Meat Puppets S/D, C or D

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.

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.