Meat Puppets
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The Meat Puppets formed as a three-piece punk rock cover band in Scottsdale, Arizona in January 1980, originally calling themselves the Bastions Of Immaturity. The Kirkwood brothers, Curt and Cris, played guitar and bass, respectively, and Derrick Bostrom played drums. They started calling themselves the Meat Puppets in June, 1980, after a song by Curt of the same name.
Their early works (the In a Car ep and Meat Puppets I lp) were wholeheartedly punk, with unintelligible vocals and often sloppy musicianship. Their brand of cathartic, explosive hardcore attracted the attention of legendary punk label SST, who released their first record in 1982. Unsatisfied with the result, the band spent plenty of time in the studio before the release of 1983's "Meat Puppets II." The band's exciting experimentation with psychedelia, acid rock, and quieter tunes on top of a core western-style thrash sound, gave them their one acknowledged classic, and propelled the record to legendary status. The Meat Puppets burgeoning musicality led to more intricate and melodic songs on 1985's Up On the Sun, which drew on classic hard rock and granted them their first major mainstream exposure.
Over the next decade, the Meat Puppets remained on SST and released a series of albums, Out My Way (EP 1986), the psycedelic Mirage and power-trio Huevos (both 1987) through 1989's "Monsters" and then finally landing on a major label with 1991's "Forbidden Places." In 1994, the band found themselves suddenly popular when Nirvana's Kurt Cobain played "Plateau", "Oh Me" and "Lake of Fire" (all originally from Meat Puppets II) among other songs with Curt and Cris on MTV. The resulting album, "Nirvana Unplugged in New York," served as an unintentional swan-song for the band, as Cobain committed suicide shortly after the concert, and "Lake of Fire" became a cult favorite for its particularly wrenching vocal performance from Cobain. Subsequently, the Nirvana exposure and the strength of the single "Backwater" helped lift the Meat Puppets to new commercial hights with Too High To Die from 1994 which earned them their first gold record.
1995's No Joke! was the final album recorded by the original Meat Puppets lineup. Unfortunately, Cris Kirkwood had become well addicted to heroin at this point and although drugs had always been associated with the band, his erratic behavior soon became too much to cope with. Derrick recorded a solo EP under the monicker Today's Sounds in 1996, and later on in 1999 took charge of re-issuing the Puppets' original seven records on Rykodisc as well as putting out their first live album, Live in Montana. Curt formed a new band in Austin, TX called the Royal Neanderthal Orchestra, but they changed their name to Meat Puppets to release Golden Lies in 2000 and Live in 2002.
In December of 2003, Cris Kirkwood was arrested for attacking a security guard at a post office with the guard's baton. The guard shot Kirkwood during the melee. Kirkwood was subsequently denied bail, the judge citing Kirkwood's previous drug arrests and parole violations. In August 2004 he was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
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Discography
| Year | Title | Label |
| 1981 | In a Car (EP) | World Imitation |
| 1982 | Meat Puppets | SST Records |
| 1983 | Meat Puppets II | SST Records |
| 1985 | Up on the Sun | SST Records |
| 1986 | Out My Way (EP) | SST Records |
| 1987 | Mirage | SST Records |
| 1987 | Huevos | SST Records |
| 1989 | Monsters | SST Records |
| 1990 | No Strings Attached | SST Records |
| 1991 | Forbidden Places | London |
| 1994 | Too High to Die | London |
| 1995 | No Joke! | London |
| 1999 | Live in Montana | Rykodisc |
| 2000 | Golden Lies | Atlantic |
| 2002 | Live | DCN |
| 2004 | Classic Puppets | Rykodisc |
See also
References
- Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Meat Puppets (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB040404242252340190&sql=Blyd9kemt7q79)". All Music Guide. Retrieved June 13, 2005.
External links
- Meat Puppets official web site (http://www.meatpuppets.com/disco.htm)nl:The Meat Puppets