Customer Reviews

Meat Puppets

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As far as I understand, the Meat Puppets never considered themselves a punk band, but just kind of let themselves be carried along, no pretense otherwise, but no real intention, by whatever they felt inside, whatever they liked and whatever resonated with them that was around them. Thus the Meat Puppets could be these insane monsters on this first ep and lp (and bonus early recordings) and then easily move on to being 'stoner country' (or something) and kind of funky, finger picking and dreamy, and 'college rock' (or something), and whatever else later in their 'career'.

So this is kind of punk, kind of hardcore punk even, but also not exactly, the categories being too limiting and pinning down unrealistically, and that fact also corresponds to the general feel of 'go with the flow, strip yourself bare, and let rip shamelessly' that permeates this release.

Never mind that 2 of the songs here (from their first lp, which makes up the first 14 tracks) are country oldies, even a traditional ('Tumblin' Tumbleweeds' & 'Walkin' Boss'), or that in the later, bonus, part of this CD (demos & live, by the sounds of it) there are covers of songs by the Grateful Dead, Neil Young & Harry Nilsson (and is the cover 'Hair' from the musical of that name? I don't know, but could that demented song really have come from there?); oh, and there's also a great cover of Iggy & the Stooges' 'I got a right' (it's just a great song anyway, and that demented meat puppet thing is just another nice context for it); but then that IS a punk classic.

I guess that was a major asset of most SST bands, and the culture of SST: just freely open to whatever influence, regardless of fashion, and a spirit of freedom and openness, and an enjoyment of the whole spectrum of living; dirt and human darkness, stupidity and childishness included.

But doesn't it just SOUND like 'let's just do what we want', even that no-one suggested it; they just lumbered onto stages and into practice areas with sunstroke from their native Arizona desert and it just kind of happened like that? Playing on the wrestling-ring stage of the Madison Square Gardens club in Phoenix (see cover of compilation 'this is Phoenix, not the Circle Jerks), in that heat, in that condition, with all those other crazy bands, and all that punk rock too, was just bound to rub off on them like that; or maybe they rubbed off on others.

Generally on this disc Curt Kirkwood (guitar, vocals) sounds like he's swaying about, sleepy, in a stupor, dribbling, losing the words, and occasionally lashing out at whoever may be there or who he imagines may be there, with bared teeth and long sharp, monster claws (strange that he looks and sounds so angelic in later pics and on later releases). His guitar is generally not punk rock barre chords, but crazy, loose, overdriving, (distantly) country-influenced licks on very metallic strings, to a frantic-and-free bass and drum backing.

So, besides the covers, we end up with mid-tempo to fast, crazy, wobbly, drivelling and raving, insane songs, a few hyper-intense, guitar feeding back already as it's plugged in, breakneck speed, wacko thrash songs (like 'Melons Rising', 'Electromud', 'The Goldmine', 'Dolphin Field' and 'Foreign Lawns'), and then, from their first ep (an orginal, World Imitation Records edition of which I am fortunate enough to still possess), two classics of extra-special loony beauty : 'Big House', which somehow simplifies it all and strips it down to to a twangy and silly version of all the above, and then the utterly brilliant 'Out in the Gardener', which is just a hypnotic bouncy puttering of bass and drums, with a wacky but almost sublime thin twang of some crazed and sleepy stoner cowboy.

I remember listening to this album in the record store, in 1982, and taking a while to decide to buy it, thinking I might find it unlistenable after a while, and the only person I ever seriously discussed the album with said as much: that it was unlistenable junk. Junk it is; inspired, transcendent, beautiful, godly junk.

This album is the infinite golden bliss of a Buddhist Monk's elightened inwardness fused and melted at heart-of-the-sun temperatures with a drunk fool's rabid primal scream.

'We played for you and you did not dance, we wailed and you did not listen, and John came neither eating or drinking, and you said he is possessed by a demon.'

As with Flipper's classic trainwreck "Generic Flipper", "Meat Puppets" elicits a type of knee-jerk reaction along the lines of "What the hell were these guys thinking?!". After a few listens, however, the album reveals a level of depth, creativity, and humor that few of the Puppet's contemporaries could ever dream of approaching.

This isn't the militant, humorless, paint-by-numbers hardcore being churned out by the majority of bands at this time. Rather, it's a hallucinogenic blur of blazing drum beats, brilliantly sloppy guitars, and manic, unintelligible vocals.

If "Meat Puppets" had been recorded during his lifetime, it probably would have been Salvidor Dali's favorite record.

And then you were left checking the two CDs to see if they were made by the same band. It is hard to believe the many different sounds that came from one truly weird band. Sometimes they were punk, sometimes pop, sometimes country, sometimes noise, often times insane. Well, God bless them, they really put out some great albums, but this really is not one of them. This is kind of avant garde crazy noise.

BWAAA! JEKOLIMONYFHTPTHHTTPPTHHH....ZAKASOWERYU TIUN Y HUIY BWAAAAAAHHHHHPPPPHH!
There's your prize for buying this little stinker. Completely incoherent jizzmajazz set to fast and squirrely music. The music's great. The vocals twist and squirm through mazes of mush. Make your own soundtrack! You get to decide what the hell's going on with the lyrics.
Besides that, Meat Puppets struck a reverberating originality chord here. Get your friend to buy it first and then laugh and enjoy it together.

