That's Dishonest:  A Repository of Interviews with and Articles about Meat Puppets
  • Home
  • 2019
    • The Meat Puppets Unveil Their ‘Dusty Notes’ (2019)
    • Meat Puppets: Dusty Notes – album review (2019)
    • Some Reunions Are Worth the Fuss. Take Meat Puppets. (2019)
    • Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood: “Lead is just like playing air guitar on the real guitar for me” (2019)
    • Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood on New Album, George Jones, Nirvana ‘Unplugged’ (2019)
    • A CONVERSATION WITH MEAT PUPPETS (2019)
    • Review: Meat Puppets Remain Easygoing Psychedelic Country-Punk Gods on ‘Dusty Notes’ (2019)
    • Dusty Notes (2019)
    • IT’S HARD NOT TO FEEL LIKE AN ANACHRONISM THESE DAYS (2019)
    • Meat Puppets – Dusty Notes (2019)
    • MEAT PUPPETS Drummer Derrick Bostom Discusses the New Album ‘Dusty Notes’, Nirvana, John Frusciante, and Their Unmistakable Musical Legacy (2019)
    • Dusty notes, de Meat Puppets (2019)
    • But Then I Saw Meat Puppets (2019)
    • Meat Puppets: Creating Art, Then and Now (2019)
    • an interview w/ Meat Puppets on original lineup reunion, new album & more (2019)
    • Meat Puppets to perform May 17 at 3S Artspace (2019)
    • THE TOUR (2019)
    • Live Report: Meat Puppets - Rebellion, Manchester (2019)
    • Meat Puppets: Our 1986 Interview (2019)
    • Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in NY Is 25: The Meat Puppets & Bobcat Goldthwait Take Us Back (2019)
    • Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets says they've recaptured the chaos as reunion tour comes home (2019)
  • 2018
    • Catching Up With Derrick Bostrom: The Meat Puppets' Original Drummer Dishes on His Return (2018)
    • Meat Puppets Reunite With Original Drummer (2018)
    • In A Car by Jeff Schroeck (2018)
    • Meat Puppets Come Galloping Out Of The Stable With 'Warranty' (2018)
  • 2017
    • MEAT PUPPETS MAKE NOSTALGIC RETURN TO THE ECHO FOR SOLD OUT LA GIG (2017)
    • REVIEW: The Meat Puppets' sold-out show Monday was a mighty, messy joy (2017)
    • My Meat Puppets Misconception at The Echo (2017)
    • Meat Puppets’ Cris Kirkwood Was Shot in the Back and Imprisoned: Life's Magical (2017)
    • Concert review: Meat Puppets show why they’re alt-rockers for the ages (2017)
    • Meat Puppets Together for First Time in more than 20 Years (2017)
  • 2016
    • Meat Puppet Cris Kirkwood talks pre-Germs Phoenix cult band Exterminators’ 1st-ever LP (interview + song premiere) (2016)
    • The drugs that fueled the Meat Puppets’ first five LPs (2016)
    • Meat Puppets Bassist On What He Would Like For Christmas (2016)
  • 2015
    • Interview: Elmo Kirkwood Talks Meat Puppets, STP 1994 Tour & New Dance Project Supr3yes (2015)
    • Interview: Meat Puppets’ Shandon Sahm Talks Upcoming Tour With Soul Asylum (2015)
    • Gene Simmons ‘Hugely Influenced’ Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic, According To Meat Puppets Drummer (2015)
    • Meat Puppets Drummer Was Told He ‘Most Likely Won’t See Scott Weiland, But The Other Guys Hang Out’ When Touring With STP (2015)
    • EASY ANSWERS: CRIS KIRKWOOD OF THE MEAT PUPPETS TALKS GRATEFUL DEAD (2015)
  • 2014
    • 2 Minutes with Meat Puppets (2014)
    • The AU Interview: Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets (Arizona) (2014)
    • Meat Puppets Bassist Cris Kirkwood Takes Us Through the Evolution of ‘Lake of Fire’ (2014)
    • Interview: Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood Talks Nirvana MTV Unplugged & Band With Krist Novoselic (2014)
    • Meat Puppets Making Most of a Second Chance (2014)
    • Fresh Meat With No Strings Attached: Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets (2014)
    • Cris Kirkwood Remembers Comforting Frances Bean Cobain At Nirvana MTV Unplugged, Talks Art (2014)
