Meat Puppets S/D, C or D

Like Miss Piggy would have to be made of baloney, obviously. And Kermit wouldn't be meat at all, but rather those "sandwich stacker" pickles which are already sliced, neatly arranged and knitting-needled together into a more-or-less froggic shape.

So "Plateau" and "Lake of Fire," then.

'Up On The Sun' is nearly as good. I like everything else by 'em I've heard, but nothing else competes with those two records. Classic, classic, and thrice classic.

Why does it always have to be Classic or Dud? Something in the middle there? With the Meat Puppets, aside from II, I'd really want to deem them Awright.

Because ILM is jockist.

The dusty archives of alt.music.alternative will tell you too much about a lot of us.

Is II a lot better?

In defense of their self titled album, I think it is a wonderful artifact for numerous reasons. It has that specific thin and dirty Spot-produced early SST sound which I find nostalgic. To my knowledge, it is one of the first and best infusions of psychedelia with American hardcore/punk. The singing is primitive yet pure, and the intuitive playing which holds the songs together is inspired. The changes in dynamics, texture, time, and color are often subtle yet always instantaneous and lend the songs a surprising cohesion despite their loose 'improvised' structures. The affect is simultaneously drug-addled and innocent. It is difficult not to anthropomorphize the record itself which seems so weirdly full of joy, fear, and humor.

Most people I know dismiss their 7" and first album as demented experimentation, but there is a resonance to these records should you choose to explore them a little deeper.

II is my favorite partly because of the songwriting, and more so because of the performances which create a lot of ambient space without adding a superfluous tone or note.

Live in Montana is amusing, but I also find it longwinded and at times, incredibly annoying. Whenever they cop the Grateful Dead or "get funky," I'm not sure how to react.

I wz listening to 'up on the sun' late last night and several things struck me - how there aren't any riffs, its composed of all these guitar runs, all continuous and sunny (if minor chords are sad ones then are these major chords? I don't know...). The singing is very different to that on 'II', he sounds more drunk instead of nervous. I think there are also some treated guitar effects that appear, albeit briefly, on some of the tracks and the lyrics are pretty great too...can't remember the words jumping out of the CD booklet since 'trout mask replica', all those years ago.

This is a Rolling Stones cover. I'm not sure if you meant that the song predated the 90s slacker or the 70s slacker.

II is a classic album. It is awesome and captures something that for me, is beyond words. It has a beauty that few albums have. Up On the Sun, on the other hand-- well, I just don't get that record. I know everyone raves about it, but I don't think it's near as good as II. It seems a lot more of a conscious effort or something... still decent, but I wouldn't recommend it as a first MP purchase.

UP ON THE SUN = SERIOUSLY ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS EVER

The best songs on II are the instrumentals, anyway!

classic, by the way.

CLASIC CLASSIC ! !

The plan for the Kirkwoods and Alexander is to record the album and then hit the road. 'The fact that I don`t have a contract is actually better, because I don`t need to hear anybody else`s opinion about the Meat Puppets at this point in my life,' Curt says. 'It`s fun to see where this will fit in, in this present state of the business.'

Anybody else have the new album? Looks like Tim Alexander didn't make it to the recording stage -- it's some guy named Ted Marcus. I'm definitely digging it. Pretty mellow compared to the other stuff I have (II, Monsters, Forbidden Places), but it's good to chill out to. "Light the Fire", the closing track, is pretty awesome.

I like it, and especially "Disappear," that'll be in my Jackin' Pop and Pazz & Jop Top Tens. Curt interview (and song/album review, with song download/stream) here:
http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=802

the album sounded pretty bad on the first couple listens, not as bad as Golden Lies or anything, but I was hoping it would be at least as good as the new Dinosaur Jr. album. some of the songs have started to sound better when the come up on shuffle, though.

They played here in Missouri on Wednesday night. I considered going, I actually sort of mentally grappled with myself over it. I ended up having a ten to midnight radio shift that night, so I couldn't go anyway. I think it was probably a severely underattended show. Haven't heard the new album, don't have much time for anything beyond their first three records.

