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.

Meat Puppets is probably my favourite band name of all time. Also (from http://thenotes.tumblr.com/post/103831878/meat-puppets-plateau-meat-puppets-ii-meat):

Meat Puppets, by the way. They are like one hell of a backwoodsy freak show. Leggy, fingerpicked chords dominate “Plateau,” with a country-funk bounce on the low end, for a creepy-crawler sound harking back to The Who’s (/Entwistle’s) “Boris The Spider.” Still, its killer denouement is the real selling point, an explosively saturated, resplendent and chiming snake of guitar effects that underscores the desert spareness of everything else. You’d want the melodic figure to have its own song, but then this song wouldn’t be this song. And now you know the value of control.

dudes
meat puppets are so so so classic
i was listening to sewn together last night and side a is pretty boss
when they came thru chi-town in the spring they pretty much fuckin ruled

the new stuff is more like curt's album snow than anything else
more country-ish, mellow like a man comfortable with himself not trying to prove anything. and cris is a fuckin blast! he was so approachable and drew this wicked picture on the album sleeve as i chatted him up. curt is much more reserved and quiet. definitely go see them they will play some early stuff, and at some point get way out there in some huge curt solo. so maybe take some drugs

Oh I'm so there. Sounds cool. I will be h1gh, don't fret.

I 'discovered' the Meat Puppets at the same time as Husker Du. When was it? '84/85.Back when 'punk' really was

I had a recording of my 94 year old grandma (then 70 ish) singing 'Lost on the Freeway' with my cousin and I at her gaff just after my grandad died I was on acoustic guitar and my grandma was on her casio keyboard.

We were trying to connect. With the deserts of Arizona from the fish docks of Hull, England. Spanning generations and the world.Us three managed it but nobody else heard. These days it would be on You Tube. Pure comedy cos I was probably been very serious trying to get those chords right

I was watching a DVD of the Meat Puppets the other night.'live in the 90s' or some other unimaginative title. Excellent stuff

Now where is that family affair tape?

best song they ever did? aurora borealis. an instrumental from ii. this is how heaven sounds like. desert heaven.

aurora borealis started playing in my head when i saw this thread. good call.

seal whales dudes seal whales . . .

but yea alive in the 90s is kinda precious if you're into the pups
i made a cassette some of the songs on there and the quality is all over the place. the part from john stewart's show is mad blown out, and then there's a thing from a record store that is like a whisper comparatively

Monsters was my first Pups record and it's not as terrible as people might think, it has these two lovely tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI-zD4Z5ZWk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYILrial4lQ

I just listened to Monsters the day before yesterday by coincidence. I recalled “TD King” and “Light” being the only highlights but there’s actually a bunch of good shit on there and the drums are nbd

xp "This video is not available"

can you name what the tracks are please?

'Light' and 'Like Being Alive'

for a yank curt plays the smoothest frippertronic licks this side of adrian belew

I’m waiting on the post to bring me ’90s SST pressings of Monsters and Mirage in the next few days. I like Monsters more than Forbidden Places tbh; it doesn’t sound as good but the songs are great and it feels leaner in a good way.

xps thanks!

I think I agree with you now xp re monsters v forbidden places. I certainly would not have a year ago.

I don’t blame them, I mean you’re on a major (kind of) so go big or go home, right? But it feels longer, even though it’s actually a few minutes shorter.

And “this day”, “whirlpool” and “open wide” do rule

I love "Whirlpool" so much. Kinda feels like it's a few floors higher on the "Creator" elevator, now running for free.

Agreed on “Whirlpool”, it’s like the essence of the band’s whimsical, mystical sides.

By the way, Pitchfork covered Meat Puppets II for their Sunday Review: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/meat-puppets-meat-puppets-ii/

(I did not know that story about Curt and the plane crash, or maybe I did and forgot it.)

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"