Contemplating the Engine Room explained

Contemplating the Engine Room
Type:Studio album
Artist:Mike Watt
Cover:Contemplating the Engine Room.jpeg
Released:October 6, 1997
Genre:Punk
Length:50:08
Label:Columbia
Producer:Mike Watt
Prev Title:Ball-Hog or Tugboat?
Prev Year:1995
Next Title:The Secondman's Middle Stand
Next Year:2004

Contemplating the Engine Room is a punk rock opera by Minutemen veteran Mike Watt. Released in 1997, the album is a punk rock song cycle that uses navy life as an extended metaphor for both Watt's family history and his first band, the Minutemen.[1] [2] The album was greeted with a positive response. [1] [3] [4] The cover art features a picture of Watt's father in his Navy uniform.[5]

Background

In July 1997, Watt posted on his personal website, "I'm gonna call the band mike watt and the black gang crew in honor of engine room folk - the black gang is boat talk for engine room crew."[6] The album features Watt as the singer, Nels Cline on guitar and drummer Stephen Hodges. It was produced by Watt and engineered by Bobby Seifert.[7]

Watt's father joined the navy when he was 17 and retired when he was 37.[2] He served aboard nuclear vessels, and died from cancer when he was 51.[2] Watt was originally from Virginia, but his parents divorced during the Viet Nam War, and Watt and his mother remained in California.[8]

Watt formed the Minutemen with his best friend, guitarist D. Boon, and drummer George Hurley, and they toured until Boon's death in a car wreck in Arizona in 1985.[9]

Album

Considered a "punk rock opera",[6] Contemplating The Engine Room is structured in several musical groups of threes to reflect the story's trio of protagonists.[7] Each of the 15 tracks represents part of a day in the lives of the three men in the engine room of a large naval vessel. According to Watt, the boilerman is D. Boon. The fireman is George Hurley and Watt is the machinist.[8]

Watt was a bit intimidated to make such an overtly personal album but he felt that he had to.[10]

The opening track, "In the Engine Room," starts just before dawn and it ends 24 hours later with "Shore Duty".[3] [7] [11] It is essentially the story of a guy who has run away from a farm town, joined the Navy, and found a crew that has built a routine together. When their ship pulls into a port for shore leave, they get drunk, and the boilerman sleepwalks, falls in the water, and drowns.[8]

The collection is a bass-driven opera which begins and ends with the same bass figure. The lyrics and music contain countless nautical references, and elements of Richard McKenna's naval novel, The Sand Pebbles as well as stories that Watt's dad would tell when he came back from being at sea.[7] [11] “The Bluejacket’s Manual” compares punk rock to boot camp. Watt has compared his father's experience of leaving a farm town to the Minutemen bursting open and getting away from arena rock.[8]

Watt experimented with sounds that could not normally be achieved with a live three-piece band, at one point "rollin' marbles around on a bass drumhead and beatin' on it with our hands to get the sound of thunder." The songs are separated with nautical noises such as crashing waves, foghorns, and ship's bells. Watt also played the whole album with the top bass string detuned from E to D to push himself out of his comfort zone.[7]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Mike Watt

  1. "In The Engine Room"
  2. "Red Bluff"
  3. "The Bluejackets' Manual"
  4. "Pedro Bound!"
  5. "The Boilerman"
  6. "Black Gang Coffee"
  7. "Topsiders"
  8. "No One Says Old Man"
  9. "Fireman Hurley"
  10. "Liberty Calls!"
  11. "In The Bunk Room/Navy Wife"
  12. "Crossing The Equator"
  13. "Breaking The Choke Hold"
  14. "Wrapped Around The Screw"
  15. "Shore Duty"

Personnel

See also: The Black Gang.

Reception

John Krewson of The A.V. Club said of Watt's punk rock opera "Against all logic, it succeeds, more or less brilliantly"[3] Matt Diehl of Rolling Stone called it Watt's "most personal, affecting work yet." People praised it as "a meditation on the meaning of work, friendship and the quest for adventure" while admitting that it can be a challenging work, "tough sailing" at times.[12] Mark Athitakis of Salon called it "jaw-dropping" and a "post-punk "Ulysses.""[10]

Robert Christgau was less complimentary saying that what Watt isn't "is a compelling artist. He can't sing at all, can't write much, and still pretends the bass solo is a viable musical form."

Live album

For the November 2017 Record Store Day, Contemplating the Engine Room was re-released on vinyl with a companion album Contemplating the Engine Room: Live in Long Beach ‘98 – Five Man Opera.[13]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: AllMusic Review . McLeod . Kembrew . AllMusic.com . 12 June 2017 .
  2. Chonin . Neva . 27 November 1997 . Q&A: Mike Watt; Former Minutemen bassist discusses new solo album, 'Contemplating the Engine Room' . Rolling Stone .
  3. Web site: Mike Watt: Contemplating The Engine Room . Krewson . John . 29 March 2002 . . 12 June 2017 .
  4. News: Kot . Greg . 17 October 1997 . Mike Watt Contemplating the Engine Room... . Chicago Tribune . Chicago . 12 June 2017.
  5. Q&A: Mike Watt. Rolling Stone.
  6. Web site: the making of "contemplating the engine room" . Watt . Mike . Mike Watt. Mike Watt's Hoot Page. 22 July 1997 . 12 June 2017.
  7. Web site: "Mike Watt & Masina" . Drvo . Izniknami Badem . Omnium Records . 12 June 2017 .
  8. Web site: MIKE WATT PONDERS MINUTEMEN WHILE 'CONTEMPLATING THE ENGINE ROOM' . Fortunato . John . 3 June 2009 . 12 June 2017 .
  9. Athitakis . Mark . 31 October 1997 . "Mike Watt" . Salon Magazine . 12 June 2017.
  10. Web site: Athitakis. Mark. Mike Watt. Salon. October 31, 1997. October 4, 2019.
  11. McMahan . Tim . 29 Oct 1998 . Contemplating Mike Watt . The Reader . www.lazy-i.com "lazyeye" . 12 June 2017.
  12. Web site: Picks and Pans Review: Contemplating the Engine Room. People. November 24, 1997. October 4, 2019.
  13. Web site: BLACK FRIDAY 2017 > Mike Watt - Contemplating The Engine Room . Record Store Day. October 4, 2019.