Huevos rules

I made it out to the Meat Puppets show in St. Louis last week. Some of the energy you'd expect was missing, maybe due to technical problems and a less-than-enthusiastic crowd. And this asshole who kept doing line-dance steps whenever they'd play anything even remotely country.

Still, Curt let the licks flow like wine and Chris was very much alive.

I tried to listen to the new record...I really did but, I found it so lackluster at the half-way point I couldn't carry on. I would rather not have their later stuff sully the pleasure I find in II and Upon the Sun (and most of Huevos)

The last three tracks on the new one are pretty great. They're all about fire, which is an old meat puppets trope. "The Ship" has this cool shimmery quality to it, "Ice" sounds like a slow dance on the deck of the Titanic, and "Light the Fire" has this great Middle Eastern groove to it. The album is pretty low key -- it feels like a more mature Meat Puppets, which sort of defeats the point of the band in the first place.

I'm going to get it eventually, but I'm not too pushed about it right now. It's more of a continuation from where they left off in '95 than a 'return to form'; when I remind myself that they're never going to do an Up On The Sun again, it doesn't seem so disappointing to me (even if Curt's recent solo album, Snow, sounded better to me from the little bit of it I've heard).

What's this all about then?

It's the same thing they did at ATP New York back in September, no?

I saw them here in Dublin two nights ago, they played for nearly two hours so everyone got their money's worth. Really good show, the time flew by. But jesus, Cris Kirkwood looks old.

Oh right, I hadn't heard about that. So they play more than just "Meat Puppets II", £14 for 30 minutes would be pushing it a bit!

i just lurve 'Creator', the scrambling guitar line, the bored delivery that keeps building to a climax because of the song structure. 'Up on the sun' and 'ii' are wonderful.

I wanted to go tonight but am all sick and snotty :(

They sound great on cold medication though.

What album's that on?

Cough Syr-up on the Sun

(sorry, best I could do at short notice)

Not too shabby

Not too funny either sadly.

Anyhow, yes, they do really rattle through things live, the time I saw them it seemed like just a blur.

Gaah. I'm torn between this and two other shows tonight. What's ULU like?

They did 'In A Car' EP in full to make it 32 mins. Surely?

I had actually missed that both Cris and Curt were back in all this

Joe Carducci posted his updated "Meat Puppets II" memoir for ATP '08 in this week's New Vulgate. It's a unique inside perspective on the Pups.

They are playing here on tuesday. I think I will go. I've missed them the last two times they came through. Played "We're Here" on the radio last night.

Meat Puppets is probably my favourite band name of all time. Also (from http://thenotes.tumblr.com/post/103831878/meat-puppets-plateau-meat-puppets-ii-meat):

Meat Puppets, by the way. They are like one hell of a backwoodsy freak show. Leggy, fingerpicked chords dominate “Plateau,” with a country-funk bounce on the low end, for a creepy-crawler sound harking back to The Who’s (/Entwistle’s) “Boris The Spider.” Still, its killer denouement is the real selling point, an explosively saturated, resplendent and chiming snake of guitar effects that underscores the desert spareness of everything else. You’d want the melodic figure to have its own song, but then this song wouldn’t be this song. And now you know the value of control.

dudes
meat puppets are so so so classic
i was listening to sewn together last night and side a is pretty boss
when they came thru chi-town in the spring they pretty much fuckin ruled

the new stuff is more like curt's album snow than anything else
more country-ish, mellow like a man comfortable with himself not trying to prove anything. and cris is a fuckin blast! he was so approachable and drew this wicked picture on the album sleeve as i chatted him up. curt is much more reserved and quiet. definitely go see them they will play some early stuff, and at some point get way out there in some huge curt solo. so maybe take some drugs

Oh I'm so there. Sounds cool. I will be h1gh, don't fret.

