“Lost” Regulator Watts track

If Regulator Watts isn’t my favorite band of all time then they’re my second favorite. Nah, they’re my favorite of all time. So looking through their Discogs and seeing a track name I didn’t recognize kinda fucked me up but even more so when I clicked on it and there was a YouTube embed of “Two on One Arm” a legit Watts joint that was new to me.

According to the liner notes this was recorded during the Aesthetics of No-Drag sessions in 1997 with Juan Carrera and Geoff Turner. My gut reaction on the first couple of listens is that this might have been largely improvised in the studio due to the informal vibe and the fact that its basically one riff that alternates between being played palmed and open that’s augmented with the spacious, dub feel that was prevalent on Regulator Watts’ early instrumentals. The liner notes seem to confirm this with guitarist and vocalist Alex Dunham credited as “Booze”, bassist Cret Wilson on percussion and drummer Arief Sless-Kitain playing piano. The producers joined in on this as well with with Juan Carrera* on bass synth and Turner on the Hammond organ and contributing a guitar solo (Geoff was a member of legendary DC band Grey Matter so I imagine Alex was stoked on stepping aside to let him do his thing) and the mix.

This song is an anomaly in the Watts discography in that it bridges the gap between 2 major touchpoints in their approach by bringing the dubby wandering of Los Angeles (off their debut The Mercury EP) to a midtempo rocker like Pemberton Red. It blows my mind that this didn’t end up on the band’s collection of EPs, b-sides and outtakes The Mercury CD but in my advanced age a surprise like this makes my month. 

PRR S1 6100 train designed by Raymond Loewy. Graphic Design by mvajoshua in homage to Jason Farrell. (“The official publicity photo of PRR S1 6100 of 1939” by USC is licensed under CC BY 3.0. Colored and cropped.)

Any Watts fans out there? What’s your take on this?