TS: Dinosaur/You’re Living All Over Me/Bug vs. Meat Puppets/Meat Puppets II/Up On The Sun

Meat Puppets II got me through high school, so it’s that for me. I saw Dinosaur Jr on their famously loud tour with My Bloody Valentine but their albums never really rung my bell.

i would have voted just for the SONG "up on the sun" over everything else.

Meat Puppets

Meat Puppets

Oops. Only votes once^

MP, MPII, and UOTS is one of the greatest three album runs of this era and is as important to me as Bad Moon Rising, Evol, and Sister.

if the first dinosaur album was a bit better, it would be them.
also, up on the sun is the best album here.

I never "got" the Meat Puppets back then, but I sure got where Dino Jr was coming from, so them. fond memories of late nights as a pizza delivery guy, getting up at 2 PM with french roast, bong hits, and Bug at top volume.

The Meat Puppets entire 80s run should be celebrated as one of the great ‘decades’ of anyone imo

meat puppets were just perfect, no idea how they did it, alchemical greatness. no motivation to listen to dinosaur again for me, sour 90s vibes imho.

i'll forget about mp for a year or so and then joyfully rediscover that they're a top 10 band for me, it's happened like 8 times.

feels weird that a vote against primo era Dino is so easy for me, but in this case it is

getting up at 2 PM with french roast, bong hits, and Bug at top volume.

love to ya sleeve but this sounds like my worst nightmare lmao

A recent re-listen to Dino Jr left me thinking "why did I love this band?" so the Puppets it is. My controversial take: Mirage is a better album than Meat Puppets II.

will buck the trend and say Dino. They were one of the first faves and will likely always remain firmly implanted. Meat Puppets are great but I came to them much later so hold less of an entrenched place in my heart.

I have to go with Dinosaur Jr, been a huge fan for years and still get a lot of mileage out of those albums. MPII is easily the best album of the bunch though.

lol map <3

"Up on the Sun" is one of the greatest albums ever made, so Meat Puppets it is.

I was surprised to see MP running away with this early on…even though I’m still leaning that way, You’re Living All Over Me in particular is just such a killer guitar album.

I love both

My controversial take: Mirage is a better album than Meat Puppets II.

― carry on columbine (Matt #2), Monday, 26 August 2024 03:01 (twelve hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

No, but Mirage is better than Up On The Sun.

I think the Meat Puppets have better songs, but I love the early Dinosaur sound and lost slacker vibe.

Replace "Dinosaur" with "The Wagon" + Whatever's Cool With Me EP and Dinosaur walks this... but this is very close. Leaning DJ as the MP horde is out in force.

ahem we're highway desperados

“Up on the Sun” is one of the greatest albums ever made, so Meat Puppets it is.

This. Also, I would even go so far as to say Out My Way > Mirage > Huevos beats that Dinosaur Jr hand. (I really love Huevos.)

voted dinosaur jr

Huevos is indeed awesome

xp

oh man, interesting and tough question! for me, the Meat Puppets trio is 2 classics and one kind of blah album, while the Dino trio is 1 classic and 2 good albums...gonna give the edge to MP here, although if we were comparing entire catalogs, Dinosuar's a lot more consistent.

You’re Living All Over Me
II
Up On the Sun
Bug
Dinosaur
Meat Puppets

I’d rate them like this and give it to Dino Jr in a photo finish as I never liked the Meat Puppets first album.

You’re Living All Over Me is up there with Powerage or Raw Power for just a wall of hard rock guitar awesomeness.

I will probably go with the Meat Puppets, I listen to them a tiny bit more. Besides Meat Puppets II and Up On The Sun, I also listen to Huevos front-to-back quite a bit. You’re Living All Over Me and Bug both get more or less the same amount of play as those three.

voted dino jr on the strength of You’re Living All Over Me alone but this was a really hard choice for me

saw dinosaur jr a few times during this period and they were sooo good. only time i saw the Meat Puppets was in the 90s and they didn't really do a lot for me. anyone see them during the early years?

Looks like I’m gonna have to revisit the Meat Puppets. Never got into them in the 80s/90s and after that I didn’t revisit, either.

YLAOM is a top-10 album for me, and the other two ain’t half bad.

saw DJR on the Bug tour, they ruled. never saw MP

I really love the first meat puppets, hardcore as a yammering bad trip somewhere around barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold

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

only time i saw the Meat Puppets was in the 90s and they didn't really do a lot for me. anyone see them during the early years?

Some bands knew that you could make a quick $200 playing a lunchtime show at the UC Irvine student center so I probably saw them at least a half-dozen or more times.

saw dinosaur jr a few times during this period and they were sooo good. only time i saw the Meat Puppets was in the 90s and they didn't really do a lot for me. anyone see them during the early years?

