Last Updated on December 1, 2025 by Black Sunshine Media
The highlight of my rock n’ roll fandom was meeting Mike Watt and having a regular conversation with him, not the typical I’m your biggest fan type-shit. The meeting happened at the Double Door while Watt was touring for Contemplating the Engine Room, around 1996-97. And then, I had the good fortune to interview Watt in 2013.
Mike Watt is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen and fIREHOSE. He was also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan. He maintains a healthy web presence, with Mike Watt’s Hoot Page and Watt Radio. His tour journals are also worth reading.
CMJ New Music calls Watt a “seminal post-punk bass player.” In November 2008, Watt received the Bass Player Magazine lifetime achievement award, presented by Flea. In addition to being one of the best bass players I’ve ever heard, Mike Watt represents the quintessence of punk rock.
Minutemen
When browsing my record collection, even if I’m not listening to Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime, I never fail to pick up the record and hold it in my hands, giving it at least due respect. Every Watt-related record in my collection gets the same treatment, hell, it’s almost sacrilegious to say, but I like fIREHOSE as much, if not a little more, than Minutemen.
Other than owning Minutemen records, there is no better source of information than this 2005 documentary, We Jam Econo. Watch it.
fIREHOSE
fIREHOSE, on the other hand, is one of my favorite bands that almost nobody other than my high school buddies ever heard or still listens to. They didn’t have any hits. They made a few videos, but hardly ever(?) appeared on MTV. When they disbanded in 1994, nobody except the skateboarders noticed. This is a travesty that continues to bother me, but you know, there’s no accounting for taste.
Here are some of my favorite fIREHOSE songs.
This is an ‘official’ video of “Sometimes.” Actually, I don’t know where it came from but it’s AWESOME.
“Losers, Boozers, and Heroes” might be my all-time favorite fIREHOSE song.
Three cuts and a documentary isn’t even scratching the surface. At the end of the day, when I think about the musicians who have contributed so much to my education and experience, no one has given as much and asked for so little in return as Mike Watt. Forever in his debt, I gotta say, “Much respect.”
