Thanks to Nirvana, the Meat Puppets album everyone knows is Meat Puppets II — and for good reason. It’s an essential indie rock near-masterpiece. For their MTV Unplugged performance, Kurt Cobain and co. did three songs from the 1984 album, and even had the two Kirkwood brothers who make up two-thirds of the Puppets on stage with them. But the Phoenix band actually have 15 albums, and I’m going to make the case for their third one being another classic you need to own.
Up On The Sun came out in 1985. I recently sold my original copy for a stupid amount of money and bought the 180g remaster for $20. It has two of my favourite Puppets tunes on it — the title track and Swimming Ground. The Meat Puppets have been around for so damn long — since 1980, in fact. Frontman Curt Kirkwood was just 21 years old when they started. Next year he’ll be old enough to ride the bus for free. The band name comes from a song of the same name on the debut album of the same name. Yeah, they’re one of those. Motörhead. Black Sabbath. Bad Company. Wilco, etc. A meat puppet is a person with no will or mind of their own.
Meat Puppets were one of the first bands to appear on the SST label, started by Black Flag guitarist/songwriter Greg Ginn in 1978. Fun fact, Ginn actually had the name Solid State Turners around since he was a little kid and used it as a “company” to sell electronics. The Puppets were among a catalog of bands which included Black Flag (Nervous Breakdown, SST 001), Minutemen (Paranoid Time, SST 002) and Hüsker Dü (Metal Circus, SST 020). The first Meat Puppets record was SST 009.
They’re one of those bands that started out punk and gradually found their sound. Really, it didn’t take long for them; by the second album they had the distinct Meat Puppets sound of warbly, often flat vocals, plenty of instrumentals, curly, clean guitar licks and real catchy parts — not just choruses, but bridges and codas. The coda in Plateau from Meat Puppets II is very special to me.
Lots of bands of this ilk had punky, harsher debut albums, but found their sound for the sophomore offering. Pavement are a good example. As a result, on their third record, Curt, his brother Cris and co. could devote more energy to the songwriting, having established their sound on Meat Puppets II. Their affection for country and psychedelia shines through even more clearly than on II. They were stoners. This is stoner music. Something like less jokey Ween combined with late-era Minutemen.
Up On The Sun was recorded in three days at Redondo Beach by SST house engineer Glenn Lockett, aka Spot, who just passed away March 4, 2023. As with the previous album, the cover art is a painting by Curt — a coffee mug with cannabis leaves on it, hinting at the content of the recording and that which fueled its creation. Let’s give it a spin …
It opens with the title track, which is one of the wordiest on the record. For me, the melody of the verses are better than the chorus, and then there’s a wonderfully monotone post-chorus refrain: “Not too much more, too much more.” The lyrics are really creative — evocative even though they’re vague. The instrumentation is nimble, likeable, catchy and cool. It’s a song where I am always compelled to join in on air guitar as well as air bass and air drums. At nearly four minutes, it’s the longest song on the record. *high five*
Maiden’s Milk is next, a real flex of the Kirkwood brother’s chops. It eventually changes beat and becomes more pastoral — and then, the whistling. It’s an instrumental with dual whistling which seems meant to emulate strings or horns. It’s great.
Track 3, Away, is another tight one, but with vocals this time. Very stoner vocals. But, I’m not sure anything else would work. It would run the risk of turning into The Smiths, and who wants that? The bass is so bright that I honestly can’t say for sure it isn’t an acoustic bass. Major part of their sound, though — that and the undistorted, clean guitar. The thing about recording bass this way is you gotta be PERFECT. Any flub is so noticeable.
The intricacies of the guitar/bass parts doesn’t let up with Animal Kingdom. This is a song my girls used to like when they were little. I bet The B-52’s could do a killer cover of this. Hot Pink is musically much simpler than anything else so far, in that the changes aren’t as quick. Vocally, it’s chill and pretty but a little weird and meandering at times. I’d love to hear this with a slightly more muted bass. But that’s me, and it’s not 1985.
The side ends with the album’s best song, Swimming Ground. Very polished and well-rehearsed for what seems to be live off the floor with some guitar overdubs. Kurt kicks the flanger and delay pedals on, hinting at the sound of future Puppets records like Too High To Die. Swimming Ground has an unbelievably wonderful guitar refrain and the subject is so familiar to me:
“The best place I ever found
Wasn’t close to any town
Was a little swimming ground
Everything just floating around.”
Flip the record over and we’re treated to Buckethead. This one is very Firehose-like, in my opinion. Narrow, tight and intricate and danceable with typically wobbly vocals. Frigging whip-smart pseudo-cop chase bridge, though. Clever buggers.
Too Real is a slightly more rockin’ one, gruffer and riffy rather than intricate. Could be a punk song if it wasn’t clean. I believe this is the first song on the album to feature a guitar solo. The amazingly titled Enchanted Pork Fist is next … some sort of insane Allman Brothers thing, at least to start. Then it turns sneaky. And then changes again into classic Meat Puppets. So good. I might have opened the second side with this.
Seal Whales is an instrumental which could have been on the previous album. This one has been among my ‘saved’ songs on Spotify for ages. Two Rivers is a classic example of a Puppets song which is an unlikely earworm. The vocal melody is so monotone compared to the jangly, bright guitars — but I find it really infectious and uplifting while relaxing at the same time. It’s like a song in your head. One of my faves.
It all ends, at least on vinyl, with Creator, a swell chase-scene song which seems like it might be an instrumental — but it’s not, they just come in late. On a two-minute song. I might cover this. Butthole Surfers would have killed this in their Electriclarryland era. Essential listening, foundational.
4/5
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