This is considered to be a masterpiece by a small group of record snob hipsters. It will even tell you so in the liner notes of the re-issue. Fact of the matter is it's horrible. The Meat Puppets NEVER played these songs live after they recorded their next album because......that's right, it's horrible. The lyrics(which you'll have to read because you can't understand them) are nonsense. They didn't move on to a new style because they couldn't top this album like some people will tell you, they moved on because they started making much, much better music.

Beautiful guitar work and crazy unintelligible vocals. You really have to be in the mood for this one (or just put it on to chase away the uninitiated). It's not really "hardcore," it actually sounds a lot like Meat Puppets II except for the vocals. My theory is Curt Kirkwood was trying to disguise the fact that he can't sing. On Meat Puppets II he just accepts it, and the result is a masterpiece.

Although I'm not sure rock history will consider this disc to be a "seriously good" record by the group (everyone champions II and Up On The Sun, although I might love Huevos even more), if you are a musical adventurer, this record belongs in your collection. These days the world needs more of this kind of music - with balls & a sense of humor!

Recently I saw the reformed Meat Puppets play live and shouted out requests for some early covers from In A Car ("PLAY DOLPHIN FIELD!!!"), and Cris Kirkwood jaw dropped open in befuddled shock, as though he was truly suprised anyone would want to hear his early music. Cris dude, the world NEEDS music like this! How I miss the whimisical crazy & unpredictable nature the band had in this early era (hunt down the many bootlegs of their early shows, especially the 1981 live at the Mardi Gras club).

After the above show I was inspired to compile my personal "meat puppets history" detailing how I heard of them and got into them. Here are my Meat Puppets I entries, which may provide some insight into what is good and challenging about this CD and give you some idea what to expect...

FROM APPLE-O's MEAT PUPPETS DIARY 1988-2009:
* September, 1989[not sure of exact date but sometime around here] - Get a really really lo fi copy of Meat Puppets I. I listen to it once, and don't like it. It neither has the hilariously out of control thrash of In A Car or the weirdness of "Out in the gardener" or the eclectic melodic approach of II. It seems more of an awkward adolescence between the two. The 2nd time I listen to it, I achieve some kind of breakthrough, and experience a moment of musical nirvana on one song. The 3rd time I listen to it, I fail to repeat the experience of the 2nd listening. I don't listen to this album more than one other time for another 10 years[4] but eventually end up loving it

* 1999 - Meat Puppets I marathon (listen to the album for 2 weeks straight!)

[4] in 1999 when the reissue CDs come out, the 1st one I get is Meat Puppets I, which stays in my CD player / tape player for something like 2 weeks straight. To this day I love that album hell yeah (and the outtakes CD too, that bostrom put up online[a] )

[a] that's right, there exists a great collection of out-takes from the studio sessions for this album, with liner notes too (thank you Derrick Bostrom!) Go hunt it down if you like Meat Puppets I / In A Car and want more.

The extra tracks on this CD are great too, a standout being the off-kilter demo of "meat puppets" that sounds like Curt Kirkwood recorded using some cheap cassette tape overdubbing. I would love to hear a whole album of that stuff.

In sum, if you don't have this CD already, get it, and drink and be merry.

Apple-O 10/3/09

This is nothing like the band that brought us Up On The Sun or Too High To Die, and there's only the slightest tantalizing hints of the country-punk of Meat Puppets II (there are a couple of country covers, plus "Milo, Sorghum and Maize" is a little like one of the Meat Puppets II instrumentals, except with a wasted Greg Ginn on lead guitar). Nominally, it's a "hardcore" album, but a darn strange one: the riffs feature some pretty screwy note combinations (often made even screwier by the fact that Curt Kirkwood frequently starts playing his own guitar lines completely wrong after a few repetitions), Curt Kirkwood shrieks, gibbers, and mumbles unintelligibly like a cross between Darby Crash and a muppet, and often Derrick Bostrom's tight drumming is the only thing keeping any given song from being complete arrhythmic cacophony. There's something of an oddball charm to it all though.

The first time I heard this album, it was quite reminiscent of the first time I heard the Dead Kennedy's In God We Trust Album when a friend of mine tried 33 RPM and 45 RPM since it just didn't sound quite right. This album IS punk rock at its raw unnerving and disturbing fiery passion. This Meat Puppet's album just simply continued to grow and grow on me. I originally put it on one side of a 60 minute cassette (am I dating myself or what?!?) with the Suicidal Tendencies first album on the other side. This tape played over and over in our tissue culture area of our research laboratory at UCLA. This is how I kept my sanity listening to these albums. Even the polished Institutionalized was an eternal favorite, the Meat Puppets album became the timeless classic of pure raw punk beauty. Every track of this album stands alone. Buy it and you will not regret it. And beware, it is not for the squeamish.

This cd is a great catalog of the early, more hardcore, works of the Alt/Country pioneers, the Meat Puppets. The tracks from the actual Meat Puppets LP are completely out of control. The dissonant and bizarre guitar style of Kurt Kirkwood is the standout sound. The manic drums plus the production work of SPOT make these tracks have a sound like early Husker Du, while the puppets songwriting keeps things fresh. Standout tracks include "Electromud", "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds", and "Blue-Green God". The bonus tracks are also great, including the seminal "In a Car" 7 in. EP, demo versions of songs on the LP, a sick-nasty cover of the Stooges' "I Got a Right", and a haunting version of "Everybody's Talking".

All in all, raw, powerful, trippy, still light years ahead of what hardcore-punkers are up to. Buy this. NOW!