Meat puppets

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Meat puppets
Meat Puppets (2007)
Meat Puppets (2007)
General information
Genre (s) Punk rock , cow punk , post grunge , psychedelic rock
founding 1980, 1999, 2006
resolution 1996, 2002
Website http://www.themeatpuppets.com/
Founding members
Curt Kirkwood
Vocals, bass
Cris Kirkwood
Derrick Bostrom
Current occupation
Vocals, bass
 Curt Kirkwood
Vocals, guitar
 Cris Kirkwood
Drums
 Derrick Bostrom
Ron Stabinsky

Meat Puppets are a rock band from Phoenix , Arizona , USA .

Band history

Curt Kirkwood (2006)

Beginnings (1980–1982)

The band was founded by the brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood and Derrick Bostrom; At first they only played cover versions together , including The Damned . When Bostrom mentioned to David Wiley of The Consumers that he was playing in a band but had only played covers so far, Wiley replied that he should write his own pieces and then send him a cassette; maybe he could get Bostrom to perform in Los Angeles. A few days later, Bostrom brought this up to Cris Kirkwood; During their experiments, the pieces Neutral , Rodeo and Fetus in Pus Sauce emerged , which were played at rehearsals, but the band was not enthusiastic about them; In a Car followed them , after which the band found it easier to write their own songs. From the song Meat Puppets , which never had a fixed lyrics, the band derived their name on Bostrom's suggestion.

Except for private parties, there were no opportunities for punk bands to perform in Phoenix. The band spent most of their time with Darrell, a friend who had their own studio, and made their first recordings. By the time she found the opportunity to perform at a club in Tucson, there were enough Meat Puppets pieces for a demo recording . When a concert goer threw a beer bottle through Bostrom's bass drum , the band had to end the concert with ten minutes of improvised noise. A few days later, Wiley Bostrom called and offered him the opportunity to play at a party after a concert by his own band Human Hands at the Star System club in Phoenix. Shortly afterwards, Wiley also organized a Meat Puppets appearance on the west coast in support of Mentors and 45 Grave .

With the end of the Star System, Phoenix punks lost their only regular abode. After Bostrom's mother got divorced and his family moved to a quieter area, the band also lost their rehearsal room. She tried to rehearse with the mother of the Kirkwood brothers, but she was against it. A friend of the band offered the opportunity to rehearse in his basement.

Meanwhile, the band could occasionally perform in Los Angeles with Monitor or Human Hands. There the musicians met Boyd Rice , among others , who was making noise under the name NON and berating the audience. At the expense of the band Monitor, the first Meat Puppets EP was recorded and published by Monitor; the pieces were created in a studio in Silver Lake with the sound engineer Ed Barger, who had recorded Devo's first singles. Five own songs and the monitor cover Hair were recorded. In addition to the first 1000 copies, there were two reprints of 500 each.

In Phoenix there were still only short-term appearances: The Solid Gold, a former cinema, lasted less than three months, and the gay bar Mardi Gras burned down after a few weeks.

Bostrom was contacted months later by Joe Carducci, whom he met on a trip to San Francisco and who ran Thermidor with Jon Boshard. Thermidor was interested in releasing a Meat Puppets album, but Carducci moved to Los Angeles to work for SST Records ; the album would be funded by Thermidor and released and distributed through SST under license and Carducci would take care of the promotion. In November the band recorded the album with Black Flags sound engineer SPOT. After recording fourteen tracks, the band left Laurie, an acquaintance, in charge of the mix and traveled back to Phoenix; a decision the band would later regret.

First success (1982-1993)

Greg Ginn , lead guitarist of Black Flag and also head of SST Records, heard this record and offered the band a contract with SST. In 1982 the Puppets released their debut album of the same name, which continued the experimental side of the band. Until their second album, Meat Puppets II , the band hadn't developed their musical voice any further. But on Meat Puppets II , released in 1984, the combo presented an unprecedented mix of punk and country. With the second album and the associated hard touring, the Puppets established a huge cult around their music and their style. This cult would last a whole decade. After the release, the band opened for Black Flag on the tour for the album My War . In 1985 the band released their third album Up on the Sun , which this time earned them the first reviews in various magazines. This album also proved that the Puppets kept rationalizing. They moved more towards blues rock , country rock and psychedelic rock . This movement towards conventional hard rock continued into the late 1980s. The old rough punk roots disappeared more and more.

After the EP Out My Way was released in 1986, the Puppets released two critically acclaimed albums - Mirage and Huevos . Both came out in 1987. With Mirage , the puppets established themselves as college rock icons. At the same time they also became well-known attractions of the American underground scene. Monsters , the last album for SST, was released in 1989 and revealed the further musical path of the band in the 1990s. The clear and at times shallow sound did not go down well with hardcore fans and the album was otherwise more college rock.

Major label career and break (1991–1996)

Due to the rather poor success of Monsters , the Meat Puppets broke up for a short time. In 1991 they reformed and signed a contract with the major label London Records . Before they could make their debut for London, SST released the compilation No Strings Attached in 1990 . A year later, in 1991, her major debut, Forbidden Places, came out . This album was neither a commercial nor an underground hit.