I 'discovered' the Meat Puppets at the same time as Husker Du. When was it? '84/85.Back when 'punk' really was

I had a recording of my 94 year old grandma (then 70 ish) singing 'Lost on the Freeway' with my cousin and I at her gaff just after my grandad died I was on acoustic guitar and my grandma was on her casio keyboard.

We were trying to connect. With the deserts of Arizona from the fish docks of Hull, England. Spanning generations and the world.Us three managed it but nobody else heard. These days it would be on You Tube. Pure comedy cos I was probably been very serious trying to get those chords right

I was watching a DVD of the Meat Puppets the other night.'live in the 90s' or some other unimaginative title. Excellent stuff

Now where is that family affair tape?

best song they ever did? aurora borealis. an instrumental from ii. this is how heaven sounds like. desert heaven.

aurora borealis started playing in my head when i saw this thread. good call.

seal whales dudes seal whales . . .

but yea alive in the 90s is kinda precious if you're into the pups
i made a cassette some of the songs on there and the quality is all over the place. the part from john stewart's show is mad blown out, and then there's a thing from a record store that is like a whisper comparatively

Go see these guys, they were so good tonight (and over before midnight!)(lol old)( )

man i was playing to see them when they come thru but now i think i'll be out of town for thanxgiving

Has everyone seen this? http://www.wohlers.org/puppets/
My bro just hipped me to it and recommended the 85 shows first.

i saw that way back in the day when i was on the e-mail list referenced at the bottom of the page, hadn't seen it in years!

Oh dude, thank you.

Remember seeing them in a Providence club in '85 or so. An agitated young man leaning against the stage kept yelling for them to play their earlier hardcore stuff: "Speed it up! We ain't fuckin' critics!"
Curt Kirkwood responded in barely a whisper, "No, man, no." By the end of the night they had won the punk over.

i saw that way back in the day when i was on the e-mail list referenced at the bottom of the page

That list is still going, by the way. Ted Marcus, their current drummer, recently popped by to say hi (and explain why he wasn't on the current tour).

Thanks so much for that link, Trip Maker, currently thoroughly enjoying the 85 Safari Sams gig. Their loose-yet-tight playing is fantastic, good sound quality, too!

Still stoked from my experience last night. They covered "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights."
So cool.

New Album ‘Lollipop’ (Megaforce) Released May 2nd

It doesn't take long after listening to the Meat Puppets' thirteenth studio album overall, Lollipop, to realize that they have boiled the essence of what the group is all about right down to its core. As a result, singer/guitarist Curt Kirkwood, bassist Cris Kirkwood, and drummer Shandon Sahm have an instant Meat Puppets classic on their hands, and an album that fits in perfectly with such mid '80s classics as Up on the Sun and the underrated Mirage (while not coming off as an attempt to recreate a certain musical era of the group). Interestingly however, the Meat Puppets did not achieve this by working out the songs' arrangements beforehand, or even extensively rehearsing together.

"This one here was an experiment in just viewing the parts as Tinkertoys, and seeing the little Tinkertoy circus that needed to be built, and putting it together simply like that," explains Curt. "With just the band in the studio and the engineer, we didn't learn the songs - we just went in the studio, and went, 'OK, here's your part. Now play this good.' So we cut the stuff on acoustic guitar and drums first, and then built it. It's an interesting concept of a way to do something. It seems like it might be a stiff way to do something, by just putting it together a piece at a time like that. But I really enjoyed it. I think the overall sound of the way it came out is kind of a contradiction of the way it was recorded. To me, that's the coolest thing - to put something together like that, so you have the sum of the parts, and then the whole. The whole thing about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. To force yourself to do it that way. We were able to keep track of the music."

