mike watt played bass guitar on the tracks "in the kingdom #19" and the band's cover of "bubblegum". the band encouraged him to play on the former track shortly after watt's fellow minutemen band member d. boon died in a car crash. coincidentally, the song is also about a car crash. watt had entered a severe depression following boon's death and was considering leaving his career in music behind. he credited the time he spent with the members of sonic youth during the recording of "evol" as a major factor in his decision to re-enter the music world. watt's next band, firehose, would support sonic youth on their flaming telepaths tour. during this time, the band began the ciccone youth project, which featured all members of sonic youth and watt. they released a single consisting of three tracks: "into the groove(y)" (a cover of madonna's hit "into the groove", incorporating snippets of her recording) and the short "tuff titty rap" on the a-side (both performed by the sonic youth members), and "burnin' up" (performed by watt with additional guitars by ginn) on the b-side. the project resulted in 1988's "the whitey album".