    • Nirvana's 'MTV Unplugged' 20 Years Later: Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood Looks Back (2014)
    • The Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood Talks About His Love for Disney and Old Musicals (2014)
    • Elmo Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets Has Pop Ambitions (2014)
    • The Most Influential Arizona Punk Records: #5 - Meat Puppets, Untitled Seven-Inch EP (2014)
    • Graded on a Curve: Meat Puppets, Lollipop (2014)
  • 2013
    • Meat Puppets Announce New Album Rat Farm SEt for April 2013 Release (2013)
    • Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets (2013)
    • Meat Puppets Announce UK Tour In June 2013 With Mudhoney (2013)
    • Meat Puppets Expand with Rat Farm (2013)
    • Too High To Die: Meet The Meat Puppets by Greg Prato (2013)
    • The Meat Puppets are Still Rockin' (2013)
    • More Meaty Music from the Puppets (2013)
    • Meat Puppets Let Instinct Pull the Strings (2013)
    • Interview: Meat Puppets (2013)
    • 20 Questions: Meat Puppets (2013)
    • Interview: Meat Puppets - The Flesh of It (2013)
    • Meat Puppets (2013)
    • Meat Puppets : Interview (2013)
    • Exclusive Interview: Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood on His Relationship with His Brother, Nirvana, and Touring 30 Years Later (2013)
    • Meat Puppets I: “A Lawn Mower in the Process of Unclogging Itself” (2013)
    • Meat Puppets Now 31 Years Since First Album (2013)
    • Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood: I'm probably not cut out for a regular job (2013)
    • Esquire Live Sessions: The Meat Puppets on Their Nirvana Unplugged Performance (2013)
    • Long-Haul Grunge Gods (2013)
    • The Mystery of Meat (2013)
    • Phoenix Artist Derrick Bostrom Opens Photography Exhibit at Green New American Vegetarian (2013)
    • The Meat Puppets on Unplugged In New York: The Extended Interviews The full Q&As with the Brothers Kirkwood and producer Alex Coletti. (2013)
    • Interview with Curt and Cris Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets: Influences, Live, Playing with Nirvana, 20th Anniversary of In Utero (2013)
    • Meat Puppets Interview: Louder Than War Talk To Curt Kirkwood (2013)
    • Talk: Curt Kirkwood, Meat Puppets | Interview (2013)
    • Meat Puppets [Interview] (2013)
    • My People Call It Weed: Meat Puppets Get Happily Twisted (2013)
    • 2 Minutes with Meat Puppets (2013)
    • Meat Puppets – At The Rat Farm With Curt Kirkwood (2013)
    • Meat Puppets: Just a Band (2013)
  • 2012
    • Peer Inside the Colorful World of the Meat Puppets' Cris Kirkwood at Carly's Bistro (2012)
    • Finding Out What Makes the Meat Puppets Tick with a New Oral History (2012)
    • Curled Up with a Good Book (2012)
    • Los Históricos Meat Puppets Avanzarán en Diciembre Nuevos Temas de su Próximo Disco en su Primera Gira Española (2012)
    • Meat Puppets Announce Release of 14th Studio LP (2012)
    • Curt Kirkwood nos habla de Meat Puppets (2012)
    • La Semilla del "Grunge" (2012)
    • Meat Puppets, Las Raices y el Punk que Marcaron a Kurt Cobain (2012)
    • Mas Raros que un Perro Verde (2012)
    • Meat Puppets (2012)
    • Meat Puppets, Valencia, 18/12/2012 (2012)
    • Meat Puppets, Influx Emocional (2012)
    • Valley’s Elmo Kirkwood and His Dad, Meat Puppet’s Curt Kirkwood, to Team Up For Father’s Day Show (2012)
    • Too High to Die: an Interview With Curt Kirkwood (2012)
  • 2011
    • Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood on Making New Album 'Lollipop' and Their Summer Plans Plus: Band 'completely inebriated' while recording 'Meat Puppets II' (2011)
    • Meat Puppets with Roky Erickson (2011)
    • One Tough Question: Meat Puppets' Cris Kirkwood (2011)
    • Shandon Sahm Meets Meat Puppets (2011)
    • Meat Puppets Relive Gonzo Past, Open Up about Cris Kirkwood's Addiction (2011)
