A Choice to Hoist My Engine

What are you in the mood for today? A double-bass instrumental sidle with some percolating solo work, or that same song plus trumpet & piano calligraphy, plus actual vocals, plus some percolating solo work?

OK, how about both?

Both are courtesy of Mike Watt, the first via his Dos two-bass project with erstwhile wife Kira, the second via his all-star-guest-packed solo album Ball-Hog or Tugboat? (And just to complicate things a little, the first is chronologically the second – the Dos album in question, Justamente Tres, came out in 1996, the solo album the year before that.)

Some more raw data: on the Ball-Hog version I believe that’s Flea on trumpet and Carla Bozulich (of the Geraldine Fibbers) on vocals. Lots of good stuff on the album, by the way, including a voice-mail rant from Kathleen Hanna and a cover of Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain” with J. Mascis on guitar.

• Dos, “Sidemouse Advice”
• Mike Watt, “Sidemouse Advice”

(Buy Justamente Tres here and try for Ball-Hog or Tugboat? at poignantly bargain prices here. And thanks to S. for bringing the great Dos version to my attention.)