Produced once more by Curt, Lollipop signals the re-entry of former Puppets drummer Sahm back into the band (who previously played on the 2000 Puppets release, Golden Lies, and supporting tour). Sahm elaborates: "In October [2009], Curt called. I said, 'Aren't you supposed to be out on tour with the Stone Temple Pilots? What's up?' He said, 'Do you want to fill in and do these dates?' We only had one day to practice. That was the icebreaker. The first show was in Mobile, Alabama at BayFest. It was probably 5,000 to 10,000 people. Right afterwards, Robert and Dean DeLeo came up and said, 'You're really great in the band. You really drive the band cool. You should be in there.' And I was like, 'Well, I'm filling in for right now. It would be cool...talk to 'the boss'.' Robert goes, 'I'll talk to him.'

Recorded at Spoon’s HiFi Studio’s in Austin, Lollipop is chock full of tunes that run the stylistic gamut. Case in point, the opening keyboard-laced "Incomplete" (that Curt wrote back in 1983, and envisioned as "something that I thought would be good for Elvis or Engelbert Humperdinck in the '60s") and the rocking "Hour of the Idiot," to the sunny ska of "Shave It," and such acoustic country ditties as "Baby Don't" and "The Spider and the Spaceship." And Cris certainly approves of the finished product. "The continuity that runs through Curt's work is just a trip, and how you can reference different parts. I think it's a fairly bitching effort, considering the amount of time we put into pre-work. I think it's indicative of where the band's at right now. It's a fairly fluid moment, and that's a trip, considering how long we've been at it and the band's history. Curt's been at it non-stop, and I'm pleased to be able to provide him with a stable outlet for his art."

And according to Curt, the band got back to trusting their instincts once more - a major catalyst in their earlier work. "The similarity between the '80s and now is that once we started getting a lot of attention in the '90s, we brought producers in and stuff, and there was a thing that started happening - and it might sound egotistical - but this band always ran off of my intuitions. As much as songwriting or anything else. I write intuitively, and I never wanted to be a songwriter - I just got into it when I had the band. I just wanted to be in a band. So it's all been this intuition of 'This is what we need to do.' This was kind of taken away from us in the '90s, as money came in and people said, 'You need to do this.' It clouded the whole easygoing...like, 'Well, what does Curt think?' You could say it was the money or it was the thrust of popularity stuff or the Nirvana thing. But it just was like the band as a whole quit trusting that, I think. We just became more compliant, and like they say, 'Cooperation leads to corruption.' So in this way, I think the album harkens back to that."

How do we feel about Too High to Die these days?

it's a pretty bad album in comparison to their best stuff, but it's still leagues better than a lot of other major label rock albs of its era (especially by '80s hardcore bands gone fully alt). so we'll call it a draw.

I'd never heard it beyond "Backwater" and "Things." Good tunes but after three listens I find it hard to settle on other tunes.

like if this was a "taking sides: too high to die vs. god of love" i know what i'd pick.

I really like THtD! It's the best at getting acceptable vocals out of Kurt, with good arrangements, if not their best songs. Good songs though. Severed Goddess Hand is one of those phrases that keeps repeating in my head at the oddest time. But the whole first side in particular flows beautifully.

"Violet Eyes."

Creator, for that scrambling guitar, the languid matter of fact vocal delivery, and the line
"Some say openly, I don't know. Some build eleavators"

five year later, this still sounds gorgeous and amazing to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIFx2_Se8R8

I agree. Great tune. I hadn't heard it before.

New podcast interview with Cris Kirkwood

https://soundcloud.com/theair-raidpodcast/air-raidnet-episode-263-meat-puppets

Here 15 golden greats.

Great list! I'd have had Light and Like Being Alive from Monsters in there I think.

Saw them several times, first at this show in Bloomfield NJ, summer of '85. I don't remember Derrick Bostrom looking this friggin' hot:

https://pooneilblog.wordpress.com/tag/the-jetty/

Springsteen was playing a Born in the USA show a few miles away, so during their encore someone (in a crowd of maybe 30) yelled "Bruce." So they did a loud, fast version of "Dancing in the Dark."

was just listening to Up On The Sun last night, it sounded great.