For the next two years it was more or less quiet around the band. They only played concerts occasionally. Then in 1993 they toured with Nirvana on their in-utero tour as their opening act; towards the end of the tour, the Kirkwood brothers took part in Nirvana's cover versions of three pieces of the Meat Puppets album Meat Puppets II for the album MTV Unplugged in New York . The group became known to millions of young people and was signed by a major label in the wake of the grunge wave . In 1994 the hit album Too High to Die was released , which brought the band a gold record and the single Backwater was also very successful. While this phase can be seen as the climax of her career, Cris Kirkwood bottomed out and his heroin addiction culminated in a number of incidents, including the death of his wife Michelle Tardif from an overdose. This led him to distance himself from his brother and the band. In Curt Kirkwood's opinion, it was less commercial success than the suicide of Nirvana's singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain that caused the band to cease operations.

Separate years and reunification (from 1996)

Shaped by this setback, the band members initially went their separate ways after 1996, but without officially parting. Derrick Bostrom recorded a one-time EP for the Amarillo label under the name Today's Sounds, which consisted of pop covers. He later took a job at a multimedia company, overlooking the Puppets' new website and Ryko's re-releases. Unfortunately, Cris Kirkwood was no longer doing so well. With the rise in money and fame during the No Joke! Recordings, his drug problem grew too. In addition, he married Michelle Tardif, who was also a drug addict, and the vicious circle seemed almost impossible to cope with. The tragedy reached its climax when the Kirkwood mother died in December 1996 and then later Tardif died of an overdose in August 1998. For a short time, Cris disappeared from the scene, but later managed to withdraw. In the meantime, London Records was swallowed up by Universal through a mega deal. But the puppets didn't seem to notice.

1999 Meat Puppets was briefly reunited and brought 2000 Golden Lies . In 2002, however, the band broke up again.

In 2003, Cris Kirkwood was shot and arrested by a security guard in a post office, while Curt moved to Austin, Texas and formed a new Meat Puppets line-up. After Cris Kirkwood's release, the Kirkwood brothers were reunited in 2006 for the album Rise to Your Knees , and the band opened for Sonic Youth ; Derrick Bostrom was also contacted for this reunion, but did not want to return to the band and was replaced by Ted Marcus on drums, who had been a Meat Puppets fanatic since school. Curt Kirkwood saw the priority in releasing a new Meat Puppets album and said that if necessary he would have done everything himself. In 2009 they released the album Sewn Together .

Meaning and style

Of all the bands that made SST Records the driving force of the American underground scene in the 1980s, the Meat Puppets are the one that survived the longest. In contrast, other big bands of the era are long history. However, the Meat Puppets never had the attention or fame of other SST bands like Hüsker Dü or Minutemen .

The Meat Puppets have always set themselves apart from conventional rock or punk. They brought some elements of blues rock from ZZ Top , folk rock from Grateful Dead, and hard and folk rock from Neil Young into their music. Over time the band and with it their sound grew up. Originally they were still punk rock , but over time the style has changed and the band got closer and closer to classic hard rock and mainstream music of the 90s, although they never completely strayed from their roots . In addition, influences from different genres such as blues , psychedelic rock and country are included. The second album Meat Puppets II is considered the beginning of cow punk . Contrary to the assumption of some journalists, drugs did not play a role in the composition of the early works, although some albums were recorded under the influence of drugs. Cris Kirkwood, who was a drug addict, called the drugs "icing on the musical cake".

When asked about the band's message, Curt Kirkwood replied that there never was.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Too high to die
  US 62 06/04/1994 (27 weeks)
No Joke!
  US 183 10/21/1995 (1 week)
Singles
Backwater
  US 47 06/11/1994 (20 weeks)

Albums

  • Meat Puppets I (1982)
  • Meat Puppets II (1983)
  • Up on the Sun (1985)
  • Mirage (1987)
  • Huevos (1987)
  • Monsters (1989)
  • Forbidden Places (1991)
  • Too High to Die (1994)
  • No Joke! (1995)
  • Live in Montana (1999)
  • Golden Lies (2000)
  • Rise to Your Knees (2007)
  • Sewn Together (2009)
  • Lollipop (2011)
  • Council Farm (2013)
  • Dusty Notes (2019)

Compilations

  • No Strings Attached , SST, 1990
  • Classic Puppets , Rykodisc, 2004
  • SPIN Presents Newermind: A Tribute Album , SPIN, 2011

Singles and EPs

  • In a car . SST, 1981
  • Out My Way , Rykodisc, 1986
  • Backwater , London, 1993
  • Raw Meat [10 Ep] , London, 1994
  • Tender Cuts from the Meat Puppets , London, 1994
  • You Love Me , London, 1999

DVDs and videos

  • Alive in the Nineties , Cornerstone Ras, 2003

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Meat Puppets .
  2. ↑ a b c Tom Koenig: Get Up Off the Floor: The Meat Puppets Come Back from the Grave .
  3. ↑ Slug: The Meat Puppets: Too High To Do An Interview ( Memento from January 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ a b Derrick Bostrom: The First Year ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / derrickbostrom.com
  5. ↑ a b c d Derrick Bostrom: The Second Year  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / derrickbostrom.com  
  6. ↑ a b c d e bio ( Memento from August 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ).
  7. ↑ a b Chart sources: US

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