Men Without Hats: “Love In The Age Of War” It's time to “Safety Dance” (if you want to) all over again. Ivan Ivan (he of the deep baritone) and Men Without Hats returns with a brilliant and super catchy CD packed full of retro-sounding danceable keyboard driven pop sure to make you dance. (Again, only if you want to.) Pop goes the world again! The Beach Boys: “That's Why God Made The Radio” There are some reunions you thought you'd never see: [...]

The Hand To Man Band es uno de esos grupos en los que se nota que los integrantes son amigos desde hace años y por eso hacen música tan buena: Por placer, y no por necesidad. A pesar de que el nombre no les suene, los integrantes de la banda son Mike Watt de fIREHOSE, John D de Deerhoof y Tim Barnes de Silver Jews; todos músicos que llevan más de 10 años haciendo música no sólo relevante, pero siempre divertida y fresca. The Hand To Man Band lleva 2 años como tal, pero apenas ahora lanzarán [...]
Mike Watt is still the man in the van with the bass in his hand. For over 3 decades he has toured the country in his Ford Econoline, first with incomparable punk band the Minutemen, in the 90s with the fluid fIREHOSE, and later with the power trios that have followed: The Missingmen and The Secondmen. His other musical projects include an ongoing gig as the bassist for Iggy and the Stooges; “Dos y Dos”, the 4th album of twining bass duets with former Black Flag bassist Kira Roessler; Spielgusher , a long-time-coming collaboration with rock wordsmith Richard Meltzer, [...]

Dos nuevos libros: "Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock" , de Jesse Jarnow, y "Too High to Die: Meet the Meat Puppets" , de Greg Prato, saldrán a la venta este verano. Como se podrán imaginar, en ambos libros encontraremos la historia de Yo La Tengo y Meat Puppets relatada desde sus inicios en las ciudades que vieron nacer a dos de las bandas más importantes del rock autónomo. Una de Nueva Jersey y la otra de Arizona, ambos grupos estuvieron enlazados con el desenvolvimiento de clubes, sellos, tiendas, y hasta publicaciones [...]

Anywhere , the project from Cedric Bixler Zavala ( The Mars Volta , At The Drive-In ), Christian Eric Beaulieu (Triclops, Liquid Indian) and Mike Watt ( The Stooges , fIREHOSE, Minutemen ) have announced a "wide" release of their previously limited self-titled debut. Only 500 copies of the album were made available for Record Store Day but ATP Recordings is planning a wide release on June 4, 2012 . The label described the release: [...]
lowFLOWs is a great rock 'n' roll story, the story of musicians pushing on in the face of heartbreak and finding new sounds, new music, and new creative heights. You got to give Ed Crawford credit: the guy had guts. Whatever it was that drove him to talk Watt and Hurley into forming a new band, it couldn't have been an easy sell. For one, when Crawford approached Hurley and Watt in 1986, the two players had just lost best friend D. Boon -- frontman for their band, famous funk-punk act the Minutemen -- the December before, and [...]

[Photos courtesy of Robert Kidd. See more of his excellent work HERE .] To paraphrase the late Jerry Garcia, not everybody knows who Mike Watt is, but those who do really appreciate Mike Watt. Having long been established as an elder statesman of punk, post-punk and alternative rock starting with the seminal Minutemen and the inspired fIREHOSE , his versatility has allowed him to play with many musicians of different stripes and genres. He's a bass player's bass player; the go-to guy who you know will [...]

fIREHOSE "lowFLOWs" The Columbia Anthology ('91-'93) Columbia/Legacy Recordings [2012] (2CD Set) Fire Note Says: Re-visiting an important moment in time when we still called it college rock! Album Review: Minutemen Mike Watt and George Hurley recorded the fIREHOSE album, Ragin', Full On [1986] a year after the tragic death of their singer/guitarist and life-long friend, D. Boon, at the urging from Ohioan Ed Crawford (known as [...]
The fact that fIREHOSE was even a band, let alone one with a strong enough catalog to justify a two-disc special re-release treatment, is surprising. When D. Boon accidentally died in the mid-80’s abruptly ending punk heroes The Minutemen, the last thing bassist Mike Watt wanted to do was start another band, still morning his [...]

photos by David Andrako "Did y'all peep my Lil boob out with tha pastie today at coachella ?!? That was my Lil Kim moment !" - AZEALIA BANKS hologram Biggie w/ the Black Lips / Azealia Banks / ASAP Rocky @ Coachella Saturday "For a certain breed of diehard Coachella fan, once is just not enough. And since 2012 is [...]

