Mike Watt and the Missingmen

Twenty-four years after D. Boon’s death ended the career of America’s greatest-ever indie band—the Minutemen—the late guitarist’s sidekick and eternal corndog Mike Watt is, as ever, “flying the flannel.” The bass legend, diarist and underground instigator has since toured and recorded under many and varied banners, whether of his own design or as a collaborator with everyone from pals like Thurston Moore, J. Mascis, Nels Cline, Eddie Vedder and the Stooges, to… Kelly Clarkson? That Watt—always full of surprises!

The 51-year-old’s new tour, with fellow San Pedro, California, buds Tom Watson on guitar and Raul Morales on drums, features a jammy outfit called the Missingmen. The sound is loose, jumbled, gritty punk-improv, guided by gruff, energetic vocals and a heady pursuit of the long-form, interrupted by the occasional spasm—not too far off from the Minutemen, then. Whether covering a classic like Television’s “Little Johnny Jewel” or perhaps visiting a track from Watt’s Purgatorio-in-Pedro, the Dante-inspired The Secondman’s Middle Stand, the combo can throw a lot of sparks.

Transparent as always, Watt’s tourspiel is online at hootpage.com, with an ongoing road journal whose linguistic zest speaks as truly of Watt’s art as his prolific, full-boil performances. “Anyway, pop w/the sun at that pad brother jeff let us konk in w/out even hosing off, roust my folks and get to the boat,” he types, describing the start of another day, a couch-surfing Kerouac for the ages.

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