I think I'd add a few more of the 1st lp tracks as my favourites but that list isn't bad.

love the demo tracks included in the 'up on the sun' reissue, some of it is the most stoned sounding music I can think of

UotS still and forever in my top 5 rock records

This is one of those bands where Cobain farted in their general direction once, so YouTube comments for their songs are full of stuff like: “KURT’S FAVORITE BAND!!”; “KURDT HAD GOOD TASTE, MAN”; etc.

It used to be the cool thing was not telegraphing that you learned about something that way, lol

Haven't seen the Meat Puppets play in years, but they sound really good on some of the semi-recent video clips online for radio sessions.

They were doing some shows with Mike Watt and someone else pretty good from the old SST scene out on the west coast recently too.

xxp Meat Pups covers and participation on Nirvana's Unplugged show add up to more than farting in their general direction: more like meaty-aromatic otm. Repost of the review-interview I did for long gone Paper Thin Walls in '07, had a really nice conversation (they were in a Texas truckstop, I was on the phone):
https://papercomet.blogspot.com/2017/03/meat-puppets.html

Derrick Bostrom is back in the band, it seems???

great news!

Seriously great/immediate new song (with Bostrom on drums I guess?). Hits all their best note-vibes; you can ride this one a long way out into the desert. (Trust me on that: I live there, haha) I never would've expected them to regain their particular stride, but here it is

https://youtu.be/-gny-gp8J9A

Wow that's pretty good!

There’s a recent set on archive.org with the bostrom on drums new guy on keys lineup and it’s really cool. Hear what the keys element is doing on Seal Whales - super interesting. It’s like the keys are taking up some of those chiming pinging Curt overdubs from the studio recording.

Here's the URL for that show: https://archive.org/details/mp2018-11-24

Elvis, thank you, I'd figured that was the one to download. I shoulda gone to that show, it's in the neighborhood — had no idea Bostrom was back in the mix. This song is so good I'm figuring I need to work thru their last coupla albumss.

Hope we see a new full length and I would be super delighted if the current five piece w bostrom came northeast. Pups are so deep in my blood.

There is a new full length, it's out in March! The song in the video linked above is on it.

fuuck yeahhh

* Everything * about this 1985 local TV in-studio appearance (even the limo commercial) is so damn adorable. Amazing treasure moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKMtKD-aw1I

Thanks for that loveable live video!

This is, word-for-word, line-for-line, story-for-story, joke-for-joke one of the best music interviews I've come across in a while. Meat Puppets, 2007.

https://music.avclub.com/meat-puppets-1798212463

I don’t know how long it’s been up but it looks like their full discography is now streaming, save the Out My Way EP I think.

So glad I opened this thread and discovered that video of them.

They should add Out My Way, it rules

yes that video up there is magical xp

From my Nashville Scene ballot comments on 2019 releases:
...those Dusty Notes come flying, and the dust doesn't come off, but they're still somehow plenty shiny, in this heavy jangle drone rock with country crosscurrents at the right times--incl. Floyd Crameresque sparkling piano waters, never abusing their spotlight comp time---the possibly Buddhist truck-driving man seemingly tells everything he sees, while, like the song says, "Lookin' at the world through a windshield," and vice-versa: for instance,"The Great Awakening" did even more to this land than for it, making for a real nice theme song in my mind, as he sings through it and all else, not scurred of those In Through The Out Door-reinforced juxtapositions, or that yowling tom cat guitar tail under---has he got a rocking chair in there? Rock the nation, big 'un, rolling through suggestions of Grateful Dead karma ballads too, in a poise I can only envy----Serenity Now!

Also once again: anybody who likes Curt will prob enjoy this long-ish truckstop conversation (following a brief review of Rise To Your Knees)--originally from 2007 Paper Thin Walls:
https://papercomet.blogspot.com/2017/03/meat-puppets.html

discography is now streaming

...through my head, anytime the sun is out? been that way forever

Wherearetheystreamingwherearetheystreamingwherearetheystreaming----Spotify? Don't see 'em on bandcamp, alas.