Saw both a few times late 80s/early 90s and I have to be honest and say they were both pretty bad live. Dino just seemed like an aimless mess, Puppets lost all the subtlety of the records. Everyone else seemed to love them though so maybe it was me. In terms of SST-related bands I saw back then they were both better than the Leaving Trains though. HR too.

xp oh nice!

yeah dino were hugely messy but that's part of what i loved about them at the time, just losing myself in the noise

I saw Meat Puppets in the mid 00s and they were great

Terrific 2018 MP show: https://archive.org/details/mp2018-11-24 (recorded at Pappy & Harriet's out by Joshua Tree)

I really love the first meat puppets, hardcore as a yammering bad trip somewhere around barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold

I probably like the first one more than II (although an argument could be made for either)…even as a teen I always thought it was one of the most underrated albums I’ve ever encountered, so many sick avant-cowboy guitar licks played slightly out of tune at breakneck speed with elements of noise/dissonance but on the surface level still totally reckless American hardcore..

Dino Jr bc tbh I have never listened to the Meat Puppets and I love Dino Jr

I only got into the Meat Puppets the last few years, but I like them a lot and maybe listen to them more than Dinosaur Jr. these days. But they will never make me feel the way Dinosaur Jr. did back as a mopey teen.

If you love Dino you'd at least like Meat Puppets II.

Both debuts are weak, IMO, but You're Living All Over Me/Bug are like Rubber Soul/Revolver to me...

I confessed on another thread that DJr has become more affecting in the 2020s than I would even have anticipated as a juvenile purchaser.

I definitely owe Meat Puppets a fresh listen or several. Fairly or not, it's a formless mess in my memory and, at this instant, no match for Dinosaur. (I seem to get more mileage than many out of *that* messy debut and some days even prefer the first relatively poptastic eight ninths of Bug to YLAOM.)

Dinosaur is the better debut for sure. I think Meat Puppets II is more of their intended sound, actually, but resigned to make a "SST-ish" record once they joined up with the label.

For me this is really YLAOM vs MP II since those are the ones I own and listen to, and on those terms, it’s YLAOM for the win.

none of these albums are as good as 'farm'

The Meat Puppets entire 80s run should be celebrated as one of the great ‘decades’ of anyone imo

otm. timeless fuckin music

That is a big turnout

Meat Puppets on KCRW/Snap in 1988 is a good listen, they sound unsurprisingly baked, and their fried chatter railroads poor Dierdre O'Donaghue. There are nice versions of Monsters-era tracks before their ZZ Top makeover.

https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/bent-by-nature/meat-puppets-huevos-live-1988

And also this great Peggy lee cover - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr0GW5L6vlg

I am a Dino voter and posted one post iirc. I have never listened to the Meat Puppets (outside of the one song that was a single --Backwater?) so I have no idea if they're better than Dino Jr but...I doubt it. Can I ask in all earnestness what is so great about the Meat Puppets?

some great intertwined guitar leads, for one

(I voted Dino)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SihrzuZ9IKM

Dino voter here, but the Meat Puppets' psychedelic, sunbaked and near countryfied take on post-hardcore seems more unique than Dinosuar Jr.'s.

started back in '83
started seeing things differently
hardcore wasn't doing it for me no more
started smoking pot
thought things sounded better slow

i love both but, as pkbr says, the acid soaked southwestern desert vibe is really unique to me.

Meat Puppets - better songs
Dino J - better noise

maybe

is my answer to LL

i voted for the songs but i cd've just as easily voted for the noise

love that description pbkr

Vocals - equally tuneless
Guitar - Mascis I guess but Curt is no slouch
Bass - Puppets
Drums - tie, both pretty bad but who cares

= neck-and-neck, needs a major label years poll as a decider

I know it’s more about preference but Kirkwood definitely has the edge on Mascis technically.

Not many guitarists of that era did as much as CK with (relatively) clean guitars in a rock format

Yeah I find his playing a lot more interesting than mascis

That said I love Mascis’s voice and delivery, probably Dino Jr.’s secret weapon. I would never call him tuneless.

Have a hard time believing there are 92 ilxors that have heard these 6 albums.

lol yeah these kids are posers

Can’t tell if you guys are serious but it’s like 3.5 hours of music lol and it’s all easily accessible

Hardly obscure by ILM standards. Both bands were important touchstones in the early 90s like Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Big Black, Black Flag, Replacements etc

this doing the meat puppets no favours at all but the most meat puppetsy song that dinosaur jr had is probably, um, 'mountain man' which wouldve been right at home on the first pups album. thankfully theres a huge evolution over the next few records though, moving from sort of a half-crazed splattered paint approach to the rustic needlepoint of 'up on the sun'. should not be understated just how fun and often funny their music is, without ever lapsing into the grossness of their texan second cousins, the butthole surfers. and for a band that do often sound like theyre totally off their boxes, their songs are so focussed, never noodling or rambling, and they have a charm that even sometimes borders on prettiness in a tousled hair countryboy kind of way

Vocals - equally tuneless
Guitar - Mascis I guess but Curt is no slouch
Bass - Puppets
Drums - tie, both pretty bad but who cares

For me Dino Jr drums are serviceable but not outstanding and clearly not the point of the band. As a drummer myself I am totally down with this, as it takes the pressure off to be remarkable and is only in service of the song and the feeling. Pedestrian/workmanlike drumming is actually a positive imo. It's all about J (and Lou!) and songs/tone/melodies. Sorry to all bassists but I never noticed the bass playing in DJr songs.

