After a long break The Meat Puppets dropped a new album a couple weeks ago which reminded me how much I liked "Meat Puppets II" back in the day.
I like "Dusty Notes" (2019) quite a bit. It's a reunion of the original members, Kirkwood brothers and drummer Derrick Bostrom, and does and doesn't sound like their past work in all the right ways.
Somehow I got it into my head to make a mix with Red Red Meat. I couldn't resist the title.
Turns out they go well together, both being dominated by guitar, and playing unique combinations of twisted Americana and punk rock, with Red Red Meat covering the blues, while The Meat Puppets traffic in country twang. At times they both resemble REM at their pre-MSG prime.
It plays kinda like an indie "Exile On Main Street" with quite a bit of territory explored and plenty of hooks. The two principal songwriters play well off one another, and their voices compliment in a virtual band-ish way. Here's the first two:
Red Red Meat material recorded between 1992-1997
I'm not a fan of the MTV era Meat Puppets after Kurt pulled them out of oblivion and onstage for Nirvana Unplugged. That attention caused them to disband.
By then there was only one original member.
The Meat Puppets material included here(1984-95, 2019) largely skips that period.
Red Red MEAT Puppets
Red Red Meat Puppets II
Enjoy!
-BBJ
6 comments:
while we wait ...
I'm digging the new Jenny Lewis. Sadder and sloppier than The Voyager (which I loved) and I think for good reason.
Hadn't connected the dots before ... her sound here reminds me of Aimee Mann.
I agree, BBJ, the high-powered boogie band that the Puppets became post-Mirage was disappointing. Have you checked out Curt Kirkwood's solo albums? Volcano gets back closer to their old variety while retaining the later production sheen, and Snow is more acoustic, sounding almost like Howe Gelb.
I hadn't checked a thing until "Dusty Notes" last week.
Thanks for this, BBJ! An undeservedly forgotten band from the Eighties indie underground. ‘Meat Puppets II’ and ‘Up on the Sun’ are strong, personal favorites. Thanks for the share! I suspect a deep dive into their discography this week.
Not sure if Derrick Bostrom lived up here in Fairbanks for a while during his childhood, or if his folks moved up here later on, but his parents Ed and Agnes were both patients of mine for quite a while before retiring and moving to a lakeside home in a more rural part of Alaska. I got a Meat Puppets t-shirt out of it!
This is a great mix, thanks very much, really enjoying it.
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