Yet more media praise for mike watt and Todd Congelliere’s Jumpstarted Plowhards

I’m forwarding a few more early pieces on the latest project from art punk icon mike watt.  Round One is the first of series of projected releases from watt’s latest collaobration, Jumpstarted Plowhards, a furiously rocking combo featuring him and   guitarist/singer Todd Congelliere (Toys That Kill, F.Y.P, Underground Railroad to Candyland) and a rotating cast of drummers including George Hurley (MINUTEMEN, fIREHOSE), Patty Schemel (Hole), as well as regular watt colleagues Jerry Trebotic (mike watt + the secondmen) and Raul Morales (mike watt + the missingmen) among others. The album is being released on 45RPM 12″ vinyl by Congelliere’s Recess Records. I hope you’ll consider covering this release via feature or album review. Here’s video of mike watt & the missingmen performing “On The Counter,” a tune that appears on Round One on Adult Swim’s Fish Center:

https://youtu.be/f3AnE6L4zGk

Bassist Mike Watt is, with no hyperbole, indefatigable. In the recent past, he’s been out on the road as part of Tav Falco’s band, assisted (along with singer David Yow) in a bunch of shows with Flipper, and has just wound down a tour with his own outfit The Missingmen. Recordings have been prominent as well, with this set a back-and-forth project with singer-guitarist Todd Congelliere of Toys That Kill and a rotating cast of drummers including a few with long associations with Watt, namely George Hurley, Raul Morales, and the youthful Nick Aguilar. Toys That Kill is a San Pedro-based outfit, so this is all literally close to home for Watt, with the foundation of the songs beginning with his bass parts as recorded to click tracks.They were then passed on to Congelliere, who fleshed out the tunes and finally picked the drummers as he felt appropriate; amongst the contributors is Patty Schemel of Hole. Not being super-familiar with Toys That Kill, the results are pretty surprising as the concise set begins in what I’ll call a late ’70s-early ’80s UK art-punk zone that borders on that era and that nation’s subterranean DIY explosion. As the next seven tracks unwind, the general aura of Britishness remains but without ever slipping into the territory of a best-accent contest. The whole is cohesive as fuck (this bodes well, as there are five more prospective installments of Jumpstarted Plowhards material) and rocks like a mofo, which given the participants, isn’t the least bit surprising. It all syncs up very nicely with the below. A-Joseph Neff/The VinylDistrict.com 11/8

Mike Watt is a true musical visionary, constantly searching and experimenting with sound and concepts through his decades of playing. Always willing to explore a new idea, his newest one doesn’t seem like it should work. In Jumpstarted Plowhards, Watt would record his bass parts over a click track, then have Todd Congelliere (F.Y.P., Underground Railroad to Candyland) provide vocals and guitar. From there, Congelliere would contact a different drummer for each track. This, of course, seems like a crazy idea.But it works. Somehow without the players being in the same space, or even having a consistent drummer, the eight songs on the Round One ep gell as a cohesive whole. It probably helps that three of the eight drummers have worked with Watt before, in the missingmen, the secondmen, and fIREHOSE/Minutemen.The songs show a variety of influences – you can hear touches of SST-era Sonic Youth, surf guitar, Hot Snakes post-punk, all of which combine to sound like a consistent band. The songs are direct, generally clocking in around two minutes, and are sort of the Platonic ideal of post-punk, of taking songs apart to see what works, and discarding the unnecessary. Hopefully Round Two is coming soon.Scott Adams/Ink19.com 11/11/19

Super interesting and rockin’ collaboration between Recess Records Records/FYP/Toys That Kill’s Todd Congelliere and legendary bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, firehose and hundreds of others). For the collaboration they opted to work with several different drummers including Watt’s longtime pal George Hurley and Hole’s Patty Schemel among many others. Each song has it’s own distinct personality(at least partially due to the drummer but also the myriad of influences that both Congelliere and Watt bring to the table). First cut “On the Counter’ is a pure adrenaline rush as is the equally as great “The Garter Snakes” while despite its name, “The Punk Setup” is much more low key. “Makin It All Settle Down” lays back on the beat a bit more with a sinister sounding guitar that totally works as does the final cut the excellent, biting “Babylon Gone.”  So this is the first in the series and these two plan on plenty more (with a buncha different drummers already lined up) and these guys do plan on taking it on the road, too. Studio or road…..I’m ready to hear more. Tim Hinely/Daggerzine 12/13/19

Jumpstarted Plowhards decided to create five albums, Round One through Round Five, but that in itself is not what makes the band creatively unconventional. That was Mike’s idea. He’s the member of Jumpstarted Plowhards who began composing songs by sending a bass line to Todd, who would then build the music around it. Who came up with the idea to bring in a different drummer for each song? Not sure. No format was discussed.Todd always wrote his songs by himself – except for a guitar or piano, of course – but he’d never done something like this. before. Mike sent him 15 bass tracks. This challenged Todd to come up with an idea around a bass part – because “you are confined to just that,” he said. Fifteen songs was daunting. Todd suggested that he and Mike each take half the songs. He had his reasons – that it would sound better, be less for the listener to digest divide the bunch into two so it will sound better and would be a lot less for the listener to digest, as well as less daunting for the two of them. Mike was persuaded and they divided the 15 songs. Actually, Todd took eight tracks, and it wasn’t long before he began to see a vision. Mike suggested they make five albums first, then they would have shows.

