Watt

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Human Reaction LP by mssv. While Mike Watt’s early career was defined by the bassist’s time with The Minutemen, it can’t be denied that since the end of The Minutemen, Watt has been viewed as a solo entity. That isn’t to say that the bassist hasn’t played with other bands since then (there have been several), just that Watt has stood as very much an individual entity – even when playing...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Culture Shock Treatment LP by Round Eye. It may have taken a while for the band to finally get all the paperwork signed and all of their distribution ducks in a row (technically, Culture Shock Treatment was completed in 2020 and Paper + Plastick Records released it digitally late last year – but then everything got problematic) but, happily, everything has come together and Round Eye’s fourth album has finally been...

Round EyeCulture Shock Treatment(Paper + Plastick Records) Fuck this year. 2020 has proven to be the most disappointing annum in many regards but, perhaps most importantly (at least within the goings on for this website), 2020 has gone down as the year which stalled the releases of an impressive number of albums, completely halted all touring routes through North America and diverted attention from most of the things people take pleasure in – and seen it be refocused on despicable...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 2LP edition of Ring Spiel ’95 by Mike Watt. As many Ground Control readers are already aware, we have a particular affinity for vinyl records. The sound of them is (obviously) a very big part of that, but the medium’s ability to draw out different aspects of the music contained on it can change the listening experience too; because vinyl has a few more limitations than other media on which music...

Artist: Mike Watt Album: “Ring Spiel” Tour ’95 Label: Columbia/Legacy/Sony Music Ever walked into a record store and, digging through a vast and vastly disorganized bin of CDs, come across a genuine treasure of the sort that no one ever expects to find? That was the feeling which overtook me when I opened my copy of “Ring Spiel” Tour ’95. Now, I’m familiar with plenty of the back story behind that period of time in Mike Watt’s life; the bassist...

A critical evaluation of Under The Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk by John Doe with Tom DeSavia and friends, published by Da Capo Press While the stories are (almost) never the same, it’s pretty surprising how consistently structured and formulaic most rock biosand scene expositions are; be it the story of one artist or the collected stories of many, the authors of such books often attempt to condense the finer points of “what happened” down into...

It has been said just often enough at this point that it could be taken as gospel: “Necessity is the mother of invention” but no one truly revels in that sentiment more than Mike Watt. First as the bass player for The Minutemen and then as the bassist in fIREHOSE, Watt helped to usher in a new approach to his instrument both in the context of punk rock and rock n’ roll in general. While other players of the same...