Meat Puppets II [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Meat Puppets | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 16, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Rykodisc
• ASIN: B00000I9KU
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,698 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Split Myself In Two

2. Magic Toy Missing

3. Lost

4. Plateau

5. Aurora Borealis

6. We're Here

7. Climbing

8. New Gods

9. Oh, Me

10. Lake Of Fire

11. I'm A Mindless Idiot

12. The Whistling Song

13. Teenager(s)

14. I'm Not Here

15. New Gods

16. Lost

17. What To Do

18. 100% Of Nothing

19. Aurora Borealis

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The seminal Phoenix trio's self-titled debut is one of the greatest hard-core punk records ever made--but it pissed the punk kids off. Whether it was the Meat Puppets' long hair (in '81!) or their set-opener "The King and I" it was hard to say. Yet they were reviled. Still, they broadened their horizons, mixing up their weird full-on frantic hardcore style with some Tex-Mex, some bluegrass, and a little desert sun. The result? The cultural icon Meat Puppets II, a landmark album that resonates with the acid trails and heat-driven madness of southwest America. (As a whole generation of musicians, from Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis to Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and downwards, can attest.) Curt Kirkwood's dislocated guitar style veers between hillbilly, heavy metal, psychedelic, and the Oak Ridge Boys. His brother's bass sound is endearingly fallible. A wonderful, eccentric record (with seven bonus tracks!). --Everett True

Product Description

The enhanced portion contains a video for \New gods" produced in 1984.
Genre: Popular Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 16-MAR-1999"""

See all Editorial Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The official soundtrack of the American Southwest. November 3, 2003

By Shotgun Method

Format:Audio CD

[My 100th review. Yay!]

The hardcore punkers must have regarded the Meat Puppets as if they were aliens, back in 1984 for playing this weird blend of punk, country, and bluegrass. It's an acquired taste--untrained vocals, quirky lyrics, sloppy playing, and an overall rustic feel. The band's trademark sound later became more polished on gems like Up On The Sun, but II is the source. This music was very different from the SST-label punk released back then, and definitely not to everyone's liking.

And yet, despite its rough and unpolished feel, this record is compulsively listenable and enjoyable in its dry, acid-drenched Mojave atmosphere. Curt Kirkwood's off-key vocals grate at first but quickly grow on the listener, while his guitar solos attain moments of magic that 90% of polished professional musicians would struggle to reach. Yep, guitar solos, in a "punk" band. Imagine that. Curt's brother Kris (bass) and drummer Derrick Bostrum make up a loose, easygoing backing.

From top to bottom, there are no weak tracks, and most of them are stellar. Famously, Plateau, Oh Me and Lake Of Fire were all covered by Nirvana on their '93 MTV Unplugged concert. I used to think Cobain's reworkings were superior, but now I'm not so sure. I love the shimmering electric outro found on this version of Plateau, Curt's plaintive voice on Oh Me, and the epic feel of Lake Of Fire. Other highlights included here are the frantic Split Myself In Two, the disillusioned Lost, the great instrumental Aurora Borealis, and the fine closer The Whistling Song. The bonus tracks don't really add much, nor do they take anything away from this classic album. You can hear the influence of this album all throughout the Seattle alternative and indie genres....

Overall, if I was headed on a road trip to the deserts of New Mexico, this would be the first album in the CD changer. Essential to anyone with a taste in indie or alternative. Read more ›

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars New Fan of Meat Puppets December 15, 2000

By Bruce

Format:Audio CD

First encounter with Meat Puppets was when I heard "Backwater" on the radio several years ago and decided to buy the album but never got around to it. Heard "Plateau" on Nirvana MTV unplugged and didn't think much of it the first time I heard it. Then after listening to the song several times I began to love the guitar outro. I was looking for a change from REM and Nirvana. Nirvana seems to have been influenced by the Meat Puppets. REM sounds a lot different.

