Mike Watt - Big Train

What this video is

Released in 1995 alongside Mike Watt's debut solo album Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, this video exists at a precise cultural intersection: the mid-90s moment when underground punk figures from the Minutemen/fIREHOSE lineage gained brief mainstream visibility via MTV's alternative programming. Spike Jonze, simultaneously embedded in skate culture and the Beastie Boys/Grand Royal orbit, was the ideal visual translator for…

Why it matters

A rare artifact of peak-underground punk achieving MTV placement without aesthetic compromise. The Jonze/Watt pairing represents a convergence of two counter-mainstream sensibilities — San Pedro punk and skate-video filmmaking — that briefly found common ground in mid-90s alternative media…

The director

Born Adam Spiegel (October 22, 1969, Rockville, MD). Career began photographing BMX riders and skateboarders for Freestylin' Magazine and Transworld Skateboarding. Entered music video directing in 1992 via Sonic Youth's '100%'. Rose to prominence with…