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"i live in pedro/i work the thud stuff/i jam econo" Punk prince
Mike Watt tries
a little smooth jazzBy Gary C.W. Chun
Special to the Star-BulletinThose succinct phrases come from the mind and spirit of punk/independent music's most generously-minded and adventurous guys around.
Mike Watt still lives in San Pedro, Calif., his working-class hometown, just a half-hour's drive south of Hollywood. He still plays the bass with a steady abandon, first with the seminal 1980s punk band the Minutemen, and up through his unexpected stint with the flamboyant Perry Farrell and his post-Jane's Addiction band Porno for Pyros. And, yes, Watt still jams econo, his fluid basswork helping lay the rhythmic foundation 'tween free jazz and punk rock.
For a couple of years now, according to Watt in a free-wheeling long-distance phone conversation yesterday, he and his PforP bandmates, drummer Stephen Perkins and guitarist Peter Distefano, have kept together in a sideproject band called Hellfire. The band will make its much-anticipated debut Saturday night at the Hawaiian Hut.
And while you probably won't see Watt working the bass in a dress, like he did at Farrell's request the last time PforP played in Hawaii, the sparks should be flying with an intensity befitting a band whose sound has been described as "Coltrane meets the Stooges"... and that's the anarchic late '60s Detroit band fronted by Iggy Pop we're talkin' about, not those other slapstick Stooges."Ever since fIREHOSE (Watt's band after the Minutemen's demise following the van accident death of frontman D. Boon), I haven't really been in a band," Watt said. "But with Hellfire, as well as Perkins' own band Banyan, I like to keep trippin' people out with the different kinds of music I play.
"Just like the music of Led Zeppelin came up later in Peter's musical education, the same happened to me with the Stooges -- that incredibly aggressive playing the band did. Perry used to trip me out by telling me about them and showing me their songs. So what we do in Hellfire is an extension of the Stooges -- and John Coltrane I didn't come across until my punk playing days.
"In the late '70s, guys like artist Raymond Pettibone introduced me to the free jazz work of guys like Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman," Watt said.
Just as Farrell turned Watt on to the Stooges, Watt tried to turn others on to the late, great jazz saxophonist's work. He said he remembered playing some of Coltrane's later, freer music on the PforP's tour bus while traveling to gigs.
In fact, Watt has been so taken by Coltrane's music that after a New York train ride out to the cemetery where the man is buried beside his wife Alice, Watt lay on the grave, hoping to feel the musician's spiritual presence.
Hellfire will collectively try to invoke the spirits of both jazz and punk icons Saturday night.
"It's all about feelin', losin' your f---in' mind!," Watt said enthusiastically. "We plan to take those Stooges licks, bend them out and jam through that thing with Coltrane in mind ... to be in the tradition of their musics, not so much copying them.
"Perkins' drumming brings out the best in me," he said. "He can get very tight in his playing to the point where you feel you're sparring with him. When he just locks in with you and gets into that gear, it gets a lot of fun, spinning conversations with him."
But about this time last year, Watt almost lost the capacity to even play his beloved instrument. After emergency surgery to repair an internal abscess, he was laid up for a good month or two. "When I tried to start playing again, I thought I lost it.
"But the memory in the playing muscles have slowly come back, and with the three tours that I've done since then, I've gotten stronger," he said.
Watt's been steadily on the road, mostly with good friend J. Macsis' latest band, the Fog, since last September, traveling through the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia.
His creative restlessness has been well-documented over the years since the days of the Minutemen and fIREHOSE. He was in a bass-playing duo called Dos with his ex-wife, former Black Flag member Kira Roessler. His two solo albums, "Ball-Hog or Tugboat?" and "Contemplating the Engine Room" have been well-received. And besides his work with Banyan and Hellfire, he just recorded four songs with another sideband of his called Li'l Pit, where he plays the acoustic standup bass.
"But there's nothin' like playing in front of an audience," he said. "I've been using a pick more of late, because I've cramped up at times when I just use my fingers. But I'll probably play with my fingers more on this gig since the music's more aggressive."
Watt is now a 43-year-old punk kid at heart, and he said he creates with more confidence.
"I write more now; I write my diaries that I post on my website. I'm just more open to everything.
"Time just pushes you," he said with a laugh. "I never thought I'd be doing this as long as I have. I don't look like an old punk rocker -- I'm just playin' with the wheels within the wheels.
"This is my tradition, a music I don't think is closed off to any age group. So long as there are old guys like me willing to give their all and not conk out ... I've been leading a blessed life," he said.
In concert
Who: Hellfire, with Nux Vomica
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