DoT EP107: Mike Watt on Jumpstarted Plowhards, The Minutemen, and Keeping the Creative Juices Flowing, Plus New Comedy from Dave Ross

Mike Watt is a bona fide punk rock legend. And he probably hates being described like that. His work with The Minutemen and fIREHOSE is seminal stuff, and hard to describe, especially The Minutemen. The second you hear it, you know it’s punk, but it’s also funk and jazz and so many other things, and completely in-the-moment music. It’s as if all music, past and present, lives on the same plane, and he’s filtering all of it at once. The reason for that, he says in this interview, is that when he and D. Boon started, they were innocent of genre delineations. They knew Creedence and Van Halen and a few other bands, but they weren’t locked into FM radio expectations. When Watt heard jazz great John Coltrane, he thought he was listening to punk.

More than anything, Watt is a seeker. On his new project, Jumpstarted Plowhards, he found a new way to collaborate. He recorded bass parts for a batch of songs and sent them to Todd Congelliere of Toys That Kill and F.Y.P. Congelliere then recorded vocals and guitar parts and found a revolving cast of drummers to complete the songs. The result is a tough and tuneful merging of their voices. The new album, Round One, is out October 4 on Recess Records, and that’s where the conversation begins. Along the way, we talk about the different ways Watt has kept his creative juices flowing, the early days of The Minutemen and how he didn’t even know what a bass guitar was when D. Boon’s mom told him that’s what he was going to play, what he learned from playing with The Stooges, making rock operas for major labels, the unreleased Minutemen stuff he’s playing on his new tour, and the new Missingmen and Secondmen albums in the works.

On a more personal note, it is wonderful to have Watt on this podcast. He was the first person I interviewed as a “journalist,” back in 1995. I had thought the tape of that interview was long gone, but I found it just this week. I have to admit, it’s a little cringe-inducing for me to hear how unprepared I was for this interview. Fortunately for me, Watt is a warm and open guy, which comes across in both interviews.

The interview took place on October 7, 1995, outside of The Showplace Theater in Buffalo, New York. Watt had made a big splash with his solo debut, Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, which featured Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Dave Grohl just as he was getting Foo Fighters going, J Mascis, Henry Rollins, and a lot of other musicians that represented some of the best and most well-known alternative players at the time. Watt was on the Crew of the Flying Saucer tour with Nels Cline on guitar and Michael Preussner and Vince Meghrouni on drums.

I had grabbed my tape recorder on my way out the door, but hadn’t actually expected to get to speak with Watt. When I asked the door person at if Watt might be open to answering a few questions for the University at Buffalo campus magazine, they said “sure” and let me up into the green room. Watt was apparently getting a bit of rest in the van, and I hung out with Preussner, chewing his ear off until Watt came upstairs. Standing out on the street, Watt showed me his signature Econoline van, complete with bullethole in the bumper, as fans streamed into the venue and said hello.

The new album from Jumpstarted Plowhards is called Round One, and it will be available October 4 on Recess Records, which you can find at www.recessrecords.com. Round Two is already in the works, and look for the band to start playing live once they’ve got to Round Five. And you can keep up with Watt and check his tour dates and news on his Web page at www.hootpage.com.

We are approaching Halloween, which means it is time once again for the Daily Horror Film Fest. Every day through October, the Department of Tangents presents a different short horror film. If you have a favorite short horror film, or if you yourself have made a short horror film, tell me about it, and it may wind up in the fest. E-mail me at nick@nickzaino.com and show me what you’ve got.

This week’s featured track comes from stand-up comedian Dave Ross’s new album, The Only Man Who Has Ever Had Sex, out now on A Special Thing Records. He’s been on Drunk History, the WTF podcast, The Last Late Show with James Corden and a bunch of others. Ross is a storyteller, but with a lot of sneaky punches hiding in these looping kind of tales. He will be on the podcast soon, so you’ll hear more about that. Find out more about Ross and the new album on his Web site at www.davetotheross.com. This is the track that sold me on the album. It’s called “I Attack Strangers.”