    • eMusic Q&A: The Meat Puppets (2011)
    • Meat Puppets: "We Built 'Lollipop' Like a Lego Toy" (2011)
    • Tonight: The Meat Puppets on the River (2011)
    • Curt Kirkwood's Tinker Toy Still Life with the Meat Puppets (2011)
    • Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets on the Band's Legacy and His Vivid Lyrical Imagery (2011)
    • Fans Hope for a Well-Done Meat Puppets Performance (2011)
    • Headed Back to the Slaughterhouse (2011)
    • The Meat Puppets Kill Chelsea's (2011)
    • Meat Puppets Survivor's Tale (2011)
    • The Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood (2011)
    • Q&A: Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood On Arizona Punk, SST Records, His Brother Cris Being Clean, and Not making it into "Our Band Could Be Your Life" (2011)
    • Meat Puppets Interviewed by Most Beautiful Losers (2011)
    • [LP Review] Meat Puppets – Meat Puppets (1982) (2011)
  • 2010
    • Interview: Cris Kirkwood from the Meat Puppets (2010)
    • TS5Q: Derrick Bostrom (2010)
    • Meat Puppets 1982-88: Acid Rock Baked by Desert Grunge (2010)
    • MEAT PUPPETS 1982-88: Acid rock baked by desert grunge (2010)
  • 2009
    • Q&A with the Meat Puppets' Cris Kirkwood (2009)
    • Meat Puppets Sewing it Together (2009)
    • Reunited Meat Puppets Evolved, But Still Intense (2009)
    • Meat Puppets Interview (2009)
    • The Meat Puppets' Name is Cool, and That's the Entire Story Behind It (2009)
    • Meat Puppets on Display (2009)
    • Lost in the Zone [Meat Puppets] (2009)
    • Interview with Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets (2009)
    • The Meat Puppets are still half-assin' it After All These Years (2009)
    • Meat Puppets Still "Sewn Together" After Nearly Three Decades (2009)
    • Rock City: Tourist Stop Helped Get Meat Puppets Frontman's Artistic Juices Flowing (2009)
    • Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets Speaks (2009)
    • Q&A with Shandon Sahm of Meat Puppets (2009)
    • Meat Puppets: "We Got to Do What We Wanted to Do" (2009)
    • The Meat Puppets (2009)
    • From the Chip Midnight Archive: Meat Puppets 1994 Audio Interview (2009)
    • A Testament to the Strength of the Human Gullet (2009)
    • Meat Puppets: Out Of The Weeds (2009)
    • No robots, no Celine Dion for Meat Puppets (2009)
  • 2008
    • Very Human (2008)
  • 2007
    • Meat Puppets Get a Major-Label Education (2007)
    • Meat Puppets Return to Their Trippy Psych-Rock Roots (2007)
    • Meat Puppets: On Your Feet (2007)
    • Lake of Fire: Meat Puppets Rise to Their Knees (2007)
    • Meat Puppets Reviewed (2007)
    • Reunited in Rock (2007)
    • New Day Rising (2007)
    • Reunited Kirkwood Brothers Help Meat Puppets Rise to the Occasion (2007)
    • Meat Puppets (2007)
    • Meat Puppets: O Brother, Where Art Thou (2007)
    • Who's Got My Extra: Curt Kirkwood (2007)
    • Stereogum Q&A: Meat Puppets (2007)
    • Back on the Sun (2007)
    • Interview: Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets (2007)
    • A Lean Night for the Meat Puppets (2007)
  • 2006
    • Meat Puppets Spring 1984 (2006)
  • 2005
    • Curt Kirkwood, "Snow" (2005)
  • 2002
    • Derrick Bostrom - 2002 (2002)
  • 2001
    • Puppet Show (2001)
  • 2000
    • Meat Puppets: Back From the Lake of Fire, the "New" Meat Puppets Feel the Love (2000)
    • Golden Lies (2000)
    • Meat Puppets Desert Desperados (2000)
  • 1999
    • What is This? (1999)
    • Fresh Meat for Rotting Puppets (1999)
    • Meat Puppets’ Cris Kirkwood Jailed On Drug Charges (1999)
  • 1998
    • Shooting Star (1998)
  • 1995
    • Meat Puppets: Swimming in a Lake of Fire (1995)
    • Meat Puppets: The Morning After (There's No Business Like Show Business) (1995)
    • The Meat Puppets (1995)
  • 1994
    • Rockers for Pot '94 (1994)
    • Meat Puppets' Drummer Derrick Bostrom Interview from 1994 (1994)
