Day After Day #291: Against the '70s

 Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Against the '70s (1995)

By the mid-'90s, Mike Watt was already entering his third act as a performer. In the early '80s, he was the bassist of legendary indie act the Minutemen. After the tragic death of Minutemen singer-guitarist D. Boon, Watt resurfaced with another great combo in fIREHOSE. But in 1994, fIREHOSE split up and Watt's marriage to former Black Flag bassist Kira Roessler was ending, so he needed to do something new.

Watt brought together about 50 of his friends from the indie rock scene to help him make his first solo album, Ball-Hog or Tugboat? The list of guests was impressive: Henry Rollins, Frank Black, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, J Mascis, Adam Horovitz, Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum, Mark Lanegan, Evan Dando and many more. The album was a combination of originals and covers, but it was all very much Watt.

There are many great songs on the album, but the standout for me is "Against the '70s," which features Vedder on lead vocals, albeit doing a pretty good Watt impression. Although Watt is a Baby Boomer himself, the song casts a skeptical eye at the influence that generation had on the younger generation (which at that time was Gen X).

"I asked him if he knew what time he had/He said he wasn't sure, maybe a quarter past/The kids of today should defend themselves against the '70s/I peered in his eyes as we stood in line just to have a look/But the pages I found looked like an unbound coloring book. The kids of today should defend themselves against the '70s/The kids of today should defend themselves against the '70s/It's not reality/It's just someone else's sentimentality/It won't work for you."

Indeed, ever since those early days of the Minutemen, Watt and his cohorts rejected the traditional path to rock success, "jamming econo" by creating their own network of independent clubs and promoters to deal with and crashing on people's floors and couches. 

"Baby boomers selling you rumors of their history/Forcing youth away from the truth of what's real today/The kids of today should defend themselves against the '70s/Stadium minds with stadium lies gotta make you laugh/Garbage vendors against true defenders of the craft."

Musically, the song has an all-star cast: In addition to Vedder on vocals and guitar and Watt on bass, Grohl on drums, Gary Lee Connor of Screaming Trees on lead guitar, Novoselic on farfisa organ and Carla Bozulich on backing vocals. The song hit #21 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

At the time the album came out, Vedder was the biggest star in rock and was obviously a huge get for Watt, although he didn't view it that way. The song got plenty of play on alt-rock radio. And then Watt toured with a backing band that consisted of Vedder and a new group called the Foo Fighters. I saw Watt play in April 1995 at Avalon in Boston with opening acts Hovercraft (featuring Vedder's then-wife Beth Liebling and Vedder wearing a wig on drums) and Foo Fighters, who nobody had heard previously. Foo Fighters returned as headliners to the same venue few months later after their debut album had come out.

True to his nature, Watt didn't try to capitalize on the success of the album, instead pursuing various opportunities. He played with Porno for Pyros, the Stooges, Wylde Ratttz, Banyan, J Mascis and the Fog, and has also released solo albums. The last time I saw him live was in 2017 at Brighton Music Hall on a bill with Meat Puppets and Grant Hart and he was excellent as usual. Watt is the man.