Contemplating the Engine Room is a punk rock opera by 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. The album was critically well-received, though not universally. The cover art features a picture of Watt's father in his Navy uniform. 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." 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. Watt's father joined the navy when he was 17 and retired when he was 37. He served aboard nuclear vessels, and died from cancer when he was 51. Watt was originally from Virginia, but his parents divorced during the Viet Nam War, and Watt and his mother remained in California. 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. Album Considered a "punk rock opera", Contemplating The Engine Room is structured in several musical groups of threes to reflect the story's trio of protagonists. 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. Watt was a bit intimidated to make such an overtly personal album but he felt that he had to. The opening track, "In the Engine Room," starts just before dawn and it ends 24 hours later with "Shore Duty". 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. 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