Former Minutemen and Stooges bassist Mike Watt [ tickets ] will embark on a national tour this spring with his Missingmen lineup.

The trio--which also includes Tom Watson on guitar and Raul Morales on drums--kicks off the trek April 17 in Tucson, AZ. The middle stretch of the outing includes several dates in a support role for Dinosaur Jr. before the band launches a second leg of headlining dates in early May. The complete schedule is included below.

Watt plans to record his third solo album, the already titled "Ten and Twenty Don't Make Fifty," in Brooklyn, NY, in early May, during the thick of the band's tour, with the current Missingmen lineup acting as Watt's in-studio band. A separate recording project with Wilco's Nels Cline, and concerning what Watt calls "my autumn" in a press release, is also slated to get underway sometime this spring.

"It's hard to describe the mission, what makes me put almost everything else secondary," Watt said in a press release. "When I tour, I conk at people's pads. I play every day. I'm not using it as a means to a lifestyle. I don't really know what the mission is exactly except to do this as intense as I can. It's like being a sailor or something.

"Sometimes, it does feel as if I've been given orders, a bizarre spin on the minstrel or troubadour scenario, the town crier, the guy that goes between the towns to let the other towns know about each other."

Watt first appeared on the music scene as a member of influential Los Angeles punk trio The Minutemen in the early '80s. Following the death of his bandmate, guitarist D. Boon, Watt started a new band, Firehose, with Minutemen drummer George Hurley and singer/guitarist Ed Crawford. The band recorded five albums before dissolving in 1994.

In recent years, Watt has spent much of his time touring and recording with The Stooges after joining the legendary garage rockers onstage during their comeback bid several years ago.