I love the way J Mascis sings and have always wondered how his songs would sound if they were sung by a woman (and who?) His singing is just so 100% him that it's hard to imagine. Lou Barlow was the woman in Dino Jr.

I listened to the youtube posted upthread and it sounds alright -- wondering if the window of me caring about guitar bands of the 80s and 90s has closed. I already like the ones I like and that's enough for me?

I often feel like that tbh, but the Meat Puppets would be an excellent exception to make

(currently walking my dogs listening to their 4th album, Mirage, and theres not been one minute of it so far that hasnt made me feel stupidly happy)

Mirage has always been my fave of theirs.

Its great, innit?

I should make a shuffle playlist of these six albums

Mirage has always been my fave of theirs.

Yes but i do kind of hate 'love our children forever'. luckily 'liquefied' zooms in straight after and expunges all traces of it (is 'liquefied' their most dinosaur jr song?)

Mirage probably my second favourite after Up on the Sun, glad I'm not the only one! Who cares if they replaced Derrick Bostrom with a drum machine? I can think of several other bands where that would have been a plus.

“Two Rivers” is one of finest songs ever made.

Murph and Bostrom both kick ass, what are you people on about (that being said, my favorite Dinosaur Jr. drummer is probably J Mascis, i love his playing on Hand It Over)

i deejayed a dinosaur show here at a local bar in 2018 and they were so good. they are really good at it and they play so well together. lou going nuts. murph holding it down. cool to see them in a place that probably only held 100 people max. they've got that perfect setup where that trio - barring illness - could do that forever a la neil and crazy horse. and as long as they don't kill each other or something.
having said that, folk implosion is coming to the u.k. and they are way cheaper than oasis if you want some 90s nostalgia.

murph is just ok in the first run he got much better. i love his work on the beyond album in particular

I think J writes the drum parts Murph plays. I think Lou's bass playing is really underrated: he's playing lots of "chordal stuff" that fills where a rhythm guitar player would, and his tone borders on Lemmy or something, lol. I like the 90s albums well enough, but when he came back on Beyond it was like, mmm yea that's the sound.

I thought the J dictating the parts for the other members was on Bug. & not sure how much leeway they had with things then or live. Thought they'd always make the parts their own and be more fluid live.

I remembered that Meat Puppets had a couple of tracks on the Blasting Concept V/A compilation. Which is why I would have recognised the bandname when I saw the s/t lp in the 2nd hand rack. Glad I got that cos I love that set and would have loved more of it. 1st 3 lps fit on both sides of a C90 and leave space to spare don't they?
Glad to have the Rykodisc versions of those lps but need to replace my Up On The Sun cos it's a bit scratched.

here's that show i was talking about. some good LouBass sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2UuYbgZtzI

I love the way J Mascis sings and have always wondered how his songs would sound if they were sung by a woman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsMD8taQ1qA

I’ve always considered myself more of a Dino Jr fan and I still think J is the more distinctive singer, but having just relistened to MP II and YLAOM, the Pups album sounded better to me today. Too late to change my vote though.

my 19 year old was just telling me the other day how much he likes that blake babies dino cover. it lives on in da youth.

awww my old friends (John and Freda), always happy to see a mention

and yes like a good gen x dad after he played it for me i had to briefly explain Red and the Tube Bar to him.

Aw I saw Freda play w her new band at some point last year. She was wearing a really cute green dress. I thanked her for being the first woman drummer I was aware of (I was a teenage Blake Babies fan)

She is a local in my area!

Hope slim is an alien doesn't mind but here is a similar poll

Minutemen The Punch Line/What Makes A Man Start Fires?/Double Nickels On The Dime vs Black Flag Damaged/Slip It In/My War

LL that's awesome!

thoughts on currently listening to these six albums on shuffle, about an hour in

Up On The Sun is def my fave MP, the strangled yelp vocals are mellowed out a bit which is what makes the 1st 2 harder for me

I went through like six Dino songs early on, "Don't" is a bit of a chore these days

still think J is way more to my taste as a guitarist, mostly b/c I luv fuzz

i tried listening to Mirage and Huevos after reading this thread. . . those vocals are not for me!

Surprised at all the love for Meat Puppets here, at the time I always considered them kinda goofy/mid-tier and certainly not on the level of Dino Jr. I should revisit them - maybe it clicks now.

Too High To Die is the gateway MP album if the strangled vocals are a barrier.

i would send someone directly to Up On The Sun. no matter who they were. though the first album might appeal to early Dinosaur fans.

Up on the Sun is a bit sunnier than MP II. Maybe loses a bit too much of the heaviness of something like Lake of Fire, for me probably the best song on either MP II or YLAOM.