Album Review: Puttanesca - Puttanesca

Following up on Any Given Tuesday's review of the Unknown Instructors recent release, The Master's Voice (available now from Morphius Records), I recently received a copy of another Joe Baiza project: Puttanesca (Catasonic Records). Along with Guitar Joe, Puttanesca is Weba Garretson on vocals, Wayne Griffin on drums, and Ralph Gorodetsky on bass (all three gentlemen being part of Universal Congress Of).

Recorded roughly a decade ago and shelved for various reasons, the album is finally available in its raw, unadulterated, no overdubs glory. Blending the free form of jazz, the dischord and aggression of punk, the eclecticism of Joe Baiza and Weba Garretson's electrifying and liberated lyrics, Puttanesca is a saucy dish full of spice. Don't be fooled by the sultry opening of "Shift", because the electric guitar kicks in and the lyrics, well, you'll realize this isn't your parent's jazz.

Puttanesca bombards with Baiza's signature guitar and rumbling, rocks-falling-off-mountain drums, throughout 10 tracks of original material before settling on one cover: Captain Beefheart's "Lick My Decals Off, Baby", ironically chosen, I'll venture, as part of Garretson's feminist expression of sensuality. "Shiny Red Box" is a smooth cabaret number with groovy guitar underlied with baritone sax.

Expect to be challenged by Puttanesca, which requires an adventurous taste just as its namesake would.



Purchase Puttanesca at CDBaby.

Album Review: Unknown Instructors - The Master's Voice

Groove band Unknown Instructors is made up of Mike Watt (fIREHOSE, The Stooges), Joe Baiza (Saccharine Trust), George Hurley (fIREHOSE), Dan McGuire, David Thomas (Pere Ubu, guest vocals on three tracks), and Raymond Pettibon (cover art, vocals on "Twing-Twang"). All respected artists, all in one place. And they released The Master's Voice last month on Smog Veil Records. Master's follows up the previous album, The Way Things Work.

Starting with a bass groove and adding helter-skelter guitars and syncopating drums, topped off with a spoken-word poetry that I'm pretty sure is ad-libbed, The Master's Voice is an improvisational drone-jazz-punk fusion without the annoying go-nowhere of bad improv, and without the irritating no-talent edge of bad punk. With a room full of talent like Unknown Instructors, 'bad' is just not allowed.

Tracks like "Machine Language" carry a groove from start to finish, mixing brain-twisting guitar picking and absolutely mind-melting lyrics in and still coming out listenable. The vocals, unfortunately, damage the potential for a fantastic instrumental album. Every musician gets more than one moment to show off what he is capable of on this album, but it often gets polluted by vocals that require a sack of psychotropics to deal with. "In Your Town Without You" is one of the best jams on the album, a slow groove with beefy feedback and the spooky vocals of Mike Watt. And get a load of the syncopating snare on "End of the World" and the possessed guitar that it introduces.

Listen to the Unknown Instructors for the music. Musicians will appreciate the technique. Jazz fans will respect the way the songs create themselves as the mix continues. But traditional rock tastes will not get their heads wrapped around The Master's Voice, because this master is using a lot of five-dollar words to get his point across.


Pick the album up through Morphius Records.