| Meat Puppets II | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1984 | |||
| Studio | Total Access, Redondo Beach, California | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 29:57 (original) 48:01 (reissue) | |||
| Label | SST (019) | |||
| Meat Puppets chronology | ||||
| ||||
Meat Puppets II is the second album by the Phoenix, Arizona, band the Meat Puppets, released in 1984 by SST Records.
The album artwork was created by Curt Kirkwood and Neal Holliday. [5]
Rykodisc reissued the album in 1999 with extra tracks and B-sides, including a cover of the Rolling Stones's Aftermath -era track "What To Do."
Music journalist Andrew Earles described the album as a "country-roots-punk-hardcore album" and noted the apparent influence of ZZ Top and "other masters of fried '70s boogie". [6]
II is a departure from the Meat Puppets' first album, which largely consisted of noise-filled hardcore punk with unintelligible vocals. In addition to hardcore and punk rock, the group's second album encompasses a wide assortment of styles including country rock, ballads, and psychedelia. [7]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [8] |
| Chicago Tribune | [9] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A− [10] |
| NME | 8/10 [11] |
| Pitchfork | 9.0/10 [12] |
| Rolling Stone |  [13] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 10/10 [14] |
| The Village Voice | A− [15] |
Kurt Loder, in an April 1984 review in Rolling Stone, described Meat Puppets II as "one of the funniest and most enjoyable albums" of the year, as he thought the band had developed beyond thrash music to become "a kind of cultural trash compacter" in which they blend head-banging with "a bit of the Byrds...Hendrix-style guitar...and... Blonde on Blonde –style wordsmithing." [13] In his review for The Village Voice , Robert Christgau wrote that Curt Kirkwood had combined "the amateur and the avant-garde with a homely appeal," which resulted in a "calmly demented country music" in a "psychedelic" vein. [15]
Robert Hilburn commented in the Los Angeles Times that they were "far more of an acquired promising though willfully unfocused rock act." [16]
In a retrospective review for Pitchfork , Matthew Blackwell called it "a sun-baked, country-fried, acid-addled cowpunk album that could have come from nowhere else but the Arizona desert." [12]
The album was number 94 on Pitchfork's "Best Albums of the 1980s." [17] Slant Magazine listed the album at number 91 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s." [18]
The album was performed live in its entirety at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Monticello, New York, in 2008 as part of the ATP Don't Look Back season, [19] and again in December, 2008, at a performance in London. [20]
The Meat Puppets' SST labelmates Minutemen covered "Lost" on the live EP Tour-Spiel and their last studio album, 3-Way Tie (For Last) .
Three of the album's songs were covered by Nirvana as part of their 1993 performance for MTV Unplugged, which was later released as the Nirvana album MTV Unplugged In New York. Curt Kirkwood and Cris Kirkwood of Meat Puppets joined Nirvana onstage for renditions of "Plateau", "Oh, Me", and "Lake Of Fire". [21]
All tracks are written by Curt Kirkwood, unless otherwise noted.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Split Myself in Two" | 2:22 |
| 2. | "Magic Toy Missing" | 1:20 |
| 3. | "Lost" | 3:24 |
| 4. | "Plateau" | 2:22 |
| 5. | "Aurora Borealis" | 2:44 |
| 6. | "We're Here" | 2:40 |
| 7. | "Climbing" | 2:41 |
| 8. | "New Gods" | 2:09 |
| 9. | "Oh, Me" | 2:59 |
| 10. | "Lake of Fire" | 1:54 |
| 11. | "I'm a Mindless Idiot" | 2:26 |
| 12. | "The Whistling Song" | 2:56 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13. | "Teenager(s)" | Meat Puppets | 3:36 |
| 14. | "I'm Not Here" | 1:55 | |
| 15. | "New Gods" (demo version) | 2:13 | |
| 16. | "Lost" (demo version) | 3:03 | |
| 17. | "What to Do" | Mick Jagger, Keith Richards | 2:35 |
| 18. | "100% of Nothing" | 1:50 | |
| 19. | "Aurora Borealis" (demo version) | 2:28 |
Meat Puppets
Technical
Meat Puppets are an American rock band formed in January 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona. The group's original lineup was Curt Kirkwood (guitar/vocals), his brother Cris Kirkwood, and Derrick Bostrom (drums). The Kirkwood brothers met Bostrom while attending Brophy Prep High School in Phoenix. The three then moved to Tempe, Arizona, where the Kirkwood brothers purchased two adjacent houses, one of which had a shed in the back where they regularly practiced.