    • A Vignette from the Early Years by Derrick Bostrom of the Meat Puppets (1994)
  • 1992
    • Meat Puppets: Cris Kirkwood Interview (1992)
  • 1991
    • Music Meat Puppets (1991)
  • 1989
    • Meat Puppets Interviewed (1989): Disney Avant-Metal Rock (1989)
  • 1987
    • Meat Puppets--Mirage (1987)
  • 1984
    • The Meat Puppets (1984)
    • Meat Puppets: The Ultimate Fusion Band (1984)
  • 1983
    • Meat Puppets (1983)
  • 1982
    • I Met the Meat Puppets and Lived to Tell About It (1982)
  • Audio-Video Articles and Interviews
    • 2019 >
      • MEAT PUPPETS Derrick Bostrom talks new material (2019)
      • The Making of "Dusty Notes" (2019)
      • Kyle Meredith with... Meat Puppets (2019)
      • Pianist Ron Stabinsky Interview with Rusty Hassan WPFW (2019)
      • Meat Puppets Dusty Notes CD unpackaging (2019)
      • Radio Phoenix Broadcast of It’s Not Our Fault: Derrick Bostrom Part One (2019)
      • 100 Meat Puppets "Mirage"w/ Derrick Bostrom (2019)
    • 2018 >
      • 013: Meat Puppets - Forbidden Places (1991) (2018)
    • 2017 >
      • RSR077 – DERRICK BOSTROM – THE MEAT PUPPETS & NIRVANA (2017)
      • Meat Puppets albums worst to best (2017)
      • Meat Puppets - Induction Video Az.Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame (2017)
      • Acoustic Storm on KSLX Radio Promo for the Meat Puppets (2017)
    • 2016 >
      • Episode 12: Meat Puppets and Peter Kuper By Westerino Show (2016)
      • Interview Sneak Peak with Cris Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets (2016)
    • 2015 >
      • Cris Kirkwood Interview (2015)
      • Dad Rock: Cris Kirkwood on life in Meat Puppets (2015)
    • 2014 >
      • Meat Puppets - Cherry Rock 2014 - Part 1 (2014)
      • Meat Puppets - Cherry Rock 2014 - Part 2 (2014)
      • Meat Puppets - Cherry Rock 2014 - Part 3 (2014)
      • The Meat Puppets Q & A @ Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne (27th May 2014) (2014)
      • Meat Puppets Documentary -- Rough Pass (2014)
    • 2013 >
      • Curt Kirkwood Interview w/ Larry Flick (2013)
      • Meat Puppets Concert Review/Album Showing (2013)
      • Meat Puppets - Interview (Bing Lounge) (2013)
      • WTF with Marc Maron, Episode 428 - Curt Kirkwood (2013)
    • 2012 >
      • The Andy Derer Show Ep #51 with Cris Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets (2012)
    • 2011 >
      • Q&A with the Meat Puppets (2011)
      • Meat Puppets Interview Live in the Bing Lounge (2011)
      • Interview with Cris from Meat Puppets (2011)
      • The Meat Puppets interview w/ Across The Board radio show.wmv (2011)
    • 2010 >
      • Meat Puppets - What's In My Bag? (2010)
      • Meat Puppets: Bumbershoot 2010 Interview (2010)
    • 2009 >
      • Serene Dominic Show Episode 11 with Meat Puppets Curt Kirkwood (2009)
      • Amplified from ABC News Now : Meat Puppets (2009)
      • Amplified from ABC News Now : Meat Puppets, Part 2 (2009)
      • MEAT PUPPETS Interview and Soundcheck "Legendary Status.. Should Inspire Massive Guilt" (2009)
      • Meat Puppets Interview (2009)
    • 2008 >
      • Tempe Music Festival TV - Meat Puppets (2008)
    • 2007 >
      • How the Meat Puppets got their Name (2007)
    • 2005 >
      • Curt Kirkwood Interview (2005)
    • 1995 >
      • Meat Puppets Interview (1995)
      • Meat Puppets on Howard Stern, 9/11/95 (1995)
    • 1994 >
      • Meat Puppets - Conan 1994 (1994)
      • Cris Kirtwood Interview of The Meat Puppets May 26th, 1994 (1994)
      • Meat puppets interview 1994 (1994)
    • 1988 >
      • Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets) Interview Segment (1988)
      • 1988 Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets) Full Interview (1988)
    • 1984 >
      • Meat Puppets, 1984, Music View w/ Todd Miller (1984)
Some Reunions Are Worth the Fuss. Take Meat Puppets.
