Pitchfork

Former Minuteman Mike Watt remains a blur on our musical radars, but he does slow down on occasion to let us know where he's going. For now, that includes more info about his Funanori collaboration with Go! Team guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Kaori Tsuchida.

The duo's previously reported split EP with Tokyo's LITE is called A Tiny Twofer, and it features artwork by Watt pal and former SST album artist Raymond Pettibon. The EP will drop UK-ways on September 3 via Transduction Records (distributed via Cargo Records in Europe), and though it doesn't have a U.S. release planned yet, a Japanese release on Daizawa could come as soon as October.

Watt also recorded with a different Tokyo band, mi-gu, which features Yuko Araki and Hirotaka "Shimmy" Shimizu (drummer and bassist, respectively, for Cornelius) as two of its three members. The recording took place on a recent break from touring with the Stooges, and while in Tokyo, Watt also recorded with Kyoka and Jim O'Rourke, who has lived in Japan for about a year now. O'Rourke spoke about his musical past and played some songs from his personal collection for an episode of Watt's "The Watt From Pedro Show" podcast that will go up this coming Monday, August 6.

Aside from all of that, Watt also plans to work on a new opera with his Missingmen trio, and the fourth Dos album will get mixed in the fall.

However, that Missingmen opera will have to wait until Mike finishes that aforementioned tour with the Stooges (see his tour diary here), which continues August 3 in El Ejido, Spain. The Missingmen also have a pair of dates scheduled for the coming months.

Finally, a Glenn Branca piece Watt took part in performing last year, "Symphony No. 13 (Hallucination City)", is coming to London on October 12 for Frieze Music 2007. Of course, Watt's just a little too busy to play this year, but Branca is looking for 80 guitarists and 20 bass players to take part. Those who are interested (and who can read standard staff notation and don't mind not getting paid) should contact dthetncrkr@earthlink.net for more information.

Whew!

A Tiny Twofer:

01 LITE - "Tomorrow"
02 LITE - "Primary"
03 LITE - "Ef"
04 Funanori - "Fujiko"
05 Funanori - "Lazy & Crazy"
06 Funanori - "Tidy Your Mess Up"

Stooges dates:

08-03 El Ejido, Spain - Almeria Natural Festival
08-05 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
08-07 Rochester Hills, MI - Meadow Brook
08-16 Hasselt, Belgium - Pukkelpop Festival
08-18 Staffordshire, England - V Festival
08-19 Chelmsford, England - V Festival
08-28 Zagreb, Croatia - In Music Festival
08-31 Leeds, England - Harewood House
09-02 Stradbally, Ireland - Electric Picnic Festival
09-07 Fredrikstad, Norway - Maanefestivalen
09-09 Helsinki, Finland - Icehall
09-11 Moscow, Russia - B-1 Maximum
09-15 La Courneuve, France - Fete de L'Humanite

Mike Watt + the Missingmen dates:

08-12 Los Angeles, CA - Liquid Kitty
09-29 San Diego, CA - Adams Avenue Street Fair