Mike Watt: The Secondman's Middle Stand : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

This is a difficult album. From the traumatic instance that inspired it -- Watt suffered an internal abscess in his perineum that could have killed him -- to the adventurous prog-rock that executes it, this is a concept album that does not go down easy -- unless, of course, endless repetitions of the phrase "Pissbags and Tubing" sung in strangulated harmony appeals to you. The legendary alt-rock bassist, who established his reputation with the Minutemen and their brevity, stretches things to the limit. Recorded in four days with a sparse trio of drums, bass and organ, the album's nine tracks all sprawl over the five-minute mark and feature musical passages that sound like a cross between Jethro Tull and Uriah Heep practicing their scales. All this accompanies Watt's unflinching step-by-step analysis of his illness and recovery. On one hand, it's a brave experiment; on the other, it's an incredibly self-indulgent disaster.