J Mascis and Mike Watt trade underground histories on a new split single

J Mascis and Mike Watt have released a new split 7-inch through Red Parakeet, making this a lovely 25 May underground heritage item. The concept is simple and perfect: Watt covers Dinosaur Jr.’s The Little Baby with George Hurley, while Mascis covers fIREHOSE’s Formal Introduction. That exchange carries a lot of American indie and punk history in a very small package.

Mascis and Watt both come out of the SST-era underground universe, where hardcore, punk, post-punk, noise, weird pop and outsider guitar culture all collided before alternative rock became a mainstream business category. Watt’s work with Minutemen and fIREHOSE and Mascis’ role in Dinosaur Jr. helped define different but overlapping ideas of independent music: one lean, political and rhythmically restless; the other loud, melodic, wounded and guitar-saturated.

A split like this is not about nostalgia as decoration. It is about musicians from a shared underground lineage acknowledging each other’s languages by stepping into them. For a 25 May digest, this is a small release with a big shadow. It reminds readers that indie history is built through records like this: side A, side B, friendship, memory, distortion and the joy of hearing one artist bend another artist’s song into their own shape. Source: https://stereogum.com/2499869/j-mascis-mike-watt-cover-each-others-bands-on-new-split/music