Artist: Meat Puppets
Genre(s):
Other
Discography:
Golden Lies
Year: 2000
Tracks: 14
No Joke!
Year: 1995
Tracks: 13
Too High To Die
Year: 1994
Tracks: 14
No Strings Attached
Year: 1990
Tracks: 24
Out of all of the bands that made SST Records a eminent military group in the American underground during the mid-'80s, the Meat Puppets lasted the longest, surviving where other bands fell aside. The Meat Puppets never had the dedicated following of Hüsker Dü or the Minutemen -- two dude SST bands world Health Organization played the same racing circuit as the Puppets -- merely they were able to carve out a long calling where other hard-core bands could non, because they ever drew from conventional heavy rock as well as punk. Not only did they play hard, forte, and fast, but they also had elements of the blues-rock of ZZ Top, the ambling folk-rock of the Grateful Dead, and Neil Young's country-rock and hard rock. As they grew old, the isthmus matured musically, developing an accomplished instrumental proficiency and moving closer to the traditional hard stone that was always underneath their punk. But they never quite abandoned their punk rocker roots, even when they shortly stone-broke into the mainstream in the former '90s.
The core of the Meat Puppets was Curt (guitar; born January 10, 1959) and Cris Kirkwood (bass; born October 22, 1960), a pair of brothers born and raised in Phoenix, AZ. As teenagers, the Kirkwoods played in local stone & roll bands, in the first place playing mainstream rock and hard careen. After graduating from a Jesuit preparation school, the brothers formed the Meat Puppets in 1980 with drummer Derrick Bostrom. Unlike the Kirkwoods' in the first place bands, the Meat Puppets were immediately elysian by punk rock; they were so committed to keeping the music toughie that they refused to rehearse.
A small over a year later on their organization, the Meat Puppets released their beginning EP, In a Car, on World Imitation. At this point in their life history, the set was at its noisiest, performing tempestuous hardcore with avant-garde leanings. Greg Ginn, the lead guitar player for Black Flag and the forefront of SST Records, heard the platter and offered the Meat Puppets a get with SST. In 1982, the dance orchestra released their uncut eponymous debut album on SST, which continued in the experimental vein of their EP.
The Meat Puppets didn't produce their possess distinctive voice until their instant record album, Kernel Puppets II, which was released in 1984. On Meat Puppets II, the dance orchestra created a unification of punk and country that sounded unlike anything else in the American underground. With their irregular album and changeless touring, the Meat Puppets began to work a dedicated cult undermentioned across the U.S. that continued to get throughout the repose of the tenner. In 1985, the group released their third album, Up on the Sun, which earned them their first reviews in mainstream music publications. Up on the Sun also demonstrated that the set was beginning to streamline their sound, moving closer to traditional blues-rock, country-rock, and psychedelia. This shift toward conventional hard stone continued end-to-end the late '80s, as the band bit by bit sanded away their rougher, punk edges.
After cathartic an EP called KO'd My Way in 1986, the Meat Puppets released deuce critically acclaimed albums -- Mirage and Huevos -- in 1987. By the release of Mirage, the Meat Puppets had established themselves as college radiocommunication stars, as advantageously as popular attractions on the American underground electric circuit. Monsters, their concluding record album for SST Records, was released in 1989 and its heavy stone attack foreshadowed the feeler the dance band would embrace in the following decade. The straight sound of Monsters wasn't greeted favorably by the band's cult next, and the record stiffed on college radio.
Following the sapless reception of Monsters, the Meat Puppets skint up. In 1991, they re-formed and sign a major-label deal with London Records. Before they recorded their first album for London, SST issued the compilation No Strings Attached in 1990. The following year, Forbidden Places, the group's major-label debut, appeared in the stores. Forbidden Places was neither a commercial nor underground success.
For two geezerhood subsequently the release of Taboo Places, the Meat Puppets were relatively muted, playing a couple of gigs every once in a while. In 1993, they re-emerged as an opening act on Nirvana's In Utero tour. Toward the goal of the circuit, Nirvana taped an appearance for MTV Unplugged, during which they covered three songs from Meat Puppets II with the Meat Puppets themselves. The exposure on MTV Unplugged helped go under the level for the commercial breakthrough of the band's instant major-label record album, 1994's Excessively High to Die. Released round the same clock time as MTV Unplugged originally airy, Excessively High to Die didn't gather very much attention at offset, only afterward Kurt Cobain's suicide in April, the record and its first single, "Backwater," began to move. This was due to radio's acceptance of "Backwater," but likewise to MTV's invariant airings of Nirvana's MTV Unplugged. By the summer of 1994, "Backwater" was a genuine hit, climb to number two on the album rock charts and simply missing the down Top 40. None of the other singles from Excessively High to Die performed rather as intimately, only the album was a success, becoming the group's first base to go gold. The Meat Puppets released No Joke!, their followup to Too High to Die, in the fall of 1995. However, this record album received average reviews and small airplay, and disappeared from the charts and radio a few months after its tone ending.
Following this blow, the Pups effectively went on hiatus. Derrick Bostrom recorded a one-off EP of goofy, treacly pop covers for the Amarillo tag in 1996 under the name Today's Sounds; he afterward took a job with a multimedia fellowship, besides overseeing both the band's internet site and Rykodisc's 1999 Meat Puppets reissue hunting expedition. Cris Kirkwood, alas, did non menu so well. With the influx of fame and cash, his drug job had worsened during the No Joke! sessions, and in 1995, he matrimonial Michelle Tardif, whose own addictions and run-ins with the law sent things helical kO'd of control. Tragedy smitten in December 1996, when the Kirkwoods' mother died, and over again in August 1998 when Tardif died of a dose o.d.. After virtually disappearing for a unretentive clock time, Cris began to variety out his addictions in rehab programs, and his attendant legal problems in homage. Meanwhile, the band's tag, London Records, was swallowed up by Universal in a corporate mega-merger.
An overloaded Curt Kirkwood had already resettled to Austin, TX, prior to Tardif's death; in that respect he formed a modern outfit dubbed the Royal Neanderthal Orchestra with ex-Pariah members Kyle Ellison (guitar) and Shandon Sahm (drums; too the word of Doug Sahm), plus former Bob Mould bassist Andrew DuPlantis. Eventually, this group took over the Meat Puppets name (although neither Bostrom nor Cris Kirkwood was always officially removed from the batting order). Curt secured a firing from his prior sign and signed with Breaking, an Atlantic foot soldier. Halcyon Lies, the Meat Puppets' first-class honours degree new album in five-spot old age, was released in the come of 2000. Seven long time later, subsequently a drawn-out struggle with substance abuse, Cris Kirkwood reunited with brother Curt and new drummer Ted Marcus for the Anodyne firing Grow to Your Knees.
Bryan Cox
