(Artist Statement) mike watt (minutemen, fIREHOSE, solo artist, Stooges' bassist, missingmen and secondmen leader) sez: "I'm finishing my third opera ("hyphenated-man") w/bass brother tony maimone at studio g in brooklyn now.""the 'third opera' for watt (me) is called 'hyphenated-man' and it is w/tom watson and raul morales (mike watt + the missingmen) - different proj than 'my shubun no hi.'"
It was recorded in the middle of the "prac'n the 3rd opera" tour 2009 in brooklyn, at tony maimone's studio g ("tony was incredible pere ubu bassist and hero for me in early punk days on bass")
"we're doing practice on the songs on the tour but not actually playing the piece which is like one big song w/thirty parts...I put this trio together just for this proj but it's been a little bit coming since of incredible time spent by me in the stooges classroom. by the way, my first two punk operas were 1997's 'contemplating the engine room' and then 'the secondman's middle-stand' in 2004.
"this one is different in that there's no _beginning-middle-end_ like the other two... it's more like all middle which makes some sense maybe since I'm fiftytwo and kind of weird type of middle-aged person, a punk one?!"
Meanwhile, Floored By Four is the eponymous debut from mike watt's "Manhattan project," a quartet of renowned musicians comprising Dougie Bowne on drums, guitarist Nels Cline, Yuka Honda on keys, and bass, spiel and compositions by watt. Their debut studio album was recorded by Matt Vertaray, then mixed by Dougie, Yuka and Matt at Bowne's basement studio on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Floored By Four is being released September 28 by Chimera Music.
