View source for Contemplating the Engine Room

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = Contemplating the Engine Room
| type       = Studio album
| artist     = [[Mike Watt]]
| cover      = Contemplating the Engine Room.jpeg
| alt        =
| released   = October 6, 1997
| recorded   =
| venue      =
| studio     =
| genre      = [[Punk rock|Punk]]
| length     = 50:08
| label      = [[Columbia Records|Columbia]]
| producer   = Mike Watt
| prev_title = [[Ball-Hog or Tugboat?]]
| prev_year  = 1995
| next_title = [[The Secondman's Middle Stand]]
| next_year  = 2004
}}

'''''Contemplating the Engine Room''''' is a [[punk rock]] opera by [[Minutemen (band)|Minutemen]] veteran [[Mike Watt]]. Released in 1997, the album is a punk rock song cycle that uses navy life as an extended metaphor for both Watt's family history and his first band, the [[Minutemen (band)|Minutemen]].<ref name="AllMusic">{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/contemplating-the-engine-room-mw0000027732 |title=AllMusic Review |last=McLeod |first=Kembrew  |website=AllMusic.com |access-date=12 June 2017 }}</ref><ref name="RollingStone">{{cite magazine |last=Chonin |first=Neva |date=27 November 1997 |title=Q&A: Mike Watt; Former Minutemen bassist discusses new solo album, 'Contemplating the Engine Room' |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/qa-mike-watt-101362/ |magazine=Rolling Stone }}</ref> The album was greeted with a positive response.<ref name="AllMusic"/><ref name="AVClub">{{cite web |url=http://www.avclub.com/review/mike-watt-emcontemplating-the-engine-roomem-21605 |title=Mike Watt: Contemplating The Engine Room |last=Krewson |first=John |date=29 March 2002 |website=[[The A.V. Club]] |access-date=12 June 2017 }}</ref><ref name="Tribune">{{cite news |last=Kot |first=Greg |date=17 October 1997 |title=Mike Watt Contemplating the Engine Room... |url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-10-17/entertainment/9710170107_1_mike-watt-nels-cline-and-drummer-trio |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009031955/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-10-17/entertainment/9710170107_1_mike-watt-nels-cline-and-drummer-trio |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 9, 2015 |work= Chicago Tribune |location=Chicago |access-date=12 June 2017}}</ref> The cover art features a picture of Watt's father in his Navy uniform.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/mike-watt-19971127|title=Q&A: Mike Watt|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]}}</ref>

==Background==
In July 1997, Watt posted on his personal website, "I'm gonna call the band '''mike watt and the black gang crew''' in honor of engine room folk - the ''black gang'' is boat talk for engine room crew."<ref name="WattHoot">{{cite web |url=http://www.hootpage.com/hoot_cont-eng-rm.html |title=the making of "contemplating the engine room" |last=Watt |first=Mike |author-link=Mike Watt|website= Mike Watt's Hoot Page|date=22 July 1997 |access-date=12 June 2017}}</ref> The album features Watt as the singer, [[Nels Cline]] on guitar and drummer [[Stephen Hodges]]. It was produced by Watt and engineered by Bobby Seifert.<ref name="Omnium">{{cite web |url=http://omniumrecords.com/balkans/watt.html |title="Mike Watt & Masina" |last=Drvo |first=Izniknami Badem |website=Omnium Records |access-date=12 June 2017 }}</ref>

Watt's father joined the navy when he was 17 and retired when he was 37.<ref name="RollingStone"/> He served aboard nuclear vessels, and died from cancer when he was 51.<ref name="RollingStone"/> Watt was originally from Virginia, but his parents divorced during the Viet Nam War, and Watt and his mother remained in California.<ref name="Beer">{{cite web |url=http://www.beermelodies.com/mike-watt-ponders-minutemen-with-%E2%80%98contemplating-the-engine-room%E2%80%99/ |title=MIKE WATT PONDERS MINUTEMEN WHILE 'CONTEMPLATING THE ENGINE ROOM' |last=Fortunato |first=John |date=3 June 2009 |access-date=12 June 2017 }}</ref>

Watt formed the Minutemen with his best friend, guitarist D. Boon, and drummer George Hurley, and they toured until Boon's death in a car wreck in Arizona in 1985.<ref name="Salon">{{cite magazine |last=Athitakis |first=Mark  |date=31 October 1997 |title="Mike Watt" |url=http://www.salon.com/1997/10/31/31watt_html/ |magazine=Salon Magazine |access-date=12 June 2017}}</ref>

==Album==
Considered a "punk rock opera",<ref name="WattHoot"/> ''Contemplating the Engine Room'' is structured in several musical groups of threes to reflect the story's trio of protagonists.<ref name="Omnium"/> Each of the 15 tracks represents part of a day in the lives of the three men in the engine room of a large naval vessel. According to Watt, the boilerman is D. Boon. The fireman is George Hurley and Watt is the machinist.<ref name="Beer"/>

Watt was a bit intimidated to make such an overtly personal album but he felt that he had to.<ref name="salon">{{cite web|last=Athitakis|first=Mark|title=Mike Watt|url=https://www.salon.com/1997/10/31/31watt_html/|website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]|date=October 31, 1997|accessdate=October 4, 2019}}</ref>

{{blockquote|I just had to get it out. I owed it to D. Boon, the Minutemen, Georgie, all the SST cats. Because it's sad what happened to the Minutemen. Fucking fucked up. But the work we did is why I get to make these records. I wanted to make a big valentine to that, to say, 'Thank you.'<ref name="salon"/>}}

