by Andrew Frisicano

Dinosaur Jr. @ ATP NY 2008 (more by Abbey Braden)

Dinosaur Jr.'s ninth LP, Farm, is out today (as is the new record by their Jagjaguwar label-mates Sunset Rubdown). In support of that record, the band has a nearly-two-month North American tour planned for the fall. That includes a show at Pop Montreal among many other places. No NYC date has been announced as part of that tour, but that's probably because of Dino Jr.'s free Summerstage show with the Walkmen on August 16th, not to mention the sold out show at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn happening this Thursday (6/25) with Screaming Females.

Joining Dinosaur Jr. on their October dates will be Lou Barlow + the Missingmen, a group that is, as speculated, Lou with Tom Watson and Raul Morales, the crew that toured with Mike Watt a few months ago (including dates supporting Dinosaur Jr.).

The Missingmen will continue to play with Mike Watt too, with scattered shows along the West Coast scheduled (see full dates below).

Watt is also gigging with his other groups. He'll play in August with the Secondmen (with that group's original members, organist Pete Mazich and drummer Jerry Trebotic).

Before that, Watt'll debut a new band at the August 1st Central Park Summerstage show. That group, Floored by Four, also includes Nels Cline, Yuka Honda and Dougie Bowne. M. Ward headlines the show.

Floored by Four has plans to record in the days leading up to the Summerstage show. To tally up Watt's recording projects, his forthcoming records include Hyphenated Man (w/ the Missingmen), a Black Gang (w/ Nels Cline) record, a new Secondmen disc and probably others.

One of Watt's finest records, the Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime, will be recognized at the Bowery Poetry Club for a 25th anniversary celebration of the album on Saturday, July 25th. The plans for the party are as follows...

Be prepared for the extreme unusual, with spoken word renditions of songs on the album, musical tributes, rare videos and recordings, and special musical guest stars, including the bassist for the Minutemen, Mike Watt.

Performers confirmed so far include Michael T. Fournier (author of Double Nickels on the Dime (33-1/3 press), New Jersey experimental indie rock band Twede Kamer, Worcester, MA Minutemen cover band Pillowman, mystery punk bassist The Bass Player from Hand Job, electro-poetic mistress Jackie Sheeler, Jazz piano cabaret duo Peter Carlaftes & Kayo, Warhol scenester Ronnie Norpel and punkster poet Kat Georges (author of Punk Rock Journal).

Mike Watt is ALSO playing with Jim O'Rourke, among others, in Japan this September, AND Mike Watt even makes an appearance in the new Dinosaur Jr. video, "Over It," posted below with all Dinosaur Jr. and Mike Watt tour dates...

Continue reading "Dinosaur Jr. album out, touring w/ Lou Barlow & the Missingmen (dates) sans Mike Watt who is plenty busy"

mike watt & the missingmen

I put the missingmen together in the summer of 2006 in order to bring forth my third punk rock opera "hyphenated-man" (the first two being 1997's "contemplating the engine room" and 2004's "the secondman's middle stand"). whereas "...engine room" dealt w/my pop's life in the navy as a metaphor for the story of the minutemen and "...middle stand" was a parallel to dante's "comedia" dealing w/an illness that almost killed me in 2000, this third opera will be quite different in that it has no standard narrative (libretto!) meaning no regular beginning-middle-end and will be as it were "simultaneous" in the way a mirror from just inside my head - right in this middle-age moment of mine - was then shattered into thirtynine pieces, each showing a piece of my state of mind (or out-of-mind) as of now. "thirty tunes?" yes, they're little ones. too heavy to really hear minutemen stuff for many years, I had to face myself and get the nerve up to hear it again when I agreed to let keith scheiron and tim irwin make the "we jam econo" documentary (many thanks to them and all who helped out on that). I even did a few gigs w/george hurley w/us as a duet doing the old tunes and it was trippy for me, like I was digging on how "econo" those tiny tunes were - no filler, right to point. a big influence was those little creatures in those old hieronymus bosch painting - I read a theory about them maybe being visualizations of proverbs or aphorisms and me, not knowing much about sixteenth century dutch/flemish culture, made up my own meanings! -Mike Watt

Mike Watt (of the Minutemen) has a bunch of shows scheduled over the next few months - some with the Secondmen, and some with the Missingmen.

UPDATE: All upcoming Mike Watt shows are Missingmen dates.

Dates includes May 7th at Maxwell's in Hoboken (tickets on sale now), May 8th at Mercury Lounge in NYC (tickets on sale at noon), a bunch of other headlining dates, and a bunch of shows opening for Dinosaur Jr. (J Mascis and Mike Watt together again).

There's a small gap in Mike's schedule at the beginning of May. I thought maybe new dates would show up, but according to an update I got from Mike himself after I first published this: "in the middle, may 3-4-5 has me three days in the studio w/them to record my third opera at tony maimone's studio in brooklyn (studio g)." Them = the missingmen. Also, Mike's calling the trip "'prac for the 3rd opera' tour 2009."

Dinosaur Jr's. tour starts not long after SXSW..

Having recently signed with Jagjaguwar, Dinosaur Jr will be hitting the road in April to road test new material in a town near you in cozier environs than you might expect. For the fortunate fans who score tickets to these select shows, they will also receive either a limited edition, tour-only 7" or a digital download code with the purchase of a ticket. The songs on this release were recorded live during a Pitchfork.tv feature at J Mascis' own Bisquiteen Studios.

You can watch those and other videos, and see all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Mike Watt touring with & without Dinosaur Jr. - 2009 dates"