Meat Puppets
By The Fly
24 Apr 2013
Nirvana-endorsed cowpunk survivors the Meat Puppets like to keep it in the family. Along with original drummer Derrick Bostrum, brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood established their “cottage industry” of acid-frazzled country punk in 1980; and 33 years, 14 albums, two hiatuses, one shooting and a jail sentence later, they’ve now recruited Curt’s son Elmo on guitar.
With new album ‘Rat Farm’ released last week, their once-up-and-down family dynamic is vital as ever, thanks to their familial “mind-link.”
Says Curt Kirkwood: “We don’t have to think about it [the music] a lot. Cris and I have always had a similar dynamic. Now with Elmo it’s the same thing.”
Raised with “thoroughbred horses” in the year-round resort-climate of Phoenix, Arizona, the brothers’ sun-baked, ranch-style upbringing is branded deep in their bonkers musical DNA.
“That was the business: horseracing,” says Curt. “We spent a lot of our time at the racetrack.”
The track was where the pair were exposed to country music, while they discovered pop hooks on the radio – The Beatles particularly pricked Curt’s young ears.“’Day Tripper’ made me want to play guitar instead of clarinet,” he muses.
In Phoenix, where “there’s really nothing to do,” the Kirkwoods “spent a lot of time trying to amuse themselves. One way was music.”
Dope was another: “There’s a lot of marijuana there. When you’re a kid, that’s just the way it is.”
Later, the brothers, their partners, their kids and Bostrum all moved to Tempe, Arizona, where they lived (at times not so harmoniously) together for 18 years.
“We lived in the same house for quite a while, then Cris and I got houses right next to each other and he had a shed in the back that we outfitted for practising.”
In the beginning, the band was heavily punk-orientated, yet simultaneously blended shades of folk and country. Soon Californian eclectic hardcore label, SST, who “had a great ear for picking out stuff that was unique,” were sold.
“The first time we played with Black Flag, right after the show Greg (Ginn, label founder) said, ‘Do you wanna make a record?’ And that was that.
This early SST-linked period has come to be known as the band’s golden era, and, as Kirkwood admits, a good place for the uninitiated to, so to speak, pick up the Meat Puppets’ trail.“It’s a fun place for a kid to start. ‘Meat Puppets’ and ‘Meat Puppets II’ – those two are pretty hilarious records. There’s a lot of spontaneity in them.”
The band, whose heavy drug use is well documented, famously caned an ounce of MDMA while conjuring the helter-skelter folk-punk of ‘Meat Puppets II’ – which features Kurt Cobain-covered classics ‘Oh Me’, ‘Lake Of Fire’ and ‘Plateau’.
Were they constantly high? “Yeah, but when you’re a kid it doesn’t seem like that. These things seemed to be useful, custom-made for the artist. I never really liked getting all blotto and crazy and totally messed up. I’m kind of a lightweight,” he cracks.
In 1993, the Meat Puppets’ first proper taste of mainstream success came when superfan Kurt Cobain cast them in a cameo role in Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged gig. Kirkwood himself concedes Cobain’s versions were “top notch… How I would’ve done it if I could’ve.”
After hitting their commercial peak in 1994 with the radio-ready grunge of ‘Too High To Die,’ however, Cris’s severe addiction to crack and heroin spiralled out of control. Two people, including Cris’s wife Michelle, died of an overdose at their family home in Tempe.
The band dissolved and reformed twice between 1996 and 2006, during which time Cris’s misery plumbed even greater depths: in 2003, he was shot twice in the stomach after a skirmish with a post office guard. Adding insult to injury, Cris was jailed due to previous drug arrests and probation violations.
While incarcerated, he fortuitously met one-time Steppenwolf drummer Jerry Posin. The pair struck up a close relationship and eventually performed original pieces together, all of which helped Cris kick his addiction cold turkey. Announcing he would take up bass duties with the band again in 2006, Cris eventually appeared on the Meat Puppets’ first post-reunion album, ‘Rise To Your Knees’, released 2007.
His brother, reflecting soberly, says of the time: “All that drama’s not really my thing. It just lasted longer than I thought. I got the band back together with other people and that wasn’t really to my taste, so I did a solo record (‘Snow’), had a band with Krist Novoselic (‘Eyes Adrift’). Eventually Cris rehabilitated and then we were off again.”
Though having seemingly mellowed with age, the Meat Puppets have returned to a rich purple patch since 2006, releasing a string of typically barmy, inventive albums while pulling hair-raising live shows out of the bag, including a notable riff through of 1985’s ‘Up On The Sun’ at ATP in 2011.
Meanwhile, ‘Rat Farm’, featuring drummer Shandon Sohm (previously with the band between 1999 and 2002), a head-spinning stew of weirdo folk-rock, finds them continuing this out-of-retirement streak of excellence.
But, as always, the record is “more of a promo of what we are in reality: a live band. We’ve always improvised a lot, but you don’t really get the improvisation on the records. The songs are just an excuse to stretch out musically, which is what we really love.”
