Meat Puppets "Classic Puppets" 1981-1989(rec) 2004(comp)****

A couple of months ago, I saw the Meat Puppets live at the Paard van Troje club in The Hague. To be honest I hadn't quite followed their career for almost 30 years, and didn't know what to expect. I wasn't even aware they were still going strong. For me they were always an 80's band, despite their coming to prominence in the 90's after a guest spot on Nirvana's gazillion-selling MTV Unplugged. A worn-out cassette of Meat Puppets II and this CD comp of their early years is all I knew of them. Well, apparently they've got a new album out in 2019, it's called Dusty Notes and judging from what I heard at the Paard not much of a departure from their indie psych country days. On concert, one could hardly guess the band's roots in hardcore punk, except maybe from the gruff vocals and long feedback/noise conclusion of many songs. The country streak was more obvious, from the song structure to their mountain men appearance, beards and all. This compilation taking a chronological approach though, we're greeted with two short sharp bursts of hardcore noise: "Foreign Lawns" from their debut In A Car EP 1981 and "H-Elenore" from the Keats Rides A Harley compilation, both from 1981. These got them noticed and signed to California's SST Records, home to the likes of Black Flag, Minutemen and Hüsker Dü. From their first long player Meat Puppets (1982) we get "Blue Green God" and "Walking Boss" which show some progress in the former's supercharged guitars and, especially, the latter's espousing of country music. Meat Puppets II (1984) presents a leap forward for the band as well as American alternative rock in general. The band expertly mixes punk, hardcore and psychedelia to create a new genre. "Lost" is a jaunty cow-punk hybrid, "The Whistling Song" is REM-like indie with winsome whistling, "Lake Of Fire" a psychedelic sludgefest and "Plateau" a folk ballad - the latter two were covered by Nirvana in their Unplugged album. 1985's Up On The Sun continued the band's slow trek to (a kind of) mainstream. "Up on the Sun" and "Two Rivers" are sunny, mid-tempo, psychedelia with sluggish vocals replacing their former throat shredding style. "Swimming Ground" and "Enchanted Porkfist" are reminiscent of The Byrds' country rock, despite the latter's metallic guitar intro. From 1986's Out My Way EP we get 3 tracks, the almost funky title track with its scorching southern rock solo, cow-punk "On The Move" and a more or less straight country cover of Wayne Kemp's "Burn the Honky Tonk Down". Their next albums never quite reached the same heights, which is reflected in the amount of songs sampled for this collection. We get 2 tracks from 1987's Mirage: the Byrdsian country of "Confusion Fog" and indie folk of "Get On Down" with some great guitars solos proving the guys have something more in common with ZZ Top than just the beards. Another 2 tracks here come from Huevos (1987), the Long Ryders-style garage folk of "Look At the Rain" and mid tempo REM-style indie of "Sexy Music". We get nothing from their last album of the 80's (1989's Monsters), but there are two alternate versions of songs that appeared in it, indie mid tempo "Light" and an energetic live workout of "Meltdown" with fiery guitar licks. More rarities include a live cowpunk version of Woody Guthrie's "Dough Rey Mi", and a demo of indie rocker "Strings On Your Heart". The CD closes with an unreleased 1998 song by Curt Kirkwood's band, then going by the name of Meat Puppets but containing no other original members. Classic Puppets makes for a great introduction to the band's best period, as it contains essential tracks from all their 80's albums throwing in some rarities for the older fans. The chronological sequence also helps track their progress, even if it means starting off with some uncharacteristically extreme hardcore. But if you really wants to experience the band in its peak, and see why bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Dinosaur Jr, and Red Hot Chili Peppers consider them a major influence, you should seek out their their 2 best albums, Meat Puppets II and Up On The Sun.

***** for Lost, Plateau

**** for Lake of Fire, The Whistling Song, Up on the Sun, Swimming Ground, Enchanted Porkfist, Two Rivers, Out My Way, Get On Down, Look At the Rain, Sexy Music, Dough Rey Mi, Meltdown

*** for Walking Boss, On the Move, Burn the Honky Tonk Down, Confusion Fog, Light, Strings On Your Heart, New Leaf

** for Foreign Lawns, H-Elenore, Blue Green God,