I bought my first Meat Puppets album "Up On the Sun" and loved it, especially Hot Pink and Maiden's Milk. Decided to buy two more albums "Huevos" and "Too High To Die". "Backwater" is on Too High To Die" but I liked "Huevos" better. In fact I liked it so much, I bought all of the rest of the Meat Puppets CDs including the live one "Live in Montana". "Meat Puppets II" is excellent, especially the songs "Plateau", "Aurora Borealis", and "Lake of Fire". Their first album "Meat Puppets" is punk rock and too hard for me to digest (especially with the kids in the car) and "Monster" is pretty good. I am looking forward to breaking the seal on the other albums (12 CD's total).

To summarize the Meat Puppets: weird, amazing guitar playing, great songwriting, good lyrics, good (sometimes great) singing.

Thank god for the Meat Puppets.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good gravy, this is a good record. January 12, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

Oh, I wonder-wonder hoom-a-doo-doo-who? Who has bought this album and owes it soley to the fact that Kurt Kobain and company played not 1..not 2...but THREE songs with Kris and Kurt Curkwood on MTV's Unplugged and muttered "All these songs are from their second album." ?

Cuz that's what I did. Don't expect anything like their (1994?) top-40 hit Backwater; that song's as different from the material on II as their full-length debut--an odd synthesis of slop-hardcowpunk songs that I would NOT recommend to just anyone--is. Kirkwood's off-key, troubled voice grows on one in an EXTREMELY appealing fashion, as the boys slap their instruments through these varied songs that lie somewhere between punk and country; folk and ballad (Listen at the very LEAST for the Neil Young-esque "The Whistling Song"). Awesome.

Warning: Takes several listens to fully appreciate, but once one is hooked, they will no doubt curse the rather short-length (under a half an hour? ) of this fine, fine rock masterpiece. The End.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Influential classic in the "Dificult Music" genre December 1, 2004

By Herr Frog

Format:Audio CD

I have just read a few reviewws of this cd, and I can understand that the uneasy hybrid of country, punk, hard rock, and psychedelic rock that this band constituted was definitely hard to swallow for a lot of people. You know, ______ them if they can't take a joke.

For those who weren't on the scene at the time, the 1980's and early 90's were a strange and fascinating time to be alive. The music and the arts were coming alive in a sense that they hadn't before in the United States, and the excitement was reflected in the number of new styles and trends emerging almost weekly -- artists of all sorts were springing up from the ground, creating new works and breaking rules no-one had even realized were rules.

"Alternative rock" was not the mainstream back then like it is nowdays, and few will remember now how subversive it was to even listen to something so mild as REM back then. The Meat Puppets were well in the spirit of those times, defying neat categories of style and sound. And for those who required the assistance of a Rolling Stone article to be able to appreciate a record, help was on the way, but a long way off still.

The bands that most blatantly defied all attempts at being filed into neat stereotypes in the late '80s were all heaped into a bin called "difficult music." All but forgotten now, they were often loosely associated with "punk rock," "hardcore," and the like, but if you want to be really ____ about it, you might do better to associate a few of these bands with the likes of Captain Beefheart, Julian Schnabel, and a handful of the more weird psychedelic and modern artists of the 20th C....

I have jokingly referred to the Meat Puppets as "Grateful Dead on Speed" before, and I recall thinking of them as sort of a hybrid of, say, Yes (Old Yes, back when they were kinda good, 1970s and before) and Merle Haggert. No, Meat Puppets weren't punk rock, and yes, they were on an eminent punk label. But with a band that tight, somebody had to publish them.

Chris and Kurt are like the rare brother or sister duo found in bluegrass music now and then that have a gift of harmony so natural, from a life of playing and singing together since early childhood. But they grew up listening to Van Halen, and then got on the SST label, of all things! Life takes some funny turns, and sometimes raw talent can't be suppressed.

Rock and roll from the west side of things was always changing, and nothing if not eclectic. The skills and talent of the trio, and the elegant guitar stylings of Kurt, (Kurt is a phenomenal guitar player.) all created an album here that is unique and outstanding. If you never buy any other Meat Puppets album, this is the one to get. If you do get another, "Too High to Die" and "Up on the Sun" are the best, I think.

Side note: I was moved to see Kurt Cobain playing some of my favorite songs years later, when he invited the Pups onstage in the "Unplugged" album. really tickled. To me, Cobain couldn't touch the Meat Puppets' rendering, but it was a real nice job and gave me a new appreciation for him. Read more ›