Paradise: Land of the Meat Puppets
Warner Music Australasia, 1999/2000
"Meat Puppets" Biography, Warner Music
“Ultimately, when music gets really good, you’re just along for the ride,” says singer/guitarist Curt Kirkwood. “That was what Elvis’ was trying to explain: ‘I just can’t hold still when I hear that snare starts popping!’ It’s that in a nutshell – that thing.”
With their Breaking/Atlantic Records debut, rock’s pioneering Meat Puppets take a ride of their own with ‘GOLDEN LIES’ their first new studio album since 1995. The Austin, Texas-based quartet – featuring founding member Curt Kirkwood, along with guitarist Kyle Ellison and drummer Shandon Sahm (both formally of Austin’s infamous Pariah) and former-Bob Mould bassist Andrew Deplantis –shaped the fourteen-track collection in 1999 with open-ended sessions at their own humble, Brooklyn Bridge Recording studio.
“Yeah, we recorded the album at a little studio space where we were paying 200-bucks-a-month for,” explains Kirkwood. “Kyle owns all the gear so he did the engineering and we basically produced it ourselves. As far as I’m concerned, it just goes to prove that recording technology has really caught up with everyone’s bullshit.”
The band’s twelfth studio release, ‘GOLDEN LIES’ finds Kirkwood taking on the role of primary producer – with Ellison and John Plymale (Superchunk) as co-producers – for the first time since 1989’s ‘MONSTERS.’ “It was an accident,” says Curt with a laugh, explaining the events that placed him in the producer’s chair. “No one stepped in to say, ‘Hey, Neil Armstrong wants to produce the album!’”
An amalgamation of songs composed over the course of the past few years, ‘GOLDEN LIES’ also includes a pair of tracks – ‘Hercules’ and ‘Wipe Out’ – produced by Kirkwood’s longtime cohort, Paul Leary. The Butthole Surfers guitarist, whose production credits include albums from Sublime, Supersuckers, and Reverend Horton Heat, previously worked in the studio with Kirkwood & Co. on such celebrated Meat Puppets offerings as ‘TOO HIGH TO DIE’ and ‘NO JOKE!’ “Paul’s got an amazing ear,” says Curt. “When I listen back to the other albums he’s done with us, they sound fucking fabulous.”
Amidst the riff-rolling rock of ‘Take Off Your Clothes,’ the upbeat melody of ‘I Quit,’ and the multi-faceted sonic freak-out of “Hercules – complete with Curt’s honky tonk-styled rap vocal passages – the album thrives with an expansive palette of unsuspecting loops and diverse instrumentation, from accordion to piano, Hammond B3 to sax and xylophone.
As Kirkwood explains, ‘GOLDEN LIES’ has also opened the door to a new, altered state of lyrical expression. “I’m getting better at actually pinning down what I’m writing about,” he says. “I’m not so coy or even afraid to say what I mean – almost in spite of myself. It might be abstract, but at least I know what it all means.”
The Meat Puppets – or, “the Pups,” as they’re affectionately known by fans around the world – have long been one of the American rock underground’s most inventive and enduring bands. Founded in 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona by Kirkwood, his bassist brother, Cris Kirkwood, and drummer Derrick Bostrom, the group created a unique blend of hardcore punk, country, blues, rock, and psychedelia over the course of numerous EPs and acclaimed albums, including 1985’s ‘UP ON THE SUN’ – called “…possibly the most inventive demonstration of the interplay between guitar, bass, and drums ever recorded” by NME.
In the wake of renewed success with 1991’s ‘FORBIDDEN PLACES’ album, the Meat Puppets were invited in 1993 to appear as a support act on Nirvana’s sold-out “IN UTERO” tour, later accompanying the band on their legendary MTV Unplugged session. That performance saw the brothers Kirkwood joining longtime Pups fan Kurt Cobain and crew for acoustic renditions of three Meat Puppets classics, including ‘Plateau,’ ‘Oh Me,’ and ‘Lake of Fire’ – all of which subsequently appeared in 1994 on Nirvana’s ‘UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK.’
The Meat Puppets’ epic 1994 also saw the release of ‘TOO HIGH TO DIE,’ the breakout album that notably featured the hit single, ‘Backwater.’ Standing as the Pups’ biggest hit to date, the album reached #2 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, as well as #42 on the Billboard “Hot 100.” Along with the mayhem of the unprecedented chart achievements, the band headed out on the road with the likes of Stone Temple Pilots, Blind Melon, and Soul Asylum.
It was following the release of 1995’s ‘NO JOKE’ that Kyle Ellison signed on to join the band’s subsequent tour in 1995. “We sent Kyle the CD, and he learned the entire thing in a week, says Curt. “We flew him out to Phoenix and quickly realized it was a perfect match.”
That same year, Ellison was on stage for what became the final performance to feature the original double Kirkwood/Bostrum trio. After maintaining a songwriters correspondence for nearly two years – which included a detour to Venice, California – Curt picked up in 1997 and joined Kyle in Austin, where work on new songs began in earnest. As their individual and collaborative writing gave rise to a wealth of material, Kirkwood and Ellison soon recruited two of Austin’s best-loved vets to complete their team of musical characters: Drummer Shandon Sahm and bassist Andrew Duplantis.
“Austin is a super supportive place to do anything creative,” says Curt. “It should be called The Live Musician Capitol. There’s a huge core of musicians there and everybody’s doing something.”
Friends since grade school, Kyle and Shandon (son of Texas’ legendary guitarist, composer, and Atlantic recording artist Doug Sahm, to who the album is dedicated) made their reputation in the early ‘90s as members of the celebrated Pariah. Kyle also spent a post-‘NO JOKE’ year on the worldwide stage as the Butthole Surfers second guitarist. Duplantis previously made a name for himself playing with Bob Mould and Alejandro Escobedo, in addition to touring as a singer/songwriter in support of Son Volt.
Well-oiled and greased to go, the quartet made its unofficial live introductions at 1998’s SXSW festival before a formal unveiling in St. Paul Minnesota at the Grand Ole Days festival in June of 1999. Among that year’s many highlights, the Meat Puppets played an acoustic set opening for the peerless Willie Nelson at an Austin benefit event for the non-profit SIMS Foundation.
Founded in the name of Kyles’ brother Sims, the grassroots organization (www.sims-foundation.org) directs musicians to appropriate professional counseling help. The foundation is also committed to educating the community at large about the effects of mental illness, alcohol and substance abuse. Sims, who played bass in Pariah, committed suicide in June of 1995 after a long battle with depression.
“We’re just a work-a-day band doing our thing,” remarks Curt before giving up a sly smile. “And you want to know what’s really, really frightening?.. My tenacity! Preconceptions will be broken.”