More Meaty Music From the Puppets
Posted: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 5:11 pm, Sun Apr 7, 2013.
By Luke Z. Fenchel
It’s not often a rock and roll singer name-checks a historian, but for Curt Kirkwood, who along with his band the Meat Puppets just released his seventeenth album in its thirty-year career, it’s all about perspective.
“I have never taken that much time off,” Kirkwood said from his home in Austin, about to embark on a nationwide tour that will stop in Ithaca for an April 5 show at The Haunt. “And now it’s just the facts, and I know the facts.”
Kirkwood was responding to a question about Rolling Stone excerpting an oral history of his act’s sophomore album, Meat Puppets II. Now considered a classic record—a hard-core country masterpiece—his band put together 19 songs in three-quarters of an hour, effectively relocating punk music’s edge to Phoenix, Arizona.
Brothers Curt and Chris Kirkwood Puppets brought the Southwestern flavor of Phoenix to punk and grunge music in the ‘90s. Best known for their 1993 appearance alongside Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain on MTV’s “Unplugged” sessions mere days before his tragic death, The Meat Puppets’ influence on rock and roll has cast a long shadow, even if that brief spotlight has overshadowed some of their acclaim.
Well before anyone had heard Cobain’s Seattle call to arms, the Kirkwoods released six records in five years on the influential independent label SST (also the home of college-rock heavyweights Black Flag and Hüsker Dü), culminating in 1991 with Forbidden Places, their major label debut. Equal parts country punk and desert psychedelic, the Puppets re-fashioned a popular but creatively limiting genre—hard core—into a dizzying expanse of high-wire instrumentals, rapid pace changes, and acid-influenced lyrics, and impressed Cobain enough to endorse the band: “I owe so much to them!” was blurbed posthumously on their highest grossing album, 1993’s Too High to Die.
Following a brief stint with commercial success, the band self-destructed mid-decade, with bassist Chris Kirkwood descending into drug-addiction and ultimately, incarceration. But in 2007 The Puppets returned with Rise to Your Knees, and followed that strong release with the equally impressive Sewn Together in 2009. Unlike many ‘90s comebacks, whose associated music is often is more re-tread than revival, the Puppets’ contemporary work is quite creative, and they are an easy act to root for.
“You know I like … other bands, but we’re always being grouped with somebody. Back when we were on SST, people grouped us with those bands, and then there was Nirvana,” said Kirkwood. “We’ve been through all of that; we’ve been grouped with Dinosaur Jr. before and now again. I think they’re just points of reference, because they have little to do with us. Yes, we did Nirvana songs, and we played with Dinosaur Jr., but I think what’s made it valid is that we’re us, and people take that as being unique.
“But when I’ve found myself grouped as part of a trend, it can be convenient for me, but I don’t play to it.,” Kirkwood said.
As for this latest material, Kirkwood has called it “blown-up folk music.” He explained: “I think of it as something you can sit and play by the campfire, and then I brought it to the band to play louder.”
Speaking of loud, the Meat Puppets are known for their volume: the Castaways show a few years back was so loud I recall that even with earplugs I watched from the outside dock. “We played South by Southwest two weeks ago, and so we played a greatest hits set. When kids are out, we definitely play old stuff to get them started. But once we get into the set, anything can happen.”
Asked about touring, Kirkwood quickly said: “I still love it. Driving is a bit of a grind, and can get you worn out, but playing is always a relief, and it tends to make up for the mundane details or grind.” He added: “We love coming to Ithaca. I thought Castaways was a fun place.”
The Meat Puppets will be at the Haunt on Friday, April 5 at 8 p.m.
Accessed: 4/10/13
http://www.ithaca.com/arts_and_entertainment/article_88f50812-9c5f-11e2-8b24-0019bb2963f4.html
Posted: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 5:11 pm, Sun Apr 7, 2013.
By Luke Z. Fenchel
It’s not often a rock and roll singer name-checks a historian, but for Curt Kirkwood, who along with his band the Meat Puppets just released his seventeenth album in its thirty-year career, it’s all about perspective.
“I have never taken that much time off,” Kirkwood said from his home in Austin, about to embark on a nationwide tour that will stop in Ithaca for an April 5 show at The Haunt. “And now it’s just the facts, and I know the facts.”
Kirkwood was responding to a question about Rolling Stone excerpting an oral history of his act’s sophomore album, Meat Puppets II. Now considered a classic record—a hard-core country masterpiece—his band put together 19 songs in three-quarters of an hour, effectively relocating punk music’s edge to Phoenix, Arizona.
Brothers Curt and Chris Kirkwood Puppets brought the Southwestern flavor of Phoenix to punk and grunge music in the ‘90s. Best known for their 1993 appearance alongside Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain on MTV’s “Unplugged” sessions mere days before his tragic death, The Meat Puppets’ influence on rock and roll has cast a long shadow, even if that brief spotlight has overshadowed some of their acclaim.
Well before anyone had heard Cobain’s Seattle call to arms, the Kirkwoods released six records in five years on the influential independent label SST (also the home of college-rock heavyweights Black Flag and Hüsker Dü), culminating in 1991 with Forbidden Places, their major label debut. Equal parts country punk and desert psychedelic, the Puppets re-fashioned a popular but creatively limiting genre—hard core—into a dizzying expanse of high-wire instrumentals, rapid pace changes, and acid-influenced lyrics, and impressed Cobain enough to endorse the band: “I owe so much to them!” was blurbed posthumously on their highest grossing album, 1993’s Too High to Die.
Following a brief stint with commercial success, the band self-destructed mid-decade, with bassist Chris Kirkwood descending into drug-addiction and ultimately, incarceration. But in 2007 The Puppets returned with Rise to Your Knees, and followed that strong release with the equally impressive Sewn Together in 2009. Unlike many ‘90s comebacks, whose associated music is often is more re-tread than revival, the Puppets’ contemporary work is quite creative, and they are an easy act to root for.
“You know I like … other bands, but we’re always being grouped with somebody. Back when we were on SST, people grouped us with those bands, and then there was Nirvana,” said Kirkwood. “We’ve been through all of that; we’ve been grouped with Dinosaur Jr. before and now again. I think they’re just points of reference, because they have little to do with us. Yes, we did Nirvana songs, and we played with Dinosaur Jr., but I think what’s made it valid is that we’re us, and people take that as being unique.
“But when I’ve found myself grouped as part of a trend, it can be convenient for me, but I don’t play to it.,” Kirkwood said.
As for this latest material, Kirkwood has called it “blown-up folk music.” He explained: “I think of it as something you can sit and play by the campfire, and then I brought it to the band to play louder.”
Speaking of loud, the Meat Puppets are known for their volume: the Castaways show a few years back was so loud I recall that even with earplugs I watched from the outside dock. “We played South by Southwest two weeks ago, and so we played a greatest hits set. When kids are out, we definitely play old stuff to get them started. But once we get into the set, anything can happen.”
Asked about touring, Kirkwood quickly said: “I still love it. Driving is a bit of a grind, and can get you worn out, but playing is always a relief, and it tends to make up for the mundane details or grind.” He added: “We love coming to Ithaca. I thought Castaways was a fun place.”
The Meat Puppets will be at the Haunt on Friday, April 5 at 8 p.m.
Accessed: 4/10/13
http://www.ithaca.com/arts_and_entertainment/article_88f50812-9c5f-11e2-8b24-0019bb2963f4.html