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The Way Things Work
Unknown Instructors
The Way Things Work
Genres: Alternative Rock, Special Interest, Pop, Rock
 
  •  Track Listings (15) - Disc #1

Legends abound regarding the greatness of The Minutemen, and anyone not aware have an opportunity to witness Mike Watt and George Hurley?s innovative rocknroll in ?We Jam Econo, the Story of the Minutemen?, currently playi...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Unknown Instructors
Title: The Way Things Work
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Smog Veil Records
Original Release Date: 9/20/2005
Release Date: 9/20/2005
Album Type: Explicit Lyrics
Genres: Alternative Rock, Special Interest, Pop, Rock
Styles: Poetry, Spoken Word & Interviews, Progressive, Progressive Rock
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 711574561728, 426013255044, 829410056663

Synopsis

Product Description
Legends abound regarding the greatness of The Minutemen, and anyone not aware have an opportunity to witness Mike Watt and George Hurley?s innovative rocknroll in ?We Jam Econo, the Story of the Minutemen?, currently playing in art theaters across the country. Now teamed with Joe Baiza and Jack Brewer of Saccharine Trust, along with upstart lyricist and vocalist Dan McGuire (compiler of the recent ?Jamnation? comp), the five-piece goes by the name Unknown Instructors. This debut release is packed with 15 tracks of improvisational prog-agit-free jazz-punk rock and minimalist beat poetic stylings. High art indeed in the vein of the best of the German 70?s improv-proggers. ?But for every tongue-in-cheek (self) reference, The Way Things Work offers a passel of head-swiveling musical ideas?the second-line shuffle that Hurley applies to "The New Bluesmen," the Jimmy Garrison-styled bass thrum that Watt brings to "Scansion." It's a sound that's virtually impossible to distill into a one-line description. Or is it?? ?Dave Sprague
 

CD Reviews

The changing face of punk
Stargrazer | deep in the heart of Michigan | 07/23/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."