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Ball-Hog or Tugboat? (1995)
Ball-Hog or Tugboat? (1995)
8
Big Train / Against the 70’s / Drove up from Pedro / Piss-Bottle
Man / Chinese Firedrill / Intense Song for Madonna to Sing / Tuff Gnarl
/ Sexual Military Dynamics / Max and Wells / E-Ticket Ride / Forever
– One Reporter’s Opinion / Song for Igor / Tell ‘em
Boy! / Sidemouse Advice / Heartbeat / Maggot Brain / Coincidence Is
Either Hit or Miss
An
alternative rock fan’s wet dream come true, Mike Watt’s first
solo album garnered quite a buzz because of its sizeable cast that - in another
critic's words - reads like a who’s who? of ‘90’s
rock, with members from the Beastie Boys, the Screaming Trees, Meat Puppets,
Sonic Youth, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Soul Asylum contributing, as well
as alternative icons like J. Mascis, Frank Black, Henry Rollins, and a bunch
of less familiar figures Watt had been playing with during the preceding years
(avant guitarist Nels Cline, drummer Stephen Perkins, producer Spot, Saccharine
Trust’s Joe Baiza, etc). It not only goes to show the respective collaborators
were willing to collaborate on songs mostly (co-)written by Watt, but also
the project leader’s legendary status. As co-founder of jazz-punk-funk
trio The Minutemen, he’d been in one of the most challenging and brilliant
bands on the SST-label (and, by consequence, of the ‘80’s underground),
but also his subsequent band, the more traditional fIREHOSE, and countless
other projects gained him respect from the crowd and colleagues, who often
consider him a guru and a true maintainer of the flame of independence (despite
being on a major label). As could be expected, Ball-Hog boasts an
impressive series of voices, styles and surprises, and at times, it’s
equally messy as it’s sprawling.
The amount of styles touched upon is dazzling, as the album switches from power-pop (a terrific “Piss-Bottle Man” with Evan Dando), to angular Beefheart-funk (“Sexual Military Dynamics” with Henry Rollins), jazzy noodling (“Intense Song for Madonna to Sing”), inoffensive but pleasant alternative rock (“Big Train”), slightly dissonant rock (Sonic Youth’s “Tuff Gnarl”) and analog faux hip-hop (“Coincidence Is Either Hit or Miss”). Some of the musicians do strictly what’s expected of them, like Eddie Vedder, who croons throughout “Against the 70’s” as if his life depends on it, or Henry Rollins, whose “foaming at the mouth”-performance is particularly entertaining. Others, however, wind up doing things you’d never expect them to: Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner owns the slice of unpredictable funk-rock “Tell ‘em Boy!,” the Peppers’ Flea delivers the goods by playing trumpet (!) on the jazzy “Sidemouse Advice,” with an equally impressive Carla Bozulich (Geraldine Fibbers) on big-breasted vocals. The loose atmosphere that must’ve infested many of the sessions infuses most of the songs with an “on the spot”-carelessness that usually works well. For instance, “Max and Wells” (with Mark Lanegan’s sinister vocals), or “Forever – One Reporter’s Opinion,” a re-interpretation of the Minutemen’s classic track from their magnum opus Double Nickels on the Dime, sound as if they’re (successful) first takes. Of course, a 68-minute gathering like this isn’t devoid of little breakdowns: “Heartbeat” is pretty directionless (but luckily it’s saved by an answering machine message of Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna, who secures a life-long seat in the pantheon of idiots with a long-winded explanation of why she was to cool to contribute to the album), while a few of the other songs should’ve been trimmed a bit (enthusiasm regularly commits sabotage on the bullshit detector), but like Forrest Gump with his box of chocolates, the fun about this album is that you never know what you’re gonna get. Finally, there’s the unquestionable highlight (to me, at least), the track that warrants the price, the icing on the cake and the one that after dozens and dozens of listen still has the capacity to make my lower jaw drop to the floor: a cover version of Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain,” already a classic instrumental (apart from the few opening lines, that is) in its own right, but equalled – if not topped – by this distortion-drenched take by Watt, original organ whiz Bernie Worrell and J. Mascis, who delivers one of the most insanely intense, sad and completely out there solos of his life. Running more 12 minutes, it tears through Eddie Hazel’s original, by way of Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix and a shitload of effect pedals. Like they did 25 years earlier, before they started recording the original, somebody must’ve told Mascis to play as if his mother had just died. It’s a good thing not the entire album ended up like that, or it would become the death of me. As it is now, Ball-Hog or Tugboat? is a damn enjoyable and diverse album that’s a lot of fun if you’re willing to approach it with the open-mindedness most of the musicians obviously had in them while participating, plus it might be a nice introduction to Mike Watt’s output that’s worthy of closer inspection.
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