Line #65 Music/MeatPuppets


1	[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/meaties_549.jpg]]
2
3	Describe Meat Puppets here. Okay then, if you insist. [[GenreMashup This may be a little complicated though...]]
4
5	The Meat Puppets are an AlternativeRock and Cowpunk (a [[JustForFun/XMeetsY hybrid]] of PunkRock and CountryMusic, for those who couldn't guess from the name) band from Phoenix, UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}} who formed in TheEighties. First formed as a HardcorePunk band in 1980 by the Kirkwood brothers (Curt and Cris, on guitar and bass, respectively) and drummer Derrick Bostrom (this being regarded as the "classic" lineup), they were noticed by and quickly signed to the famed SST label, founded by Music/BlackFlag guitarist Gregg Ginn (and home to Music/BlackFlag, Music/DinosaurJr, Music/HuskerDu, Music/SaintVitus and numerous other well regarded AlternativeRock bands from the era). Their first EP and album were pretty typical (if somewhat noisier and less structured than usual) [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth hardcore stuff]] and kinda unrepresentative of the sound they'd become known for.
6
7	Sick of the loud fast rules of HardcorePunk, they changed up their sound [[NewSoundAlbum SIGNIFICANTLY]] for their next album, ''Meat Puppets II.'' Now heralded as a [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic classic,]] the record was well-received and set the tone for all their later albums. Throughout the rest of the decade, they released a string of records on SST that played with (but never completely abandoned) the sound they hit upon on ''II'', while also streamlining their production and either hardening (''Out My Way'', ''Huevos'', ''Monsters'') or softening (''Up On the Sun'', ''Mirage'') their overall sound. In 1989, after releasing ''Monsters'', they briefly broke up, but they re-formed in 1991 and signed to major label subsidiary London Records.
8
9	They achieved their highest level of commercial success in 1994, with the release of ''Too High To Die'', which contained the minor hit "Backwater". The biggest factor in their sudden (relative) success was Music/KurtCobain choosing to cover "Plateau", "Oh Me" and "Lake of Fire" (all from ''Meat Puppets II'') in Music/{{Nirvana}}'s Music/MTVUnpluggedInNewYork performance. This success didn't last though- The follow-up, ''No Joke!'', didn't sell nearly as well. The band's increased use of hard drugs and the failure of the album resulted in the band breaking up shortly afterwards.
10
11	The band reformed in 1999, with a new lineup composed of Curt, Kyle Ellison, Andrew Duplantis, and Shandon Sahm (incidentally, the son of Doug Sahm, the legendary Tex Mex fiddler/singer and leader of The Sir Douglas Quartet and Texas Tornados). This lineup relased ''Golden Lies'' in 2000 before breaking up ''again'' in 2002. In 2003 Cris was arrested for attacking a security guard with OWN baton. He went to prison for two years before being released. It looked like things were over for good after this...
12
13	In 2006, however, Curt asked fans on the band's Website/MySpace page if they were interested in having the classic lineup reform. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and rumors spread. The band proceeded to do just that, though original drummer Bostrom dropped out and his spot was filled by Ted Marcus. They released ''Rise To Your Knees'' in 2007. They have released three more albums since then, with the most recent being ''Rat Farm'' in 2013. As of 2009, Shandon Sahm is back as the drummer. In 2011, Curt's son Elmo joined the band as a rhythm guitarist on their tours.
14
15	----
16	Band members over time:
17	* Curt Kirkwood, guitar, vocals (1980-present)
18	* Cris Kirkwood, bass, vocals (1980-1996, 2006-
19	* Derrick Bostrom, drums (1980-1996, 2018-)
20	* Troy Meiss, guitar (1994, touring member only)
21	* Kyle Ellison, guitar, vocals (1999-2002)
22	* Andrew Duplantis, bass, vocals (1999-2002)
23	* Shandon Sahm, drums (1999-2002, 2009-2018)
24	* Ted Marcus, drums (2006-2009)
25	* Elmo Kirkwood, guitar (2011-present, touring member only from 2011-2018)
26	* Rob Stabinsky, keyboards (2017-present, touring member only in 2017)
27
28	Discography:
29	* ''In A Car EP'' (1981)
30	* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Meat Puppets]]'' (1982)
31	* ''[[NewSoundAlbum Meat Puppets II]]'' (1984)
32	* ''Up On the Sun'' (1985)
33	* ''Out My Way EP'' (1986) (later expanded to a full album when remastered)
34	* ''Mirage'' (1987)
35	* ''Huevos'' (1987) (busy year for them!)
36	* ''Monsters'' (1989)
37	* ''Forbidden Places'' (1991) (their first major label debut, now out of print, sadly)
38	* ''Too High To Die'' (1994) (their most successful album commercially)
39	* ''No Joke!'' (1995)
40	* ''Golden Lies'' (2000)
41	* ''Rise To Your Knees'' (2007)
42	* ''Sewn Together'' (2009)
43	* ''Lollipop'' (2011)
44	* ''Rat Farm'' (2013)
45	* ''Dusty Notes'' (2019)
46
47	----
48	Tropes that apply to The Meat Puppets:
49
50	* AlternativeRock: Cowpunk, Specifically. They're one of the key Alt-Rock bands of [[TheEighties the 80s]].
51	* UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}}: Where they're from. One of the very few relatively well-known bands to hail from there.
52	* BandOfRelatives: All but the ''Golden Lies'' era is a Type 1. The brothers Kirkwood made up 2/3 of the band in the original line up. For their current line up, they are joined by Curt's son Elmo, as a rhythm guitarist.
