for a while, would prob be fun

I saw them do the album live, but it was a later tour with Joe Baiza on guitar. It was still pretty fab.

If you have never seen Mike Watt live in a club, just go. I saw fIREHOSE a couple of times and Watt's solo groups a few times and they are always great. His bands always have a lot of energy in the music live.

the only time Watt has ever played a "club show" here, it was doing Stooges covers in a Mexican restaurant with a punk duo of brothers backing him - I didn't go.

did see him get up and jam with Tricky in '97 though.

anyway Why wasn't this thing regarded as a fucking masterpiece when it came out?

iirc the two reviews it got kind of did?

haha yeah it was well reviewed, just not widely reviewed.

i've seen Watt a bunch of times and yeah he's always great, although i'm bummed that i didn't start seeing him until the year after he put the opera to bed.

only had the previous album back in the day, but this is really good!

Mike Watt is doing some summer gigs with guitarist/singer Todd Congelliere as the Jumpstarted Plowhards. Some shows will be with DC’s Messthetics. This Watt group had begun in the late 2010s.