Back in what I guess we'll call the Our Band Could Be Your Life era, J Mascis and Mike Watt were SST Records labelmates. In the time before American underground rock became big business, Watt was one third of San Pedro, California heroes the Minutemen, while Mascis led (and still leads) the blazing power trio Dinosaur Jr. Today, Watt and Mascis are both in their sixties, and both of them remain plenty active. On a new split 7", the two of them cover '90s songs from each other's bands.
The new split is the third installment in a series from the Austin label Red Parakeet Records, which previously featured Watt doing mutual covers with Papa M (from Slint) and Tim Kerr (from the Big Boys). On the new split, Watt has a blast doing a screaming pisstake version of "The Little Baby," a ridiculous track from Dinosaur Jr.'s 1991 EP Whatever's Cool With Me. Watt's old Minutemen bandmate George Hurley plays drums and sings backup.
For his contribution, J Mascis doesn't cover the Minutemen, which would've been the obvious thing. Instead, he takes on "Formal Introduction," a 1991 track from Watt's post-Minutemen band fIREHOSE. In 1996, Dos — the duo of Watt and his ex-wife, the former Black Flag bassist Kira Roessler — released an instrumental bass-duet version of the very same song. Mascis transforms it into a bleary rocker, giving it his own sleepy-eyed presence and blazing guitar action. Both of the original songs are honestly pretty obscure, and I'm not sure that I'd ever heard either of them, but it's fun to hear these old masters putting different spins on each other's oldies. Listen below.
The Mike Watt/J Mascis split is out now on Red Parakeet.