That tv show appearance is amazing

i'd never heard this until recently cos i never bought the ryko reissues but i'm super-into this weird demo version of 'hot pink' off the expanded Up On The Sun. Glockenspiel melody line, weird echoey percussive noises, a dubby bassline going wubba-wubba the whole time, and just a general feeling of falling through a dream backwards. it's kind of like they'd been listening to husker du and thought it would be neat to fuse 'the baby song' with 'reoccurring dreams'. are there any other pups tracks out there that are like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9SSELVxdvY

Pretty sure that demo predates “The Baby Song” by a year, at least; it might be the other way round.

oh i'm sure that was the case, wasn't a serious hypothesis i was putting forward there. just that childlike instrumentation and melody brought it to mind

If I recall correctly, they mention in the Ryko liner notes something about that demo being their original vision for Up on the Sun – something like Pet Sounds.

They apparently stuck themselves playing Sloop John B way too frequently in later years. At least according to the complaints of somebody I knew who followed them for years.

They were the kings of tacky cover versions, first time I saw them play they busked through 'A White Sports Coat & A Pink Carnation', like some sort of wedding band, it might have been their opening song too iirc?

I think that's what you call the final soundcheck if it's the opening number

They were infamous for starting a set with the overture to South pacific to a hardcore audience when they supported one of the bigger bands, was it Dead Kennedys? Always seemed to be a maverick streak that I quite enjoyed but it could go too far into cheesiness in places.
Just seems like they were playing Sloop John B every night when they could have played something less cheesy.

Damn that first record is really something totally unlike anything else, I listened this morning for the first time in forever and had my gourd blown all over again. "II" is unimpeachable, after that my interest...err...ebbs & flows.

W/r/t to the cheesy opening song, even as late as sometime in the 00s when I last saw them, the crowd was pretty much just backward white baseball cap wearing jocks. I don't remember what exactly they started with (UMS might recall) but what it was it was really weird and wrong-footed the whole room in a good way, it ended up being a really great gig.

yah first record is incredible just wow

First e.p. is quite incredible for a different direction. even more bluegrass based hardcore.
But my introduction was the vinyl version of that first lp and it is still something I would love to hear a lot more of.
NOt sure if anybody did take that as a starting point and get even more into getting stuck in the mud and actually stretching things out like not just for a couple of minutes. I did hear that it has been cited as a major influence on grunge. I remember the NME review comparing it to the ballroom sound of SF . Also sounds like pretty advanced playing heavily disguised as extremely amateur.
Well glad i got the Rykodisc version which expands it out to twice or 3 times the length.

Now I need to get the rest of the Monitor lp.

Oral history book was really interesting, not sure if you can still get that.

that ryko disc first album with all the bonus tracks is essential. i tried to listen to too high to die last week and its wack. oh damn i posted on this thread 16 years ago and just found myself agreeing with myself before i knew it was me lol.

Interesting that the later SST records, esp "Mirage" even though the music & playing is definitely more mersh, the vocals are...worse? Kudos for that at least.

threeway tie for last and p much everything recorded around then sounds weird and has a weird sheen to it

Yeah, all that 85-87 SST stuff sounds weird, often it feels like they are reaching for something that is just beyond their grasp (technically/finacially) and at the time (or more like 1991-92 when I first heard most of it) I thought it sounded abhorrent, though now I find some of it oddly charming, probably becuz it is so obviously of a very specific era

the most 1987 sst sounding album (or probably ragin full on) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm9U4EBWUsQ

lots of amazing SST records released during that time too of course, it's insane the number of records they were pumping out: 1985 - 24, 1986 - 32, 1987 - 64(!!!)

admittedly half of 1987s output was zoogz rift back-catalogue

I know there's a bit of retrospective kindness for Spot's engineering, but he's a blight to a lot of those records.

A vast back catalogue funded by non-payment of royalties to the handful of bands on the label that sold anything!

I heard the Rykodisc remasters had to be mastered from SST's own CD's because the master tapes were (and still) MIA - is that true?

