Witchy Poo

There are challenging artists that take repeated listening before one is rewarded. Iconoclasts such as Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart or the experimental composer John Cage. Witchy Poo does not fall into this category. Public Works could more aptly be titled Public Disservice. A collection of singles, compilation tracks and unreleased hits, this album is a wholly annoying pastiche of industrial noise, semi-electronic punk, plodding death metal and pure cheese techno. Witchy Poo - ostensibly, an evolving collective of Olympia, WA's finest, numbering at any given time from one to 30 musicians - comes across as a crass joke. The cover of Cat Stevens's "Moon Shadow" is near blasphemy. And I'm sorry, but screaming "Fuck the mother fucking president" or counting to three for the duration of a six-minute song does not come across anything other than moronic and juvenile. Save your money.