Kept like a secret and aged like a fine wine, the Arizona threesome continue to define their knack—a country pop psychedelic experiment with enough smatterings of rock and blues to lull southern comfort—a weird southern comfort. Formed in 1980 by brothers Cris and Curt Kirkwood, the Puppets have released an array of records over the past three decades, riding through the early 90’s buzz, swapping genres, battling addictions, and ultimately, emerging victorious in staying in the game and sculpting a fine idiosyncratic sound.
“It’s pretty interesting,” admits guitarist Curt Kirkwood, soft spoken and radiant from the previous night’s show, via phone at his hotel in Los Angeles. “It’s been steady and kind of lucky in a way to be able to have what seems almost like a path to follow.”
Also known as one of Kurt Cobain’s favorite muses, The Meat Puppets became a household name in 1993 when the brothers were guests on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged set in New York.
“That was a lot of fun,” says Kirkwood. “It was another really good vibe kind of set, it wasn’t like a recording session, it turned out to be a show, and I think that’s why it was a good performance that was popular in terms of that unplugged series—it was one that was straight up, it was a real show.” Among the performances were, “Plateau,” “Oh Me,” and “Lake of Fire,” the latter becoming a famous grunge music centerpiece, in which a ravaged Cobain eerily sang of death and the afterlife close to 180 days prior to his own passing.
The Meat Puppets’ musical display was spot on during the MTV taping and the event further spiraled the Puppets, who had already been a band for over a decade, into the early 1990s grunge whirlwind. They released Too High To Die in early 1994, which went gold selling over 500,000 copies and produced the ever cool hit, “Backwater.” Kirkwood admits that, although he was conscious of how big Nirvana was, he thought the show would only get them a little bit of attention. MTV hadn’t planned on releasing the record, but after Cobain’s death and based on the stellar merit of the set, they released it late in 1994.
The band’s major label ride and media attention ushered in new demands and debilitating temptations, sidelining Cris Kirkwood with a drug habit and further thickening the plot.
“[There were] a lot more expectations to a degree in some ways. You have to live up to your status—it’s not really given to you. It’s just as anomalous and illusive as it always was and yet there’s more of it, there’s more money and in a way more opportunities. That seemed like part of the progression and in some ways we were ready for it, and in some ways completely not, as it turned out. Fundamentally we kind of were. We kind of had some bad habits that got stoked by it all,” says Kirkwood.
With Cris out of the picture, Curt pushed the band forward, releasing limited material, and then went on hiatus to explore different avenues, playing with Eyes Adrift featuring Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and Bud Gaugh from the band Sublime, as well as releasing some solo material. The Meat Puppets eventually reformed in 2007, with a sober and stronger incarnation of Cris Kirkwood