For the last several years, Mike Watt has done everything from serve as bassist for the reformed Iggy & the Stooges, play on Kelly Clarksons third album, and revisit his past via We Jam Econo, a documentary about his now-legendary group The Minutemen. And now on Hyphenated-Man, his first solo album in six years, he delivers 30 songs about characters found in Heironymous Bosch paintings, delivered in that trademark punk-folk-skate-jazz sound that is his own. Watts voice has grown husky with age, but his playing flies out of the speakers like splatters of Jackson Pollock paint. Its a head-spinner of a record, a beautiful mess of quick musical twists and blue-collar oomph! The whole thing spills over with ideas, but in classic econo mode, the longest songs are 2:04. In the middle of it all is Watt himself, flannel shirtsleeves cuffed at the elbows, more than willing to work his ass off for arts sake. With Stag. BRIAN J. BARR
Wed., April 27, 7:30 p.m., 2011
