Hound Gawd! Records recently announced the new album by The Cutthroat Brothers and Mike Watt. Titled The King is Dead, the album will be available as a vinyl LP on Record Store Day, June 12th, 2021, followed by a digital release on July 9th. The venomous blues-punk, swamp-rock sounds of The Cutthroat Brothers and Mike Watt conjure bands like The Gun Club, The Cramps, The Stooges, and The Hives.

This collaboration began when Mike Watt interviewed Jason and Donny on The Watt from Pedro Show. When the real life barbers casually asked Watt to play bass on their next album, they didn’t expect to hear ‘yes’. 

Mike Watt added his magic and is now an honorary Cutthroat Brother barber by blood. Watt’s gritty, powerful playing will blow your greasy black pompadour back like a jet engine.  Hailed as ‘the Sweeney Todd’s of punk’, The Cutthroat Brothers and Mike Watt are a mean and murderous match made in hell.  World-renowned visual artist Raymond Pettibon (Black Flag, Sonic Youth) contributed the cover art, making ‘The King is Dead’ packaging hotter than a wet shave and twice as slick.  Take this blood-soaked bash-a-thon and file it where it fits: right next to punk rock greats like Misfits or The Damned. Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney) produces, mixes, and masters again (his 4th collaboration with The Cutthroat Brothers in only 2 plus years since the band was formed), honing ‘The King is Dead’ to a razor-sharp point. 

‘The King Is Dead’ opens with the aforementioned ‘Killing Time’, an anthem for miscreants everywhere. Up next is the rockabilly and drug-influenced ‘Medicine,’ finding Mike Watt in a fuzzed-up bounce reminiscent of The Minutemen’s ‘Corona’. The third and title track is a spooky blues burner that slips into the room like a night stalker, then slashes everything into a brash, bluesy bloodbath. The rest of the album pummels forward in the gritty, grimy, grinning fashion that leaves the listener sliced, shaking, and twisting on the barbershop floor wanting more.