Now, Round Two is ready to go.Todd described his process.”[It was] like being  in jail, but that’s where you find your freedom,” he said. “If someone had described that process of making a song to me, I would think it was going to be terrible – no way it would be listenable.”And? Is it? Listenable, that is?Todd points out that he didn’t cut anything up or delete any of Mike’s bass parts. He emphasizes that what Mike tracked on his bass parts is exactly what’s on the record.And that is?Todd says it came out pretty good for not missing any of Mike’s parts, but he allows that was hard to come up with something because their styles are different. So?”Now it sounds to me like a band went in [the studio] and practiced and made songs together.” Todd contends. “It sounds like there’s chemistry involved.  There are eight different drummers. I feel like the odds were against us but it came out even.” The drums are handled by Mike’s former Minutemen and fIREHOSE bandmate George Hurley, Hole drummer Patty Schemel, The Secondmen‘s Jerry Trebotic and The Missingmen‘s Raul Morales.Most of the sessions took less than an hour to complete but they were a challenge because the drummers all had nothing more than a click track [what keeps the rhythm of his song and what Mike sent the bass lines with] to work with. Todd said he wouldn’t mind completing two albums each year. In part, he wants to take his time and perfect it but he also just wants to play the songs live. That’s the most important thing. “Mike thinks music is like wine and it has to age,” Todd said. “I agree with him now.””Punk is such a loose term now but especially with all that Mike has recorded, this is definitely the punkest,” Todd said. “That would be credited to me.”Melina Paris/Random Lengths 11/7

Todd and mike first met in the early 90’s when F.Y.P. shared bills with watt’s bass duo, “dos.” In 2013, mike and his secondmen released their version of Toys That Kill’s “No One” on both a split 7″ with Qui and a compilation of covers of Todd’s songs. Throughout the first two decades of the 21st century, mike watt + the missingmen frequently did dates with the former’s Toys That Kill, and after a 2017 West Coast tour together watt proposed a collaboration. He’d supply Todd with bass parts recorded to click tracks and Congelliere would flesh out the songs with guitars and vocals and recruit different drummers to complete respective tunes. In the Summer of 2018, Todd received a CDR with 15 selections, headed to his Clown Sound studios and got down the business feeling both excited and overwhelmed. After laying his parts, and getting watt to record spiels on two songs, Congelliere began contacting drummers. As each song started taking shape, a prospective drummer usually popped into his head. Here’re Todd’s observations of what each one brought to the sessions: “Nick Aguilar (Neighborhood Brats, Slaughterhouse) is very versatile. I wanted some pounding and a li’l surf with ‘On The Counter’ and he pulled it off without making those desired aspects obvious.  ”

‘The Punk Setup’ just one of the songs in the long-term project that fit George Hurley. No one I know plays like George. Some of these I thought, ‘George or nothing’ right from the start. I changed the song a bit after I tracked him. So, he made the song better.  “Jimmy Felix (Toys That Kill) is a jungle beat pounder. ‘The Garter Snakes’ is the closest to the stuff I write with Toys That Kill so Jimmy was obvious for it.  “‘Claws Break Down’ is another song that I went back and improved AFTER drum tracking.

Patty Schemel is sparse on this and it really adds to it tremendously.  “Brian Brunak (Fartbarf) is super technical but I think excels at the rock. ‘Yeah, We’re Gonna Learn To Fall’ needed rolls without overfilling. I had a drum loop on that was close to the basic idea but also terrible. I took it off and just had the click and he got it right away.  “Trevor Rounseville (Clown Sounds) loves heavy music and ‘Makin’ it All Settle Down’ is the heaviest song we got.  “Jerry Trebotic has so much hyper energy but doesn’t overdo it. It’s rare. I think he nails it. There’s even a happy accident on ‘Commie Klara’ that anyone else would 99% for sure redo.  “Raul Morales played in my old band F.Y.P. before joining watt. “Babylon Gone” sounds nothing like my F.Y.P. songs but the chemistry is the same.”  Jumpstarted Plowhards plan to record five installments of the series before playing live. The basic songs for Round Two are already taking shape and drummers are being lined up as of this writing with drums tracking scheduled for later this year.

 http://hootpage.com/https://www.recessrecords.com/