About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2011)
Ill I I Mil I ^ rkwobd pauses at WI^ption: | What makes the new album by his band, \^the Meat Puppets, unique? "I don't know. That's a hard one," he finally says. "I don't think it's that unique." Refreshing honesty has always been a linchpin of what makes the Meat Puppets so compelling. Singer, guitarist and songwriter Curt formed the group in Phoenix, AZ in 1980 with brother and bassist Cris, and while they've gone from underground punk agitators to country-punk pioneers, from alternative rock big-timers to indie-rock royalty, they've always followed their own weirdo desert muse, ignoring—if not flat-out chafing at—trends and scenes alike. In the early '80s, Meat Puppets released albums for Black Flag's SST Records, debut ing with a psychotic tangle of shredding, borderline incomprehensible quasi-punk that ushered psychedelic freneticism into the realm of American hardcore. By their second album, Meat Puppets II, they were writing far more for-real sung-songs, albeit songs performed with a slack nonchalance. Or, as Kirkwood offers today with typical bluntness: "We were just pretty high at the time." He adds, "We were doing a lot of messing around with stuff, and that record came out the way that it did because of that, largely. It was sort of pre planned: let's get a bunch of X and go do this. It was way back before people really did that, and we thought it was a great idea. And we thought it came out great at the time, and the last thing we were concerned about was whether it was sloppy or not or anything like that. And in the long run, I definitely think it's hilarious. I don't have regrets. I didn't have a huge amount of respect for the songs or anything—I don't know that I still do—but I think I address things differently now." By beginning to push the ramshackle coun try side of their musical interests to the fore front, Meat Puppets were both acting strictly according to their eclectic taste and inten tionally jabbing the small-minded punk scene in the ribs. Kirkwood explains: "It's confron tational, in a way, towards anything, towards anybody that's listening. There's always a challenge with any art. Artists aren't trying to be pleasing generally right off the bat; they're trying to please themselves... We did different kinds of stuff, and it was to our benefit once we realized that there were a lot of closed- minded people in the hardcore scene. We liked punk rock, so we played some of that, and we played a lot of other stuff—we always did. Our first album was complete mayhem in the studio, as much as we could push ourselves. So, I think it was mistaken that we're gonna do that every time, and that we're some kind of punk rock band." Meat Puppets' proclivity for Grateful Dead-style jamming and genuine singing-not- - ^reaming was mellow to the point or being provocative to the slam-danring crowd, and the band found that by doing whatever they wanted, they could happily drive away the undesirables. "We're glad that we could play other stuff. It wasn't to piss them off, it was more like, 'Hey, if we play stuff they don't like, they'll leave and they won't come back next time.' We liked what we played; we weren't doing it just for that. I still like too much stuff." From there, the brothers Kirkwood kept apace for years, releasing a number of albums, plugging away, doing exactly what they wanted. By 1993, they'd gained a serious fan in Kurt Cobain, who invited Curt and Cris to join Nirvana in what would eventually be that band's first posthumous release, the MTV Unplugged in New York album. From there, the group springboarded into major label success, a hit single ("Backwater"), and Cris' exceed ingly tragic journey into drug addiction. Curt Kirkwood busied himself with solo projects and other bands—including Nirvana/Sublime/ Meat Puppets supergroup Eyes Adrift—until Cris got cleaned up and returned to the fold in 2006. Since then, the band has returned to form: plugging away, doing exactly what they want. They're three albums into their reunion as a band and as brothers. While from his perspective, Kirkwood's answer to the question posed earlier is frank, from an outsider's vantage point, there's plenty to recommend the album and its place in the band's overall arc. The production is tidy and the performances are unhurried, even while the drums hit with arena rock bigness; for longtime fans of the band, it's a stunningly clean leap away from the messy insanity of their 1982 self-titled debut. Unsurprisingly, though, there are threads holding the eras together through 30 years' worth of music. "I think it's kind of an amalgam that was recorded to sound sort of like it was from the same time," says Kirkwood. "The songs are all from different times. Stuff that I'd never recorded, like the first track, I think it was from '83. Just had it around, never recorded it, never made a demo of it, even." That old- made-new song, "Incomplete," has an almost Elvis Costello-esque charm to it, further prov ing that Meat Puppets always had unlikely cards in their deck; they just may have been holding their hands close to their chests. Jeff Tobias r \ WHO: Meat Puppets, Hayride WHERE: The Melting Point WHEN: Sunday, Sept. 25,8 p.m. HOW MUCH: $12 (adv.), $15 (door) \ J 10PM CLOSE Sjm 8PM CLOSE AIbBOTH LOCATIONS Ifi! MEHI DEUIUEB1! T 7l ino¥ T7R7 Lu JU UUSl JUULJ 2440 WEST BROAD ST. ■ (706) 208-7979 48S BALDWIN ST. - (706) S48 3442 WWW-BUHPMSTAVEBH 3* . <Sody f>iercin<) AMPLE PARKING AVAILABLE 10% OFF Tattoo or Body Piercing WWW.AMERICANCLASSICTATTOO.NET 1035a Baxter St. % 706-543-7628 ^ Upcoming Events: SAT-9/24- opening at 9am UGAat Ole Min - Kickoff 12:21 pm $3 BLOODY MARY BAR Serving BBQ, hot d0gs,| sausages and chips Watch the Braves on 4 big screen TVs., $1 High Life drafts during the games vs FL Marlins - Wed. 9/21 at 7:10 pm vs DC Nationals - Fri. 9/23 at 7:05 pm vs PA Phillies - Mon. 9/26 at 7:10 pm AY: MOVIE NIGHT Sept 20 at 8 pm Hall Pass $2 Tom Collins NOW SERVING: Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs Polish & Italian Sausages Miss Vickie’s Chips We have a dog-friendly, %% outdoor, covered patio^w with large screen TVs!** 254 W. Clayton Street Athens. GA 30601 • <M2 601 8560 SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 • FLAGPOLE.COM 13
