this band meandered into my life around this time while I was in Missoula Montana. I don't know who told me to go see them but it was really fun. dude, you rock for taping this lips 2008-06-08 05:00:49 2008-06-08 05:00:49 0 I mean, just listen to the unbridled creativity and sheer joy played acoustically from a college radio studio by Mike Watt/bass, Ed "fROM oHIO" Crawford/guitar and George Hurley/bongos. Not enough superlatives can be stuck onto former d. Boon./Minutemen/Stooge bassist MIKE WATT. From a skinny SoCal punk in the late 70s who didn't even realize a bass was different from a guitar we find him with his fIREHOSE plucking/pedaling/paddling their non-electrifed noise-toys with both a punk's nihilistic gusto and a prog-rocker's technical proficiency. What a joy to find fIREHOSE's last album painted into our ear-holes by the band's generosity and desire to merely make music for the masses...IF ONLY ANYONE KNEW! Mike Watt's DIY ethos (and seemingly protean output) has inspired so many, so deeply that words alone can never fully do the man or his music justice. The powerful dynamic of the writing of these songs taken verbatim from the album MR. MACHINERY OPERATOR should make anyone from popsters to the proggers take notice of the song-writer's craft and the muso's execution. The bass throbs & pops joyfully as shimmering acoustic guitar chords adorn Watt's musical armature with both crunching power chords and glittering peals of delicately rung notes, all the while as Fireman Hurley destroys his hands making his bongo fury sound like a full drum kit. This is joyful noise, people. Not pop, punk, prog, folk, but somehow combining all tenors of musical creativity and gilding ours ears as only true musical troubadours can. This fIREHOSE set strikes chords within us all, within the universal consciousness. This acoustic out-pouring does that more so than the fully produced, electric album from which the set is taken. I can only thank, fIREHOSE and MIKE WATT for the generosity of their creative souls and encourage him/them to dazzle us with more. Get It All Wet... Agnes Steck 2009-08-06 12:39:32 2009-08-06 12:39:32 5 2 5.00