When I was 15, I saw a curious looking Coachella DVD in the music documentary section at Best Buy, and bought it on a whim. It turned out to be a collection of select performances from the festival's recent years. It introduced me to the concept of the contemporary music festival. Watching awe-inspiring sets from the Pixies, Radiohead, and Arcade Fire back then made me long for this mystical festival destination for the ensuing years. What could be better than a music festival in the California desert, surrounded by swaying palm trees and gorgeous sunsets? As an East [...]
Christopher Victorio/OC WeeklyRadiohead certainly had the most pre-festival buzz for Saturday, but once we got there, we found there was so much more to be excited about. Be it the seeing the reclusiv
There were so many deserving bands playing in the early hours on Saturday, but fuck ‘em—the first band I saw was the Black Lips , and they were worth waiting for. I was wondering why the Black Keys the night before had failed to move me, but now I remember: there are two kinds of garage rock, just like there’s a difference between modern country and roots country. And though I shudder at talk of “authenticity” in music, because it’s usually code for hating the kids with their new-fangled contraptions, there’s no argument that there’s something irreproducible [...]
Who: fIREHOSE in the Gobi Tent In 3 or Fewer Words: Old dudes groovin'. Forgettable Because: All of Mike Watt's other bands are so memorable. "The Man With The Plan and the Bass In His Hand" is a reliable entertainer, but fIREHOSE singer-guitarist Ed Crawford (the one who isn't a Minuteman) just seemed … kind of… there. Crawford and Watt barely interacted during the 50 minutes of solid, free-jazz styled alternative rock; Watt spent most the set [...]

Somewhere in a Massachusetts landfill there's a calendar with the words "Mighty Fuckin' Hose of Fire" written on a then-upcoming 1992 date where a stop on fIREHOSE's Flyin' The Flannel tour was due at Boston's Paradise. Such was the excitement of my college radio/college band/college leisure time cohort. Their live shows raged - explosive displays of virtuosic exploitations of punk rock basics exploded into bewildering free jazz riffing and half-spoken lyrics. So is it time for a critical reassessment re affirmation of fIREHOSE ? Hell, yeah it is. To the [...]
Welcome to April... The beginning of Fauxchella, when all of those bands that were paid an obscene amount of money to perform in the desert for rich kids on copious amounts of drugs get to play for normal people, in normal venues, where you get to hear a band with a soundcheck and a real [...]

Not only have fIREHOSE reformed for Coachella and elsewhere but there appears to be a compilation of the Columbia stuff on its way. This is a good thing, because while the SST albums were probably better on the whole, all fIREHOSE is good fIREHOSE. And besides that it will include the Live Totem Pole EP, which is not only hard to find but contains great covers of songs by Public Enemy, the Butthole Surfers, Wire, etc. Given that fIREHOSE is essentially the best bass 'n' drums in the world - the sainted Mike Watt and the [...]

Can you be believe the wait is finally over? We've been playing the Icelandic release of My Head Is an Animal , the debut from Of Monsters and Men , since we last visited them in October, but today the U.S. release hits record store shelves across the country. And while you may think you've already heard every song on the album, think again: the domestic release features two new songs and new album art. Well, what are you waiting for? We'll be here when you get back... but hold on... there's much more awaiting for [...]

fIREHOSE, the post- Minutemen project from Mike Watt and George Hurley, will be releasing lowFLOWs , an anthology of music from the band's years on Columbia Records from 1991 to 1993. The two-disc set will contain 45 tracks, including remastered editions of 1991's Flyin' the Flannel and 1993's Mr. Machinery Operator . Each album will occupy its own disc, plus additional rarities and bonus tracks; disc one also contains the band's Live Totem Pole EP. The anthology is set to be released April 3rd, 2012. fIREHOSE reunited this year [...]