Damaged is the debut studio album by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag. It was released by SST Records in November 1981.
MTV Unplugged in New York is the first live album by the American rock band Nirvana, released by DGC Records on November 1, 1994, nearly seven months following the suicide of Kurt Cobain. It was part of the cable television series MTV Unplugged and features a mostly acoustic performance. It was recorded at Sony Music Studios in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, on November 18, 1993.
"Lake of Fire" is a song by the American alternative rock band the Meat Puppets, written by vocalist and guitarist, Curt Kirkwood. It appears on their second album, Meat Puppets II, released in April 1984. An alternate version appeared as a hidden track on their 1994 album, Too High to Die.
Too High to Die is the eighth studio album by American rock band the Meat Puppets. The album was released on January 25, 1994, by London Records. It was produced by Butthole Surfers guitarist Paul Leary. The album's title is a parody of The Ramones' 1984 album Too Tough to Die.
Curtis Matthew Kirkwood is an American musician, best known as the guitarist, singer and primary songwriter for alternative rock group Meat Puppets, and for playing with Nirvana on MTV Unplugged in New York.
Up on the Sun is the third album by the Meat Puppets, released on March 21, 1985 by SST Records. The album features a cleaner and more technical sound with a more psychedelic rock feel, in contrast to the sloppy punk approach of their first album (1982), while continuing with the mystical, poetic lyrics and country-inflected songwriting of Meat Puppets II (1984).
Derrick Edwin Bostrom is an American musician. He is a founding member and current drummer of the band Meat Puppets.
Monsters is the sixth studio album by American rock band the Meat Puppets, released in October 1989. Their last release on SST Records, it was reissued on Rykodisc in 1999 with additional bonus tracks, recording notes by Derrick Bostrom and liner notes by music journalist Mark Kemp. As an added bonus, the reissue includes an "Enhanced CD" partition for play on home computers. Monsters offers the promotional video for "Light". The clip was produced and directed by Bill Taylor and features shots of the Puppets live in concert.
Meat Puppets is the debut studio album by American rock band the Meat Puppets, released in 1982 through SST Records.
Huevos is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock band the Meat Puppets, released on October 27, 1987 by SST Records. The album title is literally the Spanish word for "eggs," although it carries a slang meaning associated with testicular fortitude. Most of the songs were recorded in one take. The cover art is done by guitarist/vocalist Curt Kirkwood.
Out My Way is an EP by American alternative rock band Meat Puppets, released in 1986 by SST Records. It features a more hard rock-oriented sound than on previous releases, leading some critics to say that the sound is similar to the southern/hard rock stylings of ZZ Top. The EP was reissued in 1999 by Rykodisc, with additional bonus tracks.
Mirage is the fourth studio album by the American alternative rock band Meat Puppets. It was released in April 1987 by SST Records.
"Plateau" is a song by alternative rock band the Meat Puppets, written by vocalist and guitarist, Curt Kirkwood. It appears on the band's second album, Meat Puppets II, released by SST Records in April 1984.
No Joke! is the ninth studio album by the Meat Puppets. The album was released on October 3, 1995, by London Records. It was the follow-up to the band's album Too High to Die and was the last Meat Puppets album with bassist Cris Kirkwood and drummer Derrick Bostrom. A video was filmed for the song "Scum", directed by Dave Markey.
Golden Lies is a 2000 album by the Meat Puppets. After the You Love Me EP, in 1999, Golden Lies was the second studio release from the second line-up of the band. Although Derrick Bostrom and Cris Kirkwood do not appear on the album, they were still considered members of the Meat Puppets.
No Strings Attached is a 1990 compilation album of Meat Puppets songs released by their ex-record label SST Records. It was released after the band left SST Records to join London Records. The compilation includes songs from their first album Meat Puppets (1982) through to their 1989 album Monsters. The Meat Puppets had no involvement in this release.
Sewn Together is American rock band the Meat Puppets' twelfth full-length studio album, released on May 12, 2009, both on CD and vinyl. It was the follow-up to their 2007 reunion album Rise to Your Knees.
Rat Farm is the fourteenth full-length studio album by the Meat Puppets. It was released on April 16, 2013, through Megaforce Records.
Verse Chorus Verse is an unreleased live album by the American rock band Nirvana, scheduled for release on November 1, 1994. It was to be a double album comprising a CD of live performances on one CD and Nirvana's MTV Unplugged performance on the other. It was canceled as Nirvana members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl found it overwhelming to compile material so soon after the death of Kurt Cobain earlier that year.
...II was very much on its own trip. Its outsider Americana took in Grateful Dead-style jamming...
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