In case you missed 1997's Contemplating the Engine Room and The Secondman's Middle-Stand in 2004, Mike Watt's forged ahead on rock opera number three, entitled Hyphenated-Man, which he's recording right now, as you read this, at Studio G in Brooklyn.
It's written specifically for three performers (Watt, along with Tom Watson and Raul Morales), and “we're doing practice on the songs on the [ “Prac'n the 3rd Opera”] tour but not actually playing the piece which is like one big song with thirty parts.”
He adds: “[Pre-emptive sic] 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?!”
That confusion is normal, and why we named a section just for you, old dude.
Also, in September, Chimera Music is releasing the self-titled debut of Floored by Four, a quartet of Watt's compositions and “spiel” with Dougie Bowne on drums, guitarist Nels Cline, and Yuka Honda on keys, and bass.
