Meat Puppets (album)

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Meat Puppets
Meat Puppets 1982.JPG
Studio album by
Meat Puppets
Released1982
RecordedNovember 1981
StudioUnicorn Studios, Hollywood, California
Genre
Length21:29
Label SST (009)
Meat Puppets chronology
In a Car (EP)
(1981)		Meat Puppets
(1982)		 Meat Puppets II
(1984)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Robert Christgau B [3]
The Wire (Favorable) [4]

Meat Puppets is the debut studio album by American rock band the Meat Puppets, released in 1982 through SST Records.

Contents

The 1999 Rykodisc reissue features the entire In a Car EP as well as 13 other bonus tracks, many of them studio jams or outtakes, and a video clip of the band performing "Walking Boss" live. The booklet also has liner notes by Gregg Turkington and recording notes by drummer Derrick Bostrom.

In the 2012 book, Too High to Die: Meet the Meat Puppets by Greg Prato, an entire chapter is dedicated to Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil explaining why Meat Puppets is one of his favorite all-time albums. [5]

Background and recording

The album was recorded in three to four days. There are very few overdubs on the album, and many of the tracks are first takes. [6] Like other early SST albums the sound quality is rather spotty; there is noticeable fuzz in the background of the music. The band opted for this because they felt more comfortable recording live with only a few microphones rather than employing conventional studio separation techniques. In 1999, Curt Kirkwood stated, "The first [album] was our LSD record. We were three days in the studio, and we tripped the whole time. And it was really cool, and really trying, too, because we went insane." [7] The original pressing of the 12" album is engineered to be played back at 45 rpm.

Style

Unlike the band's later releases, Meat Puppets features a hardcore punk sound. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called Meat Puppets a "full-on punk record". [8]

Track listing

All songs written by Meat Puppets, unless otherwise noted.

Original album

  1. "Reward" – 1:11
  2. "Love Offering" – 1:28
  3. "Blue-Green God" – 1:22
  4. "Walking Boss" (Doc Watson) – 2:52
  5. "Melons Rising" – 0:53
  6. "Saturday Morning" – 1:30
  7. "Our Friends" – 2:11
  8. "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" (Bob Nolan) – 2:02
  9. "Milo, Sorghum, and Maize" – 2:15
  10. "Meat Puppets" – 1:38
  11. "Playing Dead" – 1:28
  12. "Litterbox" – 0:50
  13. "Electromud" – 0:47
  14. "The Gold Mine" – 1:02

1999 CD bonus tracks

  1. "In a Car" - 1:21
  2. "Big House" - 1:07
  3. "Dolphin Field" - 1:09
  4. "Out in the Gardener" - 1:04
  5. "Foreign Lawns" - 0:37
  6. "Meat Puppets" - 1:33
  7. "Everybody's Talking" (Fred Neil) - 2:42
  8. "H-Elenore" (Curt Kirkwood) - 1:39
  9. "Hair" (Monitor) - 1:26
  10. "I Got a Right" (Iggy Pop) - 2:40
  11. "I Am a Child" (Neil Young) - 2:14
  12. "Franklin's Tower" (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter, Bill Kreutzmann) - 4:52
  13. "Milo Sorghum & Maize" - 1:32
  14. "Electromud" - 0:45
  15. "Love Offering" - 1:03
  16. "Saturday Morning" - 1:11
  17. "Magic Toy Missing" (Curt Kirkwood) - 1:28
  18. "Unpleasant" (Curt Kirkwood, Derrick Bostrom) - 1:02

Recording

All the songs on the original album are recorded in November 1981. Engineered by SPOT at Unicorn Studio 24 November 1981. Mixed by SPOT at Music Lab 10 May 1982 except "The Gold Mine" mixed by Laurie O'Connell & Ed Barger.

Personnel

Meat Puppets

with:

Production and other credits

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References

  1. ↑ Pitchfork Staff (September 10, 2018). "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s". Pitchfork . Retrieved April 24, 2023. ...Meat Puppets' self-titled debut—a bristly fusion of hardcore thrash and Beefheart weirdness...
  2. ↑ Allmusic review
  3. ↑ Robert Christgau review
  4. ↑ The Wire review
  5. ↑ Greg Prato (2012). Too High to Die: Meet the Meat Puppets. Greg Prato Writer Corp. ISBN   9781105640537.
  6. ↑ Earles, Andrew (September 15, 2014). Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996. Yoyageur Press. p. 188. ISBN   9780760346488.
  7. ↑ "Lake of Fire: Meat Puppets rise to their knees". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
  8. ↑ "Meat Puppets Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & Mor..." AllMusic. Retrieved 2024-10-13.
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