Anyway, the kindest and more hilarious spin I've seen on SST's practices is that it's kind of like a Bailey Saving & Loan. You know, from It's a Wonderful Life: "Your money's not here Bob. It's in the Meat Puppets new album and Black Flag's next album..."

Or rather Bailey Building and Loan...been too long since I've seen the movie.

Now I need to get the rest of the Monitor lp.

Monitor lp is excellent west coast art damage

Agree that mirage, 3 way tie, flip your wig, loose nut all have an unfortunate neither fish nor fowl sound to them

Up on the sun sounds perfect though in its kinda slickness

I heard the Rykodisc remasters had to be mastered from SST’s own CD’s because the master tapes were (and still) MIA - is that true?

I don’t know about those, but that has been the case for others: The Dicks’ Kill From the Heart reissue on Alternative Tentacles was mastered from the (deleted) vinyl.

are there any bands that cite Up On The Sun as a major influence. JUst wondering what is in the same ballpark that might have grown out of it. May have some influence from 74ish Grateful Dead I know they have mentioned that band among their own influences. But something about the bubbling bounciness in the sound from that year I'm being reminded of by listening to Up On The Sun.

I can only name precedents (first two talking heads records, some bits of murmur) but no real inheritors. Would love to hear about any as my love for this album is boundless

maybe fIREHOSE?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygiVIEzejVQ

maybe these guys? sort of like mid-period meat puppets transplanted to the grey fog of the pacific NW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1d3yZOYYwo

june tour dates canceled :(

https://www.themeatpuppets.net/news

I’ve been trying to figure out if maybe it’s not worth the gas to drive across the country to play six small shows because they’ve been playing other shows lately and it’s not like Covid is getting more serious really

That may be what Dr. Fauci thought. Def what some people I know thought 'til recently.

(Fauci tested pos recently.)

Their gig in my town was not even on my radar. And now it’s cancelled.

so bummed, but then again i got covid a couple weeks ago, so i get it

I'd like to see them now, especially in a good club, if nothing else comparison. They are a band I saw a couple times as a kid, it would just be cool to see them now. It never lined up, but I would have loved to see some of the Jesus Lizard shows for that reason. I saw them twice once right after I turned 21 in Bloomington in '91 and a second time a few years later as the opening act for Primus at this cow barn at the Indiana State Fair. Horrible sound and the Puppets did not go over well. The first show was at a good club and they were so tight a band. You can tell the Meat Puppets had played together for a LONG time, just tight.

Minutemen/fIREHOSE was on a similar type of funk groove at points. Ed's tunes have a folky bounce, which is something the Meat Puppets do a lot.

been reading the SST "Corporate Rock Sucks" history and while i've never heard it, the passage about Monsters made it an immediate must hear:

The Meat Puppets also wanted out. After the release of Huevos and Mirage in 1987, the band was worn down from so many years on the road and more than a little discouraged to see bands like Soundgarden blowing up on MTV. The Meat Puppets recorded its next record, Monsters (SST 253), with the intention of getting off of SST and onto a major label. "So we went with the big, ugly-sounding reverb and electronic drums, and the big anthemic chorus crap," Bostrom said. Monsters is a Frankenstein-esque fusion of over-the-top riffs, tinny drums, and prog-country crooning- like ZZ Topp on acid.

“ZZ Topp”(?)

collect your prize for catching a typo in the book!

Haven't listened to it since it came out but Attacked By Monsters and Touchdown King were my favourite things on it

So does London count as a major label (i.e. did it work)?

Monsters was my first Pups record and it's not as terrible as people might think, it has these two lovely tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI-zD4Z5ZWk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYILrial4lQ

I just listened to Monsters the day before yesterday by coincidence. I recalled “TD King” and “Light” being the only highlights but there’s actually a bunch of good shit on there and the drums are nbd

xp "This video is not available"

can you name what the tracks are please?

