Unknown Instructors - The Way Things Work

Genre rock Publisher Smog Veil External Links Unknown Instructors Smog Veil

The Way Things Work is the first release from improv-punk supergroup the Unknown Instructors. The Instructors include bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley of legendary California punk bands the Minutemen and fIREHOSE, guitarist Joe Baiza of Saccharine Trust, and poet and saxophonist Dan McGuire. This lineup takes an improvisational, freeform approach to punk rock.

The album was reportedly recorded during just one day, which would explain the lack of arrangements and the casual feel. The songs all follow a similar template: noodly bass, jazzy drumming with plenty of cymbal tapping, and atmospheric guitar over spoken-word prose poetry. Their titles generally reflect a theme embodied in the lyrics: "I'll Show You Everything" paints a landscape of a polluted industrial city suffering for it's neighbor's excesses. "Starving Artists" lampoons bohemian tendencies by offering a set of instructions: "Do what any respectable starving artist does/rent a rundown duplex near the zoo" and "Cultivate a taste for canned goods/anything verging on expiration." "In Toledo, Great Lakes run north and south/Presidents, east and west" begins "Walk with Me," which tells the story of a street person and other invisible residents of the Ohio city. It's the most concretely evocative of the tracks, though it works with the same rhythm section style as the others, and with the guitar making abstract noises more than melodies or chords. "Adam's Apple" deals with the body; "Turf Songs" with gangs, territory, and the idea of property.

"Punk (is Whatever We Made It to Be)" contains lyrics from the Minutemen's classic album Double Nickels On the Dime: "As a revolution cries/the time is near/I can feel my bones/I can see with my eyes/can't avoid it, must make a stand." It goes on to talk about congressional decisions and the manipulation of the working class, but the disparate sources prevent it from developing a coherent narrative; instead it's political stream-of-consciouness awareness-raising: "I make certain my head is separate from my body." Politics from musicians is often a hard sell -- is it ever going to convert anyone whose mind is made up? Or spur anyone to action? Or does it rather act as a palliative that enables people to think they are doing something when really they're just listening to music? But as artists will always point out, maybe they can reach that one special person who will go on to make a difference. The Unknown Instructors avoid getting preachy, letting the rhetorical phrases float on a breeze of bass notes and guitar squeals, each sentence carrying meaning and making judgment only in an oblique way.

On "Lost and Found," McGuire says "I like how there's something for everyone in the mix/a world of alternative realities malleable to one's mood." He's describing the music of the album, and he's got a point. Raw and scattered, it's best taken in a receptive, easy-going state of mind, in which anyone willing to give it a chance will find something to appreciate. Like it was good for one recording session, The Way Things Work is good for one thorough listening session over one contemplative afternoon, and though it may never be played again, sometimes once is enough.