Regulator Watts was a rock band from Washington, D.C. that was active from 1995 to 1997. The group mixed elements of post-hardcore, emo, math rock, and dub reggae. Stereogum described them as "a driving and mathy power trio [that] didn't last long."

Following an EP and a single, they released a full-length album, The Aesthetics of No-Drag, in 1997. After the band's breakup, The Mercury CD was released in 1998, which compiled non-album releases and outtakes.

Regulator Watts' music resembled that of guitarist/vocalist Alex Dunham's previous band, Hoover -- whose song "Regulator Watts" was also the source of the newer band's name -- but with an emphasis on taut, mechanical basslines and feedback-laden, spare guitar lines, as opposed to Hoover's fluid, jazzy basslines and contrasting guitar styles.

Following the break-up of Hoover in mid-1994, Dunham worked on new music and sought, without initial success, to start a new band in his home base of Washington, D.C. In April 1995, Dunham traveled to Chicago, Illinois, for a one-week musical collaboration with members of the post-hardcore band Gauge. This project, dubbed Radio Flyer, played a single show at a Knights of Columbus Hall in Arlington Heights, Illinois, on April 15, 1995, and recorded their entire musical output of seven songs the following day before disbanding. That album, In Their Strange White Armor, was released posthumously by Polyvinyl Records on March 4, 1997.

Around the time of the Radio Flyer project in 1995, Dunham and bassist Cret Wilson were introduced by the musician and graphic designer, Jason Farrell (Swiz, Bluetip). Dunham and Wilson briefly formed the band Mercurochrome with former Circus Lupus and Antimony drummer, Arika Casebolt. After writing "about six or seven songs," according to Dunham, Mercurochrome played a few concerts before disbanding when Casebolt moved away from Washington, D.C.

The drummer Arief Sless-Kitain moved to Washington, D.C., in 1995 to attend college and was soon introduced to Dunham and Wilson by the musician and producer Juan Carrera (of the Warmers and Slowdime Records), which led to the formation of Regulator Watts that same year. The trio's debut concert was on December 31, 1995 at the Black Cat club in Washington, D.C., alongside fellow D.C. punk bands Branch Manager and The Norman Mayer Group.

The group primarily released its recorded output through Slowdime Records and were described by The Washington City Paper as part of that label's "muscley rawk [sic] brigade, made up of hardcore vets flexing their artistic heads," along with labelmates Kerosene 454.

Most of the group's recordings were produced by the musician Geoff Turner (of the bands Gray Matter, Senator Flux, and Three) at his studio, WGNS. Wilson and Sless-Kitain acknowledged Turner's contributions to the recordings, noting that he was "all over" The Mercury EP and The Aesthetics of No-Drag and was "so great" to work with, letting the band "feel that we had a sense of play," leading to a sense of freedom and experimentation in the sessions.