Musicians Featured:

• Mike Baggetta - guitars

• Stephen Hodges - drums

• Mike Watt - bass, vocals

Cover Artwork:

• All Photos by Devin O’Brien

• Layout by David J. Woodruff

Press:

“As his collaborators, bass and drum legends Mike Watt and Stephen Hodges, lay down plump grooves, Baggetta slathers on melodies that can evolve into whirling tornadoes” — Premier Guitar

“From the throttled surf guitar of “The Mystery Of” and the glimmering post-rock of “Every Growing Thing” to groovy, songful numbers like “Old Crow,” there’s no telling which way the band will turn at any given moment, a proposition that becomes a promise when they break down and reassemble these songs live, with an instinct for restraint and an openness to anarchy.” — Theater Mania

Interviews with Guitar Moderne and Rock and Roll Globe

Liner Notes by Byron Coley:

Main Steam Stop Valve is the eponymous first studio album by this “post-genre power trio,” and it's a killer. Guitarist Mike Baggetta, bassist Mike Watt and drummer Stephen Hodges create a gorgeous, expansionist universe of sound that refuses to buckle to anyone's conventions. 

Main Steam Stop Valve follows the Live Flowers album they recorded while touring in support of Baggetta's Wall of Flowers LP. Wall of Flowers was recorded with a rhythm section (Watt on bass, Jim Keltner on drums) Baggetta had half-jokingly suggested as the ideal team for the session. But producer Chris Schlarb took him at his word and made it happen. The resulting album is amazing, but Keltner don't tour. So avant/roots master Stephen Hodges (who had drummed on Watt's Contemplating the Engine Room among a million other places) was brought in to play the dates. 

The Baggetta/Watt/Hodges Band (catchy name, eh?) played crazy sets, based in a soupçon of Wall of Flowers material, but referencing tons of things -- from Watt's stint with the Stooges, to Hodges' work with David Lynch -- all tied together with Baggetta's fantastic guitar chops. The three had such a boss time on tour, they started thinking perhaps a band should be created. Taking their name from a scene in the engine room between Mako and Steve McQueen in the film based on Richard McKenna’s novel, The Sand Pebbles (a touchstone for Watt and his legendary partner-in-crime, Dennes Boon), Main Steam Stop Valve (aka mssv) was officially born.

Following a California mini tour as a warm up, mssv went into Schlarb's BIG EGO Studio in Long Beach for a couple of days last December. We're sure you'll agree the resulting album is a monster of post-form fusion. 

Of the eight tracks, six are instrumentals. 

The first is the aptly titled, “The Mystery Of,” which begins by laying down a very basic, yet propulsive groove from Hodges' drums and Watt's bass, upon which Baggetta tears holes in everything. The most obvious comparisons are to players like David Torn and Nels Cline, both of whom rocket between known and unknown quadrants of sonic space like guys with pockets filled with bees. But Baggetta's work with his whammy bar also calls to mind earlier non-jazz figures like Duane Eddy and Hank Marvin, whose playing created some of the templates for what would come to be thought of as “surf guitar.”

The second track, “Every Growing Thing,” begins with odd electronics coming from the pedals of either Hodges or Baggetta. Watt meets this with one of his classic hanging-chad bass lines, and Hodges sets up a slow stroll for Baggetta to inhabit. The guitar part comes across with the same oddly sophisticated gleam as some of the Peter Green/Jeremy Spencer dual instrumentals in very early Fleetwood Mac, which is something I'm pretty sure is outside Baggetta’s wheelhouse. But it's a great blast of progressive blues at its wailingest.

“Old Crow” follows with some great guitar playing that makes me wonder what it might have sounded like if Lee Hazlewood had dosed Duane on a hot Arizona night, way back when. Not really, of course, but you get the idea.

“Nine Twenty December” is one of the two vocals tracks on the album, both with lyrics and vocals by Watt. This one is a meditation on memories of his mom, Jean, who died in 2019. Split between ebbs of quiet contemplation and walls of Ashetonian guitar fuzz, it highlights the stylistic dualities of a life lived with passion. The Ninth of December was Jean's birthday, the Twentieth is Mike's.

“Chartacourse” is another left-leaning blow by the trio, displaying its tightest ensemble formation. Watt and Hodges lock in on a target that's very specific and rock-oriented, and Baggetta's playing zooms in and out of focus, serving to highlight the thickness of the pulse. Some of the textures harken back to the indie rock heyday of Baggetta's youth, but as usual, these tropes eventually get way bent. Just the way they ought. 

“If Anybody Else Could Help” begins with another mock-keyboard soak, courtesy of one pedal or another. Hodges’ steady snare sets the pace, and Watt enters with the same genteel melodicism he displays when playing in Dos. Baggetta counters with a sequence reminiscent of the semi-dissonant barre chords Lee Ranaldo used for ballads with mid-period Sonic Youth, before sliding into elegant interplay with the mock-keyboards, mirroring the way sometimes interacted with Lyle Mays.

“June 16th” is a cover of Watt's instrumental from the Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime set. A tribute to James Joyce, Bloomsday, and the power of Modernism, this version feels a little slower than the original, and Baggetta's embellishments extend the tune's pleasures neatly into a new reality.

“The Eureka Moment” is Watt's other vocal track, and takes the album out on a high note. The lyrics are based on a scene from the movie version of The Sand Pebbles, which makes it something very much like mssv's theme song. And the explosive ecstasy of the music and vocals make it seem like this trio has as good a time making music as we have listening to it.

And ain't that the way its supposed to be?