Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II
Marry images of peyote and the Arizona plains,
the early 80's hardcore scene and by counter-point,
three long-haired freaks. Meat Puppets is all of these things
but through the juxtaposition resembles none of them.
Only the disaffected outsider could produce something
so simultaneously alien and emblematic, and these disgruntled,
often-spat-upon teenagers are just that.
Their punk inheritance is obvious, but all bridges
with the hardline aesthetics of hardcore are burned and left behind,
replaced by the dual antitheses of punk rock,
country/western & psychedelia.
The beauty is in how these elements interact-
how punk breathes passion into country and acid rock visualizes
the vast and mystical beauty of the desert.
Combine these elements with Kurt- err..
Curt Kirkwood's strained, paradoxically melodic and atonal vocals
which intone acid-friend murmuring of life, death, time, politics,
and of course, acid. Every song on here is essential,
from the skewed hardcore of “Split Myself in Two” and “New Gods,”
to the absolutely gorgeous instrumental tracks
“Aurora Borealis” and “I'm a Mindless Idiot.”
At this point this album is 25 years dated,
but its sounds are as timeless as Ennio Morricone's themes.
if there are actually those of you who do not own this:
pm me.