Meat Puppets (album)

Meat Puppets is the debut studio album by American rock band the Meat Puppets, released in 1982 through SST Records.

Meat Puppets
Studio album by Meat Puppets
Released	1982
Recorded	November 1981
Studio	Unicorn Studios, Hollywood, California
Genre	Hardcore punk hardcore thrash[1]
Length	21:29
Label	SST (009)
Meat Puppets chronology
In a Car (EP) (1981) Meat Puppets (1982) Meat Puppets II (1984)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Robert Christgau	B[3]
The Wire	(Favorable)[4]

The 1999 Rykodisc reissue features the entire In a Car EP as well as 13 other bonus tracks, many of them studio jams or outtakes, and a video clip of the band performing "Walking Boss" live. The booklet also has liner notes by Gregg Turkington and recording notes by drummer Derrick Bostrom.

In the 2012 book, Too High to Die: Meet the Meat Puppets by Greg Prato, an entire chapter is dedicated to Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil explaining why Meat Puppets is one of his favorite all-time albums.^[5]

Background and recording

The album was recorded in three to four days. There are very few overdubs on the album, and many of the tracks are first takes.^[6] Like other early SST albums the sound quality is rather spotty; there is noticeable fuzz in the background of the music. The band opted for this because they felt more comfortable recording live with only a few microphones rather than employing conventional studio separation techniques. In 1999, Curt Kirkwood stated, "The first [album] was our LSD record. We were three days in the studio, and we tripped the whole time. And it was really cool, and really trying, too, because we went insane."^[7] The original pressing of the 12" album is engineered to be played back at 45 rpm.

Style

Unlike the band's later releases, Meat Puppets features a hardcore punk sound. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called Meat Puppets a "full-on punk record".^[8]

Track listing

All songs written by Meat Puppets, unless otherwise noted.

Original album

1. "Reward" – 1:11
2. "Love Offering" – 1:28
3. "Blue-Green God" – 1:22
4. "Walking Boss" (Doc Watson) – 2:52
5. "Melons Rising" – 0:53
6. "Saturday Morning" – 1:30
7. "Our Friends" – 2:11
8. "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" (Bob Nolan) – 2:02
9. "Milo, Sorghum, and Maize" – 2:15
10. "Meat Puppets" – 1:38
11. "Playing Dead" – 1:28
12. "Litterbox" – 0:50
13. "Electromud" – 0:47
14. "The Gold Mine" – 1:02

1999 CD bonus tracks

15. "In a Car" - 1:21
16. "Big House" - 1:07
17. "Dolphin Field" - 1:09
18. "Out in the Gardener" - 1:04
19. "Foreign Lawns" - 0:37
20. "Meat Puppets" - 1:33
21. "Everybody's Talking" (Fred Neil) - 2:42
22. "H-Elenore" (Curt Kirkwood) - 1:39
23. "Hair" (Monitor) - 1:26
24. "I Got a Right" (Iggy Pop) - 2:40
25. "I Am a Child" (Neil Young) - 2:14
26. "Franklin's Tower" (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter, Bill Kreutzmann) - 4:52
27. "Milo Sorghum & Maize" - 1:32
28. "Electromud" - 0:45
29. "Love Offering" - 1:03
30. "Saturday Morning" - 1:11
31. "Magic Toy Missing" (Curt Kirkwood) - 1:28
32. "Unpleasant" (Curt Kirkwood, Derrick Bostrom) - 1:02

• Tracks 15-19 are from the In a Car EP.

Recording

All the songs on the original album are recorded in November 1981. Engineered by SPOT at Unicorn Studio 24 November 1981. Mixed by SPOT at Music Lab 10 May 1982 except "The Gold Mine" mixed by Laurie O'Connell & Ed Barger.

Personnel

Meat Puppets

• Derrick Bostrom – drums
• Cris Kirkwood – bass
• Curt Kirkwood – guitar, vocals

with:

• Steve Thompson – keyboards on "Hair"

Production and other credits

• Engineer – Spot (Except tracks 15-19, 23 & 27-32)
• Engineer (tracks 15-19, 23)  – Ed Barger
• Engineer (tracks 27-32)  – ?
• Mixing – Spot, except Laurie O'Connell & Ed Barger ("The Gold Mine") and Ed Barger (tracks 15-19, 23)
• Cover art – Curt Kirkwood and Damon Bostrom

References

1. Pitchfork Staff (September 10, 2018). "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 24, 2023. ...Meat Puppets' self-titled debut—a bristly fusion of hardcore thrash and Beefheart weirdness...
2. Allmusic review
3. Robert Christgau review
4. The Wire review
5. "Too High to Die: Meet the Meat Puppets". Amazon. Retrieved February 19, 2013.
6. Earles, Andrew (September 15, 2014). Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996. Yoyageur Press. p. 188. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
7. "Lake of Fire: Meat Puppets rise to their knees". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
8. "Meat Puppets Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & Mor..." AllMusic. Retrieved 2024-10-13.