Zack: There are so many influences in Meat Puppets
second album that I could easily break my record for longest post (a record
that I believe currently sits at only a modest infinity words) breaking down
all the comparisons I made. Instead, I want to focus on two that maybe don’t
stand out as much but I thought were the most interesting. First off, there is
a real protogrunge element here. The musical origins of grunge are sort of
fascinating to me, and the only real precedent I’ve heard before this was some of
the electric elements on Neil Young’s Rust Never Sleeps (relistened to it for
the 1012th time yesterday and it’s still amazing). It seems to be
crystallizing a little bit more clearly in a few places here, at least enough
that I was surprised to see this album came out in the first half of the 80s.
Second, long live cowpunk! Cowpunk isn’t an actually good genre, but it may be
my favorite just because of how awful that portmanteau is on the eyes. There
was a little cowpunk in Drive-by Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera – a remnant of
their earlier days – but this is the first time where whole songs have clearly
fallen under that glorious category. I’ve always struggled to explain cowpunk
to people, usually just needing to resort to YouTube clips of Social Distortion
playing (read: slaughtering) Ring of Fire. Now, I am armed with multiple
examples of the horror monster that it is.
Favorite Tracks: Aurora Borealis; Oh Me; Lake of Fire
Emily: I recognized the Meat Puppets from their guest appearance on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged album. They come on near the end of the set, and join Kurt Cobain as he covers a few songs off of Meat Puppets II. From all the times I've listened to that Unplugged album, I never really thought much about the Meat Puppets. I just assumed they were another Seattle grunge band, friends with Nirvana from back in the day and got invited to jam with them for one of their biggest audiences and albums to date. Turns out the Meat Puppets far predate Nirvana, and they're from Phoenix instead of Seattle. And those songs Kurt Cobain took on? Not exactly from a grunge album. Meat Puppets II is incredibly diverse in its influences, ranging from country to punk to psychedelic and everything in between. The Nirvana connection does make sense though - grunge rose out of the same diverse alternative roots in the '90s that the Meat Puppets thrived in in the '80s. And I'd like to hear the cowpunk spin that the Meat Puppets could put on Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Favorite Tracks: Plateau; Lost; New Gods
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