Customer Reviews

Bunny Gets Paid

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The sound of guitars being punched. Amps humming. Bottles breaking everywhere. Strange currencies rising and dropping, creating a soundscape that suggests so much. Bunny gets paid? What?

Red Red Meat's third and best release, Bunny Gets Paid, a record released in 1995 on Sub Pop records and out of print for almost a decade, is secretly one of the 90s' most experimental rock albums. It's an album that Sub Pop's owners have said is "easily one of the high points of the entire Sub Pop catalog." And they're right. Meat's key member, singer/guitarist Tim Rutili, went on to form Califone, a band Jeff Tweedy claimed inspired Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I never personally heard too much of a Tweedy/Rutili connection until Bunny hit my ears. Now I get it. Bunny Gets Paid is a younger, drunker, meaner version of Yankee. There's a danger to this sound. Now, after years of talk, Sub Pop has finally made good on their promise to remaster and reissue this wild - and largely unknown - gem. They've added a disc of extras, some nice packaging and a slightly tweaked sound, but that's not the draw here. The initial set is all you need.

The first time I heard Bunny I was nightwalking through a bustling area of a big city, headphones loud. So many strange things happening - both in my ears and in front of my eyes - over a solid palate of fuzzy guitars, sonic humming and shouldn't-be-singing-but-am post-Stipeian mumbles. At one point I heard an opera singer lingering in the background, only to later realize that I'd walked by an opera house with an intercom. Still, it wouldn't have surprised me to hear this. There's so much sound everywhere on this expertly produced (though still pretty lo-fi) indie rock classic; so much so that each listen promises a new detail to warm your hands to on those cold, lonely indie rock nights. Keyboards falling out of the sky while an out-of-tune acoustic guitar gets assaulted and Rutili lets words happen out of his marble mouth. Don't clear your throat, Tim, keep on going. And don't candle your ears, listener, it's supposed to sound this way.

Opener "Carpet of Horses" could easily be a Wilco b-side from 2002. The song, broken and beautiful, is so subtle in its detail that it comes off as one of the best-executed audible messes you'll find. Strange sonic humming swells and drops while distant percussion holds everything together. Rutili sings words that seem hardly connected while his bands empties bottles on tape. By the time "Rosewood, Stax, Volts and Glitter" kicks in the listener has no idea what to expect. A post-grunge band arrives, now breaking bottles with every note, playing as if the end result matters no more than their current buzz. Matters only to them at that moment. And that's why it works: Red Red Meat weren't "going for broke" on Bunny, they were broke. Poor and fractured. Talking about bunnies getting paid, or something.

Sure, people cared about the Chicago band that would be Califone in 1995, but the promise of a Nirvana-like breakthrough had passed for these guys. Music was already changing and - once touted as an up-and-coming grunge outfit - the Meat was being left behind. So what did they do? They made a classic that I'm sure they figured very few folks would care to hear. This is extreme music - an extreme collection of ideas that feels too loose to actually work. But it does work. One of the true cult classic records of the 90s, Bunny Gets Paid is a must-hear. You may not dig Rutili's vocals or the seemingly disorganized nature of the band's compositions, but hang in there, ears. If you can listening to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - or recent Sonic Youth, even - then you can listen to - and enjoy - Bunny's madness. Four listens in and you'll feel like someone just kicked you in the ears. If you're lucky, you'll never hear the same again. Any record that can do that to you is worth hearing.

With their previous "Jimmywine" it looked as if the Meat was gonna get them heads a bobbin' in unison. What an amazing departure this album is from their earlier work but at the same time expanding on musical themes previously hinted at. Beautiful songs, great production and guitar tones to melt away to. Too bad they broke up, but then again maybe not.

If you didn't happen to buy most of their albums as you grew up (and I didn't# - and for some reason only really found out about Red Red Meat #as I did) - then this album is re-release is awesome. I went to iTunes and checked out the preview: Loved the acoustic guitar on Carpet of Horses. Chain x3 is a powerful standard rock formula. Solid harmonics and melody. Buttered - lovely ballad. Love the "unplugged" sound. Gauze and Idiot Son - solid - very Lou Reed sound going on here. The songs Rosewood and Variations on Nadias Theme - have a feedback thing that remends me of the Jesus Mary Chain Sad Cadillac - nice keyboards. I keep discovinging bands that that everyone seems to already know about, but at least it keeps life interesting. So I give this a solid thumbs up, and now I'm going to go buy it on Amazon.

The marketing folks over at Sub Pop sure know what they are doing. What better way to get more cash out of aging Gen-Xers than to reissue the classic albums of our wasted youth? But, this one is worth it because this has been impossible to get for a long time. Now, cheaper than it originally cost is this deluxe edition of a fantastic album. You get a nice booklet and artwork (something downloads can't provide) plus a seond disc of bonus material. It's likely that if you're looking at this then you are already a RRM fan. If you got burned on the Diary or Superfuzz re-issues (they're pretty weak), don't worry - go ahead and buy this reissue you won't be disappointed.

This is different. Not immediately accessible, but when the listener gets a feel for what language is being spoken, the sounds and words ring true.

A musical product like this doesn't come around often... Get it.

This is a powerful album. Stream of thought lyrics that make no sense--and all the sense in the world. Music that, in the right setting, will make you stop and listen--cry even if you know how to do that. It's simple really. It's music as it is meant to be. Music that touches your soul and then screams at it to wake up. Are you listening?
Try it if you like Pink Floyd...Alice in Chains...Johnny Cash (not because he's country but because he's tortured and real)...Wilco (if they had lost their minds they could make music like this).

Bunny Gets Paid was grown from the ground up by guys who communicate when they play and let their songs be more important than themselves. The recording is full of spirit. Notes are allowed to ring and they sound like tired minds letting go. The lyrics are full of private references--they're as personal and organic as the songs and performances. Everything is anonymous and particular and the words are buried in the sound a little bit. What I like about this recording it is breathes authenticity--not because it uses distorted slide guitar, not because the singer hasn't ever had voice lessons, not because of any 'sound' they've captured. Their sound is the product of their personality and spirit and love of music. Red Red Meat is unassuming enough in their approach on this album that some everyday poetry could be grown. Everyday poetry being the best kind--it starts out small, but when it stands up, no one could believe something so magnificent and true came from someone's life. The songs are broken little skeletons that clatter in the wind and the performance lifts them up and rescues them from being nothing. And what's there isn't notes and words. It's a fact made up of people's lives.