Paradise: Land of the Meat Puppets
Guitar Player, Dec 2000 v34 i12 p53
Meat Puppets. (guitarist Curt Kirkwood)(Brief Article) WILL ROMANO.
From Infotrac.
Much has changed for alterna-rock legends the Meat Puppets. First, there's a change in scenery, as the band moved its base from Phoenix to Austin. Then guitarist Curt Kirkwood recruited an all-new band for the group's first studio album in five years, Golden Lies [Breaking Records/ Atlantic]. Lastly, Kirkwood dispensed with the Meat Puppets' trio format in favor of a four-piece, and brought aboard guitarist Kyle Ellison. "Trios are so confining," says Kirkwood. "Now I can finally record what I want and not worry about how to reproduce the album live."
While the group retained its signature fusion of punk, country, blues, and psychedelia, Kirkwood also fussed with some new ideas in the studio. "I tried different recording techniques," he explains. "I ran my '59 Les Paul reissue through a Univox SuperFuzz and then direct into the board. I also tried a new slide technique. I used to wrap all my fingers around the slide and hold it like a steel player. But for this record, I actually wore it the traditional way--on my finger."
The results can be heard on "Lamp," where Kirkwood creates a crying swirl of sound with the slide, a Morley Echo Chorus Vibrato pedal, a Chandler Tube Driver, and a Dunlop CryBaby. For amplifiers, Kirkwood pressed a variety of Marshall, Bogner, and Soldano heads into service.
Not to be outdone, Ellison often complemented Kirkwood's punkified Billy Gibbons leanings with a little electronic stew. "My rig is simple--a Gibson Les Paul plugged into a Vox AC30 and a 100-watt Marshall," says Ellison. "But for `Fat Boy/Fat/Requiem,' I sent my guitar into an Eventide H3000 and used the manual pitch shifter to get this cool whirlwind sound. I consider it my job to make the songs as weird as possible."