Meat Puppets Get a Major-Label Education
Peter Lindblad
Goldmine Magazine, Online, July 2007
Stories of major-label disasters abound with marginalized acts like the Meat Puppets, and the band can swap horror stories with anyone.
“Honestly, we went into the major-label deal kind of on a promise that, well, of course we would continue producing our own records ... but it never transpired,” says the Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood. “It was all just total bullshit. I never fought with them over it, though ... not really. You realize that you’re hamstrung once you’re on a major label.”
The experience did teach Curt a thing or two, though.
“It was kind of fun to actually have people interested working with us and, by that time, learning how other people did it, going, ‘Oh, really, that’s how you do that?’ says Curt. “And we never thought about it. ‘Oh, take your time. You do three tracks of vocals and then change up like every other word in the mix, and then you put it on computer and kind of pitch shift it word by word by word and then make a composite of the best of the three vocal tracks?’ We had no idea. We were like, ‘Holy shit ... so this stuff is totally fake, right? It’s all art, so it’s all fair I guess. It’s a sonic sculpture. I mean, I’m not a purist or anything either, but I do enjoy the directness of the other thing. It’s just, bang, bang ... and then, especially on high-tech gear, and nice microphones and stuff, really just knocking it out ... it’s cool.”
Article accessed: 7/16/07
http://www.goldminemag.com/Default.aspx?tabid=825&articleid=6850&articlemid=4972#4972Articles
Peter Lindblad
Goldmine Magazine, Online, July 2007
Stories of major-label disasters abound with marginalized acts like the Meat Puppets, and the band can swap horror stories with anyone.
“Honestly, we went into the major-label deal kind of on a promise that, well, of course we would continue producing our own records ... but it never transpired,” says the Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood. “It was all just total bullshit. I never fought with them over it, though ... not really. You realize that you’re hamstrung once you’re on a major label.”
The experience did teach Curt a thing or two, though.
“It was kind of fun to actually have people interested working with us and, by that time, learning how other people did it, going, ‘Oh, really, that’s how you do that?’ says Curt. “And we never thought about it. ‘Oh, take your time. You do three tracks of vocals and then change up like every other word in the mix, and then you put it on computer and kind of pitch shift it word by word by word and then make a composite of the best of the three vocal tracks?’ We had no idea. We were like, ‘Holy shit ... so this stuff is totally fake, right? It’s all art, so it’s all fair I guess. It’s a sonic sculpture. I mean, I’m not a purist or anything either, but I do enjoy the directness of the other thing. It’s just, bang, bang ... and then, especially on high-tech gear, and nice microphones and stuff, really just knocking it out ... it’s cool.”
Article accessed: 7/16/07
http://www.goldminemag.com/Default.aspx?tabid=825&articleid=6850&articlemid=4972#4972Articles