Jamie Skey
Accessed: 4/25/13
http://www.the-fly.co.uk/feature/interview/1018211/meat-puppets-curt-kirkwood-2013/
By The Fly
24 Apr 2013
Nirvana-endorsed cowpunk survivors the Meat Puppets like to keep it in the family. Along with original drummer Derrick Bostrum, brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood established their “cottage industry” of acid-frazzled country punk in 1980; and 33 years, 14 albums, two hiatuses, one shooting and a jail sentence later, they’ve now recruited Curt’s son Elmo on guitar.
With new album ‘Rat Farm’ released last week, their once-up-and-down family dynamic is vital as ever, thanks to their familial “mind-link.”
Says Curt Kirkwood: “We don’t have to think about it [the music] a lot. Cris and I have always had a similar dynamic. Now with Elmo it’s the same thing.”
Raised with “thoroughbred horses” in the year-round resort-climate of Phoenix, Arizona, the brothers’ sun-baked, ranch-style upbringing is branded deep in their bonkers musical DNA.
“That was the business: horseracing,” says Curt. “We spent a lot of our time at the racetrack.”
The track was where the pair were exposed to country music, while they discovered pop hooks on the radio – The Beatles particularly pricked Curt’s young ears.“’Day Tripper’ made me want to play guitar instead of clarinet,” he muses.
In Phoenix, where “there’s really nothing to do,” the Kirkwoods “spent a lot of time trying to amuse themselves. One way was music.”
Dope was another: “There’s a lot of marijuana there. When you’re a kid, that’s just the way it is.”
Later, the brothers, their partners, their kids and Bostrum all moved to Tempe, Arizona, where they lived (at times not so harmoniously) together for 18 years.
“We lived in the same house for quite a while, then Cris and I got houses right next to each other and he had a shed in the back that we outfitted for practising.”
In the beginning, the band was heavily punk-orientated, yet simultaneously blended shades of folk and country. Soon Californian eclectic hardcore label, SST, who “had a great ear for picking out stuff that was unique,” were sold.
“The first time we played with Black Flag, right after the show Greg (Ginn, label founder) said, ‘Do you wanna make a record?’ And that was that.
This early SST-linked period has come to be known as the band’s golden era, and, as Kirkwood admits, a good place for the uninitiated to, so to speak, pick up the Meat Puppets’ trail.“It’s a fun place for a kid to start. ‘Meat Puppets’ and ‘Meat Puppets II’ – those two are pretty hilarious records. There’s a lot of spontaneity in them.”
The band, whose heavy drug use is well documented, famously caned an ounce of MDMA while conjuring the helter-skelter folk-punk of ‘Meat Puppets II’ – which features Kurt Cobain-covered classics ‘Oh Me’, ‘Lake Of Fire’ and ‘Plateau’.
Were they constantly high? “Yeah, but when you’re a kid it doesn’t seem like that. These things seemed to be useful, custom-made for the artist. I never really liked getting all blotto and crazy and totally messed up. I’m kind of a lightweight,” he cracks.
In 1993, the Meat Puppets’ first proper taste of mainstream success came when superfan Kurt Cobain cast them in a cameo role in Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged gig. Kirkwood himself concedes Cobain’s versions were “top notch… How I would’ve done it if I could’ve.”
After hitting their commercial peak in 1994 with the radio-ready grunge of ‘Too High To Die,’ however, Cris’s severe addiction to crack and heroin spiralled out of control. Two people, including Cris’s wife Michelle, died of an overdose at their family home in Tempe.
The band dissolved and reformed twice between 1996 and 2006, during which time Cris’s misery plumbed even greater depths: in 2003, he was shot twice in the stomach after a skirmish with a post office guard. Adding insult to injury, Cris was jailed due to previous drug arrests and probation violations.
While incarcerated, he fortuitously met one-time Steppenwolf drummer Jerry Posin. The pair struck up a close relationship and eventually performed original pieces together, all of which helped Cris kick his addiction cold turkey. Announcing he would take up bass duties with the band again in 2006, Cris eventually appeared on the Meat Puppets’ first post-reunion album, ‘Rise To Your Knees’, released 2007.
His brother, reflecting soberly, says of the time: “All that drama’s not really my thing. It just lasted longer than I thought. I got the band back together with other people and that wasn’t really to my taste, so I did a solo record (‘Snow’), had a band with Krist Novoselic (‘Eyes Adrift’). Eventually Cris rehabilitated and then we were off again.”
Though having seemingly mellowed with age, the Meat Puppets have returned to a rich purple patch since 2006, releasing a string of typically barmy, inventive albums while pulling hair-raising live shows out of the bag, including a notable riff through of 1985’s ‘Up On The Sun’ at ATP in 2011.
Meanwhile, ‘Rat Farm’, featuring drummer Shandon Sohm (previously with the band between 1999 and 2002), a head-spinning stew of weirdo folk-rock, finds them continuing this out-of-retirement streak of excellence.
But, as always, the record is “more of a promo of what we are in reality: a live band. We’ve always improvised a lot, but you don’t really get the improvisation on the records. The songs are just an excuse to stretch out musically, which is what we really love.”
Jamie Skey
Accessed: 4/25/13
http://www.the-fly.co.uk/feature/interview/1018211/meat-puppets-curt-kirkwood-2013/