Released in January, Spielgusher’s another project from bassist and former Minuteman Mike Watt (also known for playing with Firehose, Porno for Pyros, and the Stooges). He recently put out a dos full-length. There’s a Firehose reunion album coming out soon. And that’s just a mini-list of Watt’s recent and current activity. Damn, this cat has energy – and creativity -- to burn.

Spielgusher is his collaboration with journalist, novelist, poet musician, and songwriter (and a few more things – I’m getting a headache) Richard Meltzer. Watt, with Hirotaka “Shimmy” Shimizu/guitar and Yuko Araki/drums, pumped out some improvy, rather open-ended sounds to go with recordings of Meltzer’s words.

Spielgusher isn’t the word-and-sound explosion one might expect from the title. On the other hand, going into it blind (without reading or hearing anything about it), I found the project refreshing; kind of a throwback to the performance art and prankster readings I experienced (and, sometimes, was a part of) in the ‘80s, in NYC and Washington, D.C. I like projects that feel like they could go in any direction. While Spielgusher isn’t obviously Punk Rock, or even Rock, it’s cool and thought-provoking, with occasional chuckles. “Begins with S” is one of my favorites. Its stream of post-Beat, occasionally Punk-outrageous consciousness has moments of startling brilliance. Sounding like the cantankerous, aging fart he probably is, Meltzer blurts out lines including, “Radishes will begin with S”… “Days darker than your nights will begin with S”… “Fatal jack-off on the moon will begin with S…”

And if sitting (or cleaning the house through/my recommendation) 63 (albeit often brief) spoken-word tracks sound burdensome, there are plenty of palate-cleansing, mind-expanding (Ah! The method in the madness!), completely instrumental interludes, including the free-jazzy “Enter My Thumb,” a trippy little track called “Topsy, Pt. 4,” and one that screams for Frank Zappa to come back from the dead and kick it into ever wackier gear, “A Nonfatal Jackoff on the Moon.”

Seriously, kids: From the late ‘70s (actually, from one of Patti Smith’s first public barking incidents, or the VU’s last) through the mid-‘80s or so, Punk meant projects like this, along with strange and beautiful art exhibits, mind-expanding films, ridiculous, boring, and wonderful stuff called Performance Art, creative outfits, and the increasingly no-big-deal presence on the scene of interracial, gay, transgender, and even cross-generational folks and relationships. Catholic school kids with Mohawks and Dr. Martens on the subway. A brilliant bit of poetry scrawled on the wall of the subway. Oh, and kick-ass music. At least to me, it did – but I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.