JOHN GARRATT
06 Mar 2019

​
Meat Puppets had a good thing going for a while. In the dying days of the MySpace era, the legendary Arizona band's frontman Curt Kirkwood took to the internet to ask fans if they were interested in seeing a reunion of the original lineup. Drummer Derrick Bostrom turned out not to be interested, making the reunion only two-thirds successful. But the Kirkwood brothers didn't let that stand in their way as they went on to record four new albums of material from 2007 to 2013 with drummers Ted Marcus and later Shandon Sahm.
After 2013's rather stellar yet overlooked Rat Farm, the band appeared to take a break from recording. Lots of gigging ensued and the Kirkwood brothers were eventually properly reunited with Bostrom when Meat Puppets were inducted into the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. Not only did the band allegedly put on a great little show for the occasion, but a connection with Derrick Bostrom was reestablished. When Shandon Sahm told the band that he was moving out of the country, they offered his spot to Bostrom, who took it. Dusty Notes marks the first album to be recorded by the original Meat Puppets lineup since 1995.
To say there is a lot riding on Dusty Notes is an understatement of 1980s college rock proportions. These are the same three men who recorded Meat Puppets II, an album that made such an impression on the late Kurt Cobain that he chose three of its songs to include in Nirvana's MTV unplugged performance. If you prefer your Meat Puppets to be less garagey and more psychedelic, then Mirage is your benchmark. Despite the mainstream success it represents, many devoted fans still have a lingering fondness for the 1994 best-seller Too High to Die and its flagship single "Backwater". Does Dusty Notes live up to such a rich past? If you are already a fan, then it doesn't need to. If you're on the fence and need a little convincing, then the simple answer is yes.

The question becomes more difficult if you try to pin Dusty Notes to a particular point in the band's past. There's their punker-than-punk debut, the carefully arranged Mirage and Forbidden Places, the meat-and-potatoes rock of Huevos, and the heavy tilt of No Joke! to use as reference points, but none of these feel entirely appropriate. If anything Dusty Notes sneaks away pieces of warped Americana from various deep cuts of previous albums and give them a mature twist befitting of the 21st-century Meat Puppets. It finds the band embracing their firm grip on the Grateful Dead and the Band while still allowing the psychedelic shading to alter their character just enough. It's everything you have come to expect from a band that, long ago, dealt in the unexpected. To top it all off, Curt Kirkwood can still write a song incapable of leaving your head. As Bostrom told him during the recording sessions, "You know what people are gonna do after they listen to this? Listen to it again." And that's not just talk.
Bolstered by keyboard contributions by Rob Stabinsky and some extra guitar from Curt Kirkwood's son Elmo, Dusty Notes is the most sturdy Meat Puppets album since their last one -- and the one before that, and so on. "Warranty" gets things started perfectly, a piece of pastoral country rock, drenched with soaring guitar echoes and driven by oink-per-beat polka. "Take a look at what I am / You're looking through the invisible man" goes the ascending chorus, almost as if it were designed to forecast as well as announce a triumphant album: "Satisfaction cannot be guaranteed / When you don't know just what you see." Under different pop culture circumstances, "Warranty" could become as ubiquitous as "Backwater" was in the '90s, it's that good.
With "Nine Pins", Curt Kirkwood convinces the listener that his originals can coexist with, and maybe even be mistaken for, old country. Hell, it's even more convincing than their cover of Don Gibson's "Sea of Heartbreak" which finds Ron Stabinsky stuck in faux saloon pattern. "Nine Pins", on the other hand, has rolling banjos, a gleeful organ, and some down-home vocal harmonies setting the scene with the refrain "and the moon shines down." If you are a fan of Murmur-era R.E.M., "On" will do nicely. The melody to "Shaking Through" melds with the brisk waltz time of "We Walk": "Like an old broken record / It just keeps on playing on." It isn't until "Vampyr's Winged Fantasy" that Meat Puppets let things get a little freaky. Here, the band let go of the Americana crutches and make a grab for their No Joke!­-era bluster without a care for how it will strike the listener. The father and son team of guitars squall together in a psychedelic freak-out that makes the song's 3:39 length too short.
Now that the three original members of the Meat Puppets are once again an active band, the pressure is on. You can almost see some of their flock leaping to their phones or keyboards, ready to split hairs to bring you news of how Dusty Notes doesn't measure up to Up on the Sun. Feel free to ignore the skepticism and pessimism. Derrick Bostrom proclaimed the Meat Puppets to be a "national treasure" for a reason, and that's because quality and fun have been equally balanced ingredients in their best work. Dusty Notesbears that mark.

https://www.popmatters.com/meat-puppets-dusty-notes-2630756130.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2

Accessed: 3/6/19

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