53	* CoverAlbum: The 2023 live compilation ''Camp Songs'' collects {{cover version}}s from between 1991 and 1995, largely focusing on folk and country material.
54	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first couple releases were noisy, chaotic HardcorePunk rather than the Cowpunk style they played later on.
55	** Derrick Bostrom wrote most of the lyrics for the original songs on ''Meat Puppets''- [[IndecipherableLyrics not that you could tell without looking them up]], but where Curt tends to go for evocative WordSaladLyrics, Derrick tended towards dry wit about what was happening around the band at the time: Many songs on the album are sarcastic {{Rock Star Song}}s of some sort, while "Blue Green God" is SelfDeprecation about the band being a bunch of broke [[TheStoner stoners]].
56	* FaceOnTheCover: ''Too High To Die'' has a picture of Curt Kirkwood on the cover, albeit a pink-tinted, overexposed photo where the top half of his face is deliberately obscured. Otherwise they've largely put artwork designed by Curt on their covers, rather than depictions of any members.
57	* GenreMashup: The 'Pups mix PunkRock, HardcorePunk, PsychedelicRock, CountryMusic, {{Funk}} and sometimes {{HeavyMetal}} into their sound.
58	* HardcorePunk: On their first EP and album only.
59	* HesBack: In 2017, Derrick Bostrom briefly rejoined the Meat Puppets when they were inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, making it the first time the original lineup had performed together in over 20 years. He would rejoin fully in 2018 after Shandon Sahm moved to Amsterdam.
60	** Sahm himself would count, as he returned to the band after Ted Marcus left in 2009.
61	* HiddenTrack: some editions of ''Too High To Die'' had a [[RearrangeTheSong rearranged]] version of "Lake Of Fire" hidden after silence at the end of the last track. Some copies had a sticker on the cover that ruined the surprise as a selling point, since {{Music/Nirvana}}'s cover of the song was popular around the same time. Digital versions of the album have the "Lake of Fire" remake as its own, listed track.
62	* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: The 'Pups actively sought this in their early days. Here's a [[http://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_drugs_that_fueled_the_meat_puppets_first_five_lps list]] of the various drugs they were on when they made their first five albums.
63	* IndecipherableLyrics: Prevalent in their early hardcore material - it seems [[Music/TheGerms Darby Crash]] was an influence on Curt Kirkwood's vocal style at the time.
64	* LighterAndSofter: ''Meat Puppets II'' saw them abandon their original hardcore sound. The next album, ''Up On The Sun'', downplayed their punk roots even further, in favor of a more folk/psychedelic sound.
65	* MotorMouth: "Popskull" and "Sam"
66	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Meat Puppets II'', all the way. They switched from Hardcore to Cowpunk and/or AlternativeRock. Most of their later albums are this as well, albeit to a lesser extent (they never really abandoned their signature sound, just played louder or softer variations of it).
67	** Though their style didn't totally change, ''Golden Lies'' notably has a few tracks where they flirted with RapRock - songs like "Take Off Your Clothes" had Curt experimenting with a rap-influenced, more rhythm-based vocal style. The genre hadn't really been touched upon before or since, which might have something to do with the fact that ''Golden Lies'' wasn't originally going to be a Meat Puppets album.
68	* NoTitle: ''In A Car'' was originally meant to be untitled, hence the front cover only having the band's name for text: Fans started referring to the EP by the name of its first song, in order to avoid confusion with the self-titled album. It caught on enough that it now appears in most discographies of the band under that title, and members of the band themselves have referred to it that way in interviews.
69	* PerishingAltRockVoice: The Kirkwood brothers both have this. "Lake of Fire" is a great example. Curt has said that while recording ''Up On The Sun'' he tried to avoid singing with emotion.
70	* PrematureEncapsulation: Five years after ''Golden Lies'', Curt Kirkwood included a song of that name on his solo album ''Snow''. It was later confirmed that the song was an outtake from the ''Golden Lies'' album that he had decided to revisit.
71	* PsychedelicRock: Definitely influenced by it, and some of their stuff basically qualifies. Partially responsible for making it hip for AlternativeRock bands to play it.
72	* ShoutOut: The title of ''Too High To Die'' was intended as a play on Music/TheRamones album ''Too Tough To Die''.
73	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Cris Kirkwood, usually a backing vocalist, sings lead on "Inflatable", with Curt harmonizing with him for the chorus.
74	* StylisticSuck: Curt Kirkwood's bizarre vocal style on the first record. A Sputnik reviewer once described it as "...an angry downs old fat redneck dude who is pissed that he pissed his draws". And that isn't even too big of an exaggeration.
75	* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: Their music was always pretty straightforward, though this is somewhat less true on later releases.
76	* UrExample: Arguably a precursor of the Alternative Country movement of the 90s, though some other Cowpunk bands (Beat Farmers, Long Ryders, Rank and File, Jason and the Scorchers) count as well in this case.
77	* WordSaladLyrics: They're evocative though, even if they don't always make sense. Just check out this example from ''Too High To Die'':
78	--> The horizon breaks to pieces\
79	And the mainline is the twilight\
80	And the giant net has a perfect window\
81	Passage through has the ticket screaming\
82	I want a mind, I'll tell you what I find\
83	No severed goddess hand, no plaster in my eye\
84	No picture of a lamb, no goddess hand have I

Context Music / MeatPuppets