Customer Reviews

The Way Things Work

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

these improvisations smash genres in a manner that will either make you very uncomfortable or thrill you to bits.

i love this record and it drives me kinda nuts that so few are aware of this group's body of work. i find it both gripping and driving while relaxing and smooth.

Jaco may have invoked the term "punk jazz" but this is the closest thing *I've* heard to such a claim.

a rare record of semi-chaos with the consistency to act as an all consuming experience or soothing background patter. at least it is for me.

i've always wanted to be in a band bold, creative, and skilled enough to make material something along these lines, and to hear a group nailing it is great, especially these extraordinary and historic players. doing it in the shadows. and continuing. inspired.

Spoken word is a hard sell. Improvised rock (that isn't noodly jam-band modal dippiness) is a hard sell. So imagine combining these two hard-sell genres into one. Nevermind that Mike Watt, George Hurley, Jack Brewer and Joe Baiza are West Coast punks of the highest order, the guys who wrote the book that most latter day ersatz punks crib their songs from.

There is a deep pedigree at work here, winding its way from Black Flag's "The Process of Weeding Out" through Elliott Sharp's Bootstrappers and Stephen Perkins' earliest Banyan collaborations -- the staunch belief that cathartic self-expression can find a nexus (and thus a solace) with visual art, the written word, film, and life itself.

Unknown Instructors is not beat poetry or coffee-shop moping, it is a near-violent, slow-boiling affirmation that art is life.

Those resigned to tread musical water and bash out 1-5-4s about how they are so alienated are warned to steer clear.