Mike Watt Announces New Album, Tour

Published at 1:53 PM on January 4, 2011

By Wyndham Wyeth

Minutemen alum Mike Watt is gearing up for an extensive U.S. tour with The Missingmen in support of their forthcoming album, Hyphenated-Man. The new record, out March 1 on Watt’s own Clenchedwrench imprint, is his third self-described “opera,” following 1997’s Contemplating the Engine Room and 2004’s The Secondman’s Middle Stand.

However, the new album differs from Watt’s previous releases in the sense that there is no standard narrative. Hyphenated-Man consists of 30 short tracks that are actually “thirty parts of one big tune,” Watt says on his website. Rather than having an ordinary beginning, middle and end, he says the album is "simultaneous in the way a mirror from just inside my head – right in this middle-age moment of mine – was then shattered into thirty pieces and then each piece stuffed in the head to show a piece of my state of mind (or out-of-mind) as of now.” Fair enough.

Watt and The Missingmen hit the road in early March for an impressive run of shows that concludes at the end of April with only one day off in between.

Dates:

March
10 – Santa Barbara, Calif. @ Velvet Jones
11 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Echo
12 – San Diego, Calif. @ Casbah
13 – Tucson, Ariz. @ Plush
14 – Albuquerque, N.M. @ Launchpad
15 – Oklahoma City, Okla. @ The Conservatory
16 – Dallas, Texas @ The Loft
17 – Austin, Texas @ Gingerman – SXSW
18 – Houston, Texas @ Fitzgerald’s
19 – Baton Rouge, La. @ Spanish Moon
20 – New Orleans, La. @ One Eyed Jacks
21 – Pensacola, Fla. @ Handlebar
22 – Gainesville, Fla. @ Common Grounds
23 – Orlando, Fla. @ The Social
24 – Jacksonville, Fla. @ Jack Rabbits
25 – Atlanta, Ga. @ The Earl
26 – Athens, Ga. @ 40 Watt Club
27 – Charleston, S.C. @ The Pour House
28 – Chapel Hill, N.C. @ Local 506
29 – Richmond, Va. @ The Canal Club
30 – Morgantown, W. Va. @ 123 Pleasant Street
31 – Wash., D.C. @ Black Cat

April
1 – Baltimore, Md. @ Ottobar
2 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ North Star
3 – Hoboken , N.J. @ Maxwell’s
4 – New York, N.Y. @ Mercury Lounge
5 – Milford, Conn. @ Daniel Street
6 – Cambridge, Mass. @ T.T. The Bear’s
7 – Montreal, Quebec @ La Sala Rossa
8 – Ottawa, Ontario @ Mavericks or Kingston, Ontario @ The Mansion
9 – Toronto, Ontario @ HS Tavern
10 – Pittsburgh, Pa. @ Brillobox
11 – Cleveland, Ohio @ Grog Shop
12 – Detroit, Mich. @ Magic Bag
13 – Indianapolis, Ind. @ Radio Radio
14 – St. Louis, Mo. @ Blueberry Hill
15 – Chicago, Ill. @ Schubas
16 – Milwaukee, Wis. @ Shank Hall
17 – Madison, Wis. @ High Noon Saloon
18 – St. Paul, Minn. @ Turf Club
19 – Omaha , Neb. @ Slowdown Jr.
20 – Lawrence, Kan. @ Bottleneck
22 – Denver, Colo. @ Larmier Lounge
23 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ The Complex
24 – Boise, Idaho @ Neurolux or Boise, Idaho @ Linen Room
25 – Portland, Ore. @ Doug Fir Lounge
26 – Vancouver, B.C. @ The Media Club
27 – Seattle, Wash. @ The Triple Door
28 – Eugene, Ore. @ Wow Hall
29 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Bottom of the Hill
30 – Sacramento, Calif. @ The Blue Lamp