The opening track, "In the Engine Room," starts just before dawn and it ends 24 hours later with "Shore Duty".<ref name="AVClub"/><ref name="Omnium"/><ref name="Lazyeye">{{cite magazine |last=McMahan |first=Tim |date=29 Oct 1998 |title=Contemplating Mike Watt |url=http://www.timmcmahan.com/mikewatt.htm |magazine=The Reader |location=www.lazy-i.com "lazyeye" |access-date=12 June 2017}}</ref> It is essentially the story of a guy who has run away from a farm town, joined the Navy, and found a crew that has built a routine together. When their ship pulls into a port for shore leave, they get drunk, and the boilerman sleepwalks, falls in the water, and drowns.<ref name="Beer"/>

The collection is a bass-driven opera which begins and ends with the same bass figure. The lyrics and music contain countless nautical references, and elements of [[Richard McKenna]]'s naval novel, ''[[The Sand Pebbles (novel)|The Sand Pebbles]]'' as well as stories that Watt's dad would tell when he came back from being at sea.<ref name="Omnium"/><ref name="Lazyeye"/> “The Bluejacket’s Manual” compares punk rock to boot camp. Watt has compared his father's experience of leaving a farm town to the Minutemen bursting open and getting away from arena rock.<ref name="Beer"/>

Watt experimented with sounds that could not normally be achieved with a live three-piece band, at one point "rollin' marbles around on a bass drumhead and beatin' on it with our hands to get the sound of thunder." The songs are separated with nautical noises such as crashing waves, foghorns, and ship's bells. Watt also played the whole album with the top bass string detuned from E to D to push himself out of his comfort zone.<ref name="Omnium"/>

==Reception==
{{Music ratings
| rev2 = ''[[Rolling Stone]]''
| rev2Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name="diehl">{{cite magazine|last=Diehl|first=Matt|title=Contemplating The Engine Room|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/mikewatt/albums/album/137297/review/5940358/contemplating_the_engine_room|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080726112931/https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/mikewatt/albums/album/137297/review/5940358/contemplating_the_engine_room|archive-date=July 26, 2008|date=October 21, 1997|url-status=dead|accessdate=March 8, 2019}}</ref>
|rev1= ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]''
|rev1score = B+<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Woodard|first=Josef|title=Contemplating the Engine Room|url=https://ew.com/article/1997/10/17/album-review-contemplating-engine-room/|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|accessdate=May 3, 2019}}</ref>
|rev3= ''[[The Village Voice]]''
|rev3score = C+<ref name="christgau">{{cite news|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/ts98-98.php|title=Consumer Guide: Turkey Shoot|newspaper=[[The Village Voice]]|date=1 December 1998|access-date=24 February 2019|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau}}</ref>
}}
John Krewson of ''[[The A.V. Club]]'' said of Watt's punk rock opera "Against all logic, it succeeds, more or less brilliantly"<ref name="AVClub"/> Matt Diehl of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' called it Watt's "most personal, affecting work yet."<ref name="diehl"/> ''[[People (magazine)|People]]'' praised it as "a meditation on the meaning of work, friendship and the quest for adventure" while admitting that it can be a challenging work, "tough sailing" at times.<ref>{{cite web|title=Picks and Pans Review: Contemplating the Engine Room|url=https://people.com/archive/picks-and-pans-review-contemplating-the-engine-room-vol-48-no-21/|publisher=[[People (magazine)|People]]|date=November 24, 1997|accessdate=October 4, 2019}}</ref> Mark Athitakis of ''[[Salon (website)|Salon]]'' called it "jaw-dropping" and a "post-punk ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]''."<ref name="salon"/>

[[Robert Christgau]] was less complimentary saying that what Watt isn't "is a compelling artist. He can't sing at all, can't write much, and still pretends the bass solo is a viable musical form."<ref name="christgau"/>

==Track listing==
All tracks composed by Mike Watt

#"In the Engine Room"
#"Red Bluff"
#"[[The Bluejacket's Manual|The Bluejackets' Manual]]"
#"Pedro Bound!"
#"The Boilerman"
#"Black Gang Coffee"
#"Topsiders"
#"No One Says Old Man"
#"Fireman Hurley"
#"Liberty Calls!"
#"In the Bunk Room/Navy Wife"
#"Crossing the Equator"
#"Breaking the Choke Hold"
#"Wrapped Around the Screw"
#"Shore Duty"

==Personnel==
{{See also|The Black Gang}}

*Mike Watt - vocals, bass
*[[Nels Cline]] - guitar
*[[Stephen Hodges]] - drums

==Live album==
For the November 2017 [[Record Store Day]], ''Contemplating the Engine Room'' was re-released on vinyl with a companion album ''Contemplating the Engine Room: Live in Long Beach ‘98 – Five Man Opera''.<ref>{{cite web|title=BLACK FRIDAY 2017 > Mike Watt - Contemplating The Engine Room |url=https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/9769|website=[[Record Store Day]]|accessdate=October 4, 2019}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

in this radio interview Mike Watt discusses this album Contemplating The Engine Room in depth, referring to it as "one big piece" and an opera, with each character representing Watt, Boon and George from The Minutemen.
https://www.  chriscomerradio.com/Archive20/MikeWatt051398Chris&Rob.mp3

{{Mike Watt}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Contemplating the Engine Room}}
[[Category:1997 albums]]
[[Category:Mike Watt albums]]
[[Category:Rock operas]]
[[Category:Columbia Records albums]]