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1980s |
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1999, Prince
The Age of Plastic, Buggles
Beauty and the Beat, Go-Go’s
Black Celebration, Depeche Mode
The Blue Mask, Lou Reed
Daydream Nation, Sonic Youth
Doolittle, Pixies
Double Nickels on the Dime, Minutemen
Dream Babies Go Hollywood, John Stewart
Flesh + Blood, Roxy Music
Los Angeles, X
Meat Puppets II, Meat Puppets
Murmur, R.E.M.
Oh Mercy, Bob Dylan
Pretenders, Pretenders
Sandinista!, The Clash
Substance, Joy Division
A Walk Across the Rooftops, The Blue Nile
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Meat Puppets II, Meat Puppets
SST, 1983
Track Listing: 1. Split Myself In Two, 2. Magic Toy Missing, 3. Lost, 4. Plateau, 5. Aurora Borealis 6. We’re Here, 7. Climbing, 8. New Gods, 9. Oh, Me, 10. Lake Of Fire, 11. I’m A Mindless Idiot, 12. The Whistling Song
The fog had a heartbeat. It rolled in out of nowhere, alive. We were under attack by monsters. Another Meat Puppets show had begun.
It continued in waves from three separate directions, crashing and pulsating to form an unbelievable unification of hardcore brute punk force, controlled rock power, and delicate country beauty, exploding into itself to form the perfect storm. Three separate elements crashing head on. Curt came in on guitar from the east like a hurricane, colliding with his wild, untamed, westward brother Cris on bass, joined by the hypertension of Derrick Bostrom’s relentless beats from the south. A maelstrom of gigantic, hellishly furious waves swallowed you and spit you back out.
The Kirkwood brothers were as versatile as a Swiss Army Knife. They could serve up a side order of soft harmonies and acoustic playfulness or they could kick it right back into an electric onslaught. They could whistle like horny birds or they could squeal like pigs at the trough.
Live, the Puppets sometimes seemed like they only knew two speeds, lightening fast and faster still. To be so tight at such frenetic speeds just doesn’t seem right. They were a three-headed monster.
Meat Puppets II provides many angles of the puppet show. The trademark live show frenzy shines through on “Split Myself In Two,” and “New Gods.” The alt-country marriage of bluegrass, punk, and country smoothes the waters on “Lost,” “We’re Here” “Climbing” and “The Whistling Song.” Instrumentals “Magic Toy Missing” and “Aurora Borealis” bubble over into perfect grooves of pyschedelia. Slower, slimy acoustic grime festers on “Oh, Me” and “Plateau.” And of course, there is always the hard rock screech of “Lake Of Fire” to make your hairs stand on edge. Like much of the subsequent Meat Puppets catalog, Meat Puppets II offers a little for everyone, not least of which is an overriding offbeat humor that is as much fun to revisit as the music itself.
-G
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