'Light' and 'Like Being Alive'

for a yank curt plays the smoothest frippertronic licks this side of adrian belew

I’m waiting on the post to bring me ’90s SST pressings of Monsters and Mirage in the next few days. I like Monsters more than Forbidden Places tbh; it doesn’t sound as good but the songs are great and it feels leaner in a good way.

xps thanks!

I think I agree with you now xp re monsters v forbidden places. I certainly would not have a year ago.

I don’t blame them, I mean you’re on a major (kind of) so go big or go home, right? But it feels longer, even though it’s actually a few minutes shorter.

And “this day”, “whirlpool” and “open wide” do rule

I love "Whirlpool" so much. Kinda feels like it's a few floors higher on the "Creator" elevator, now running for free.

Agreed on “Whirlpool”, it’s like the essence of the band’s whimsical, mystical sides.

By the way, Pitchfork covered Meat Puppets II for their Sunday Review: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/meat-puppets-meat-puppets-ii/

(I did not know that story about Curt and the plane crash, or maybe I did and forgot it.)

Was listening again to their absolutely frazzled appearance on SNAP in the late 80s, poor Deirdre, trying to get any kind of interview out of them, but I feel that the version of the Peggy Lee tune Pass Me By might be the apex of their screwball cover songs tradition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUgqoEDZrco

Thanks for that II piece, I never would have noticed that. I didn’t know that plane crash story either. I think bostrom is a little too hard on the post-UotS albums. No, they aren’t on that level* but they’re way too joyful to be thought of as slogging

*well, about half of out my way IS on that level

Been revisiting Up on the Sun lately and its been lovely. Feels like a pretty big shift from II but it works so well. The guitar playing is out of this world. I thought they were for sure a 4 piece until I saw a public access youtube video of them playing "Swimming Ground"

This is, word-for-word, line-for-line, story-for-story, joke-for-joke one of the best music interviews I've come across in a while. Meat Puppets, 2007.

Yes, amazing. Updated link: https://www.avclub.com/meat-puppets-1798212463

Grateful for the multiple recommendations of Forbidden Places upthread. Awesome songs.

My controversial Meat Puppets opinion: Mirage is the best album

I've been getting super into Monsters lately myself

Mirage is the best album

It's a great record

My controversial Meat Puppets opinion: Mirage is the best album

I agree with this

I’m more partial to Huevos at the moment but I definitely see the appeal.

I think Huevos was the cocaine record

AVC: So you're optimistic for the first time in a while?

Cris: It's so way beyond that. I'm like awash in the glow of the wonder of the resilience of the human spirit and the fucking mystery of existence. It's fucking sick.

I have a likely false memory of hearing the minutemen covering "lost" in a straightforward fashion but all the cover versions online have that funky riff.

Another album I've been listening a lot to is 2004's Volcano, reissued this year by Don Giovanni Records. I love the grunge touches. They sound so natural on Curt.

I really should try out more than the big three albums. Do they have any certified stinkers to avoid?

People are going to possibly point to Monsters, in that respect, but (robotic drum programming aside) I've always really liked it. It has a fair few gems: Light, Like Being Alive, The Void.

Seems like I'm repeating myself from a year ago, hah

I've been playing things at random from all across the discography this week, and have yet to hear anything off-putting. I saw a bit of an interview with Curt in which he looked back with gentle disapprobation on "the producer years" in the mid-'90s, saying he should've trusted his own vision more, but... Meat Puppets' "rock radio-ready" is still "pretty fucking weird".

And I like how the polish lets me hear the lyrics more clearly.

Meat Puppets doing Arc/Weld, or maybe Grayfolded: https://meatpuppets.bandcamp.com/track/up-on-the-sun-2022-megamix

looking at their bandcamp I had no idea they put out an EP in 2020, it actually sounds really nice.

Their recent stuff is wonderful! These guys are so good at everything all the time. Lollipop has amazing songs, sad & beautiful & profound... Curt Kirkwood is a lifer.

Fun piece from 2002 about getting into Up on the Sun the year it came out.