August 2004

Mike Watt

Eddie August 26, 2004 0 Comment

The Secondman’s Middle Stand

As a member of Firehose, a trio that gave new meaning to improvisation and post-punk during the 1980s and early 1990s, bassist Mike Watt became the focal point. Although Watt has been known for enlisting guests—Eddie Vedder, Flea and countless others have recorded and played on his solo projects—his latest album should both ignite a new following and reunite him with his older fan base. Watt’s guitar-less quartet recorded the new album in his San Pedro studio earlier this year, achieving a sound unlike his previous efforts. Fans of the Hammond B-3 organ and Watt’s signature, off-kilter bass plucking should find reward in songs like “Tied a Reed ’Round My Waist” and “Puked to High Heaven.” Anyone hoping for a carbon copy of Watt’s last opus should know better. Watt likes to change it up.
(SN&R)

The Dillinger Escape Plan

Eddie August 12, 2004 0 Comment

Miss Machine

New Jersey band the Dillinger Escape Plan (the DEP) is a confusing lot. Not only does the band record albums to please itself, but also its fan base grows exponentially. As the leader of the “new” crop of math-rock bands, the DEP (guitarists Ben Weinman and Brian Benoit, vocalist Greg Puciato, drummer Chris Pennie and bassist Liam Wilson) has taken its new album to dizzying heights that focus on the left side of the cerebral cortex, while gently agitating the right into violent convulsions. Here, the DEP succeed in cross-pollinating a number of genres—death metal, jazz, Latin and industrial rock—but extend each further than the usual five-second burst. If tracks like “Unretrofied” don’t sound right next to the quagmire provided by “Highway Robbery” or “Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants,” it’s because they don’t.

(SN&R)