Meat Puppets started as a punk rock band, but like most of their labelmates on SST Records, they established their own unique style, blending punk with country and psychedelic rock, and featuring Curt's warbling vocals. Meat Puppets later gained significant exposure when the Kirkwood brothers served as guest musicians on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged performance in 1993. The band's 1994 album Too High to Die subsequently became their most successful release. The band broke up twice, in 1996 and 2002, but reunited again in 2006.
Meat Puppets has influenced a number of rock bands including Nirvana, Soundgarden, Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh and Pavement.
Their early works (the In A Car EP and Meat Puppets LP) were wholeheartedly punk, with vocals so feral in their delivery they were often indecipherable, but ultimately humorous and clever once deciphered. The musicianship was mostly thrash, yet the songs were tinged with a subtle, haunting element like that of a long abandoned ghost town. Their brand of cathartic, explosive hardcore attracted the attention of legendary punk label SST, who released their first record in 1982.
Unsatisfied with the result, the band spent plenty of time in the studio before the release of 1983's Meat Puppets II. The band's exciting experimentation with psychedelia, acid rock, and quieter tunes on top of a core western-style thrash sound, gave them their one acknowledged classic album, and propelled the record to legendary status. Meat Puppets II turned Meat Puppets into the one of the leading bands in SST Records league and, along with Violent Femmes, the Gun Club and others, helped establish country punk.
The Meat Puppets' burgeoning musicality led to more intricate and melodic efforts on 1985's Up on the Sun, which was a cohesive collage of songs that further demonstrated their abilities to capture a sound that had all of the wonder of the desert. The band's sound and vision became closely aligned with the legacy of The Byrds; some of the group's fans accused the Meat Puppets of becoming dangerously hippy-sounding (this appreciation of "hippy" music was hardly a sudden development: Curt's guitar solos were, from the beginning of his career, often reminiscent of Jerry Garcia). However, Up On The Sun demonstrated strong musicianship, accompanied by an unfading ability to write sophisticated and intriguing songs. This album generated the band's first major mainstream exposure, and many fans still consider it to be their masterpiece.
Over the next decade, the Meat Puppets remained on SST and released a series of albums, touring almost relentlessly on the underground circuit. After the release of Out My Way in 1986, however, the band was briefly sidelined by an accident when Curt's finger was broken after being slammed in their touring van's door. The accident delayed the band's next album, the psychedelic Mirage, until the next year. The final result was a meticulously crafted release in early 1987, and their most polished sound to date. Mirage at the time was hailed by some mainstream critics as the Puppet's best work yet.
Subsequently, their next album, the heavier, power-trio-rooted Huevos came out less than six months afterward, in late summer of 1987. In stark contrast to its predecessor, Huevos was recorded in a swift, fiery fashion, with many first takes, and minimal second guessing. The album was named, not only after the Spanish word for eggs, but was also a reference to the Spanish slang use of the word "Huevos" to mean "testicles." This was significant not only with regard to the songs themselves, but to the bold, rough manner in which they were recorded. These recordings were completed in only a matter of days, and along with a few drawings and one of Curt's paintings taken from the wall to serve as cover art (a dish of three boiled eggs, a green pepper, and a bottle of Tabasco sauce), was all sent to SST shortly before the band returned to the road en route to their next gig.
Monsters was released in 1989, featuring Curt-as-guitar-hero on such extended jams as "Touchdown King" and "Flight of the Fire Weasel."
Major label career (1991-1995)
As numerous bands from the seminal SST label, and other kindred punk-oriented indies, grappled with the "going major" decision, so did the 'Pups. Two years after their final studio recording for SST, 1989's Monsters, the trio released its major label debut, Forbidden Places, on the indie-friendly London Records. A three-year break saw the band's studio return with 1994's Too High To Die, produced by Butthole Surfers guitarist Paul Leary. The album featured "Backwater", a hit on alternative radio, and a hidden-track update of "Lake of Fire." Too High To Die earned the 'Pups a gold record (over 500,000 sold), outselling their previous records combined. That same year saw the 'Pups in their brightest mainstream spotlight as the band achieved sudden popularity when Nirvana's Kurt Cobain invited Cris and Curt to join him on MTV for acoustic performances of "Plateau", "Oh Me" and "Lake of Fire" (all originally from Meat Puppets II). The resulting album, MTV Unplugged in New York, served as a swan-song for Nirvana, as Cobain died six months after the concert. "Lake of Fire" became a cult favorite for its particularly wrenching vocal performance from Cobain. Subsequently, the Nirvana exposure and the strength of the single "Backwater" (their only charting single) helped lift the Meat Puppets to new commercial heights.
1995's No Joke! would be the final album recorded by the original Meat Puppets lineup. Unfortunately, Cris Kirkwood was now a heroin addict, whose heavy and compulsive use of the drug increasingly dominated his life. This was a major departure from the psychedelic drugs with which the Meat Puppets had always been associated; his erratic behavior soon became too much for the band to cope with. The first single from No Joke!, "Scum", charted briefly on the modern rock charts, but ultimately the album paled in success to its predecessor.
First hiatus and reunion (1996-2000)
Derrick recorded a solo EP under the moniker Today's Sounds in 1996, and later on in 1999 took charge of re-issuing the Puppets' original seven records on Rykodisc as well as putting out their first live album, Live in Montana. Curt formed a new band in Austin, TX called the Royal Neanderthal Orchestra, but they changed their name to Meat Puppets to release a promotional EP entitled You Love Me in 1999, Golden Lies in 2000 and Live in 2002. The line-up was Curt (voc/git), Kyle Ellison (voc/git), Andrew Duplantis (voc/bass) and Shandon Sahm (drums). Sahm's father was the legendary fiddler-singer-songwriter Doug Sahm of The Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornados. The concluding track to Classic Puppets entitled "New Leaf" also dates from this incarnation of the band.
Break up (2001-2005)
Around 2001-2002, the Meat Puppets dissolved as Curt has gone on to release albums with the groups Eyes Adrift and Volcano. In 2005, he released his first solo album entitled Snow.
His brother Cris was arrested in December 2003 for attacking a security guard at a post office with the guard's baton. The guard shot Kirkwood during the melee. Kirkwood was subsequently denied bail, the judge citing Kirkwood's previous drug arrests and parole violations. He eventually went to prison for felony assault. He was released in July of 2005.
Derrick Bostrom began a home page (www.meatpuppets.com) for the band about six months before the original trio stopped working together. The site went through many different permutations before it was essentially mothballed in 2003. In late 2005, Bostrom revamped it once again, this time as a "blog" for his recollections and as a place to share pieces of Meat Puppets history.
Second reunion (2006-present)
On March 24, 2006, Curt Kirkwood polled fans at his MySpace page with the following bulletin: "Question for all! Would the original line up of the Meat Puppets interest anyone? Feedback is good - do you want a reunion?!" The response from fans was overwhelmingly positive within a couple of hours, leading to speculation of a full-blown Meat Puppets reunion in the near future. However, a post made by Derrick Bostrom on the official Meat Puppets site dismissed the notion.
An April 26, 2006 billboard.com story reported that the Kirkwood brothers would reunite as the Meat Puppets without original drummer Derrick Bostrom. Primus drummer Tim Alexander was announced as Bostrom's replacement. Curt mentioned that a new Meat Puppets album was written, but it has not yet been recorded. Curt continued to tour on his solo material with his son Elmo.
Tim Alexander never ended up drumming with the Meat Puppets. Instead, Ted Marcus is the band's current drummer.
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Island
Meat Puppets Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Bounced on the onfloat history of life
Somewhere in the afterglow peeling it fell
And it's good to see the happiness far
You're the grass, you're the trees
You're the thing that makes the wind
You're the roots of the sky
You never move, you never sleep
You're the thought I cannot keep
You're a denessen of the deep
You're an island
Always in the never glades
Purple wings in five picture
Golden eyes and I
Somewhere in the afterglow peeling it fell
Where it's coming from no one can ever tell
You're the grass, you're the trees
You're the thing that makes the wind
You're the roots of the sky
You're an island
You never move, you never sleep
You're the thought I cannot keep
You're a denessen of the deep
You're an island
Somewhere on the earth now everything is cool
Drinking from the after flow splash becomes a pool
Somewhere in the after glow peeling it fell
Where it's coming from no one can ever tell
You're the grass, you're the trees
You're the thing that makes the wind
You're the roots of the sky
You're an island
You never move, you never sleep
You're the thought I cannot keep
You're a denessen of the deep
You're an island
You never move, you never sleep
You're the thought I cannot keep
You're a denessen of the deep
You're an island
You're the moon, you're the glass
Down stone the donkeys ass
Up above the heavens laugh
You're an island
The lyrics of Meat Puppets' song "Island" seem to be a surreal and dreamlike description of an otherworldly place. The opening lines suggest that the singer is on the moonwalk, a reference to the surface of the moon where Apollo astronauts walked in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The reference to "history of life" might be a nod to the idea that the moon's surface has preserved evidence of Earth's early history, including the impacts of asteroids and the formation of the solar system. The next lines suggest that the singer is witnessing some kind of cosmic event, where a peel or layer is falling away and revealing something happier or more beautiful beyond.
The chorus describes the subject of the song as an island, a place of stability and groundedness. The island is the grass, the trees, and the roots of the sky, suggesting a deep and integral connection to the natural world. The repeated refrain of "You're an island" reinforces the idea that this place or entity is self-contained and self-sufficient, perhaps immune to the chaos and uncertainty that are hinted at in the earlier lines.
The later verses continue to explore this otherworldly landscape, describing purple wings and golden eyes, and suggesting that the subject of the song is a part of the "never glades," a mysterious and otherworldly realm. The final lines of the song, referencing the moon again alongside a more mundane image of a donkey, underscore the dreamlike and surreal nature of the lyrics.
Overall, "Island" is a song that invites interpretation and encourages the listener to consider the connections between different elements of the natural world and the universe as a whole.
Line by Line Meaning
Someday on the moonwalk everything was right
Once upon a time, everything was perfect on the moonwalk.
Bounced on the onfloat history of life
We were carefree and buoyant, living life to the fullest.
Somewhere in the afterglow peeling it fell
Something fell apart in the aftermath of all the good times we had.
And it's good to see the happiness far
It's comforting to look back on our happy memories from a distance.
You're the grass, you're the trees
You are the essence of nature, providing the foundation for everything around you.
You're the thing that makes the wind
Even the forces of nature are borne out of your existence.
You're the roots of the sky
Your influence extends to the very heavens above us.
You're an island
You are self-contained, an entity in your own right.
You never move, you never sleep
You are an immovable force, a constant presence in our lives.
You're the thought I cannot keep
You are so complex and multi-faceted that you evade comprehension.
You're a denessen of the deep
You are part of the very fabric of life and cannot be easily understood or explained.
Always in the never glades
You are ubiquitous, everywhere at once.
Purple wings in five picture
Your influence is felt in every spectrum of life.
Golden eyes and I
Your presence is both mesmerizing and mysterious.
Somewhere on the earth now everything is cool
Nowadays, things are much calmer and more peaceful on earth.
Drinking from the after flow splash becomes a pool
Even the smallest things in life can yield great enjoyment when viewed in context.
You're the moon, you're the glass
You are a part of everything around us, providing context and meaning to the world.
Down stone the donkeys ass
All things, no matter how seemingly insignificant, have value and importance.
Up above the heavens laugh
Even the vastness of the universe echoes with the joy and beauty of life.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: CURTIS MATTHEW KIRKWOOD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Nakib Ahmed
best audio of the song i've heard in 15 years. thank you for this.
CONSULTING FIRM SRL
Che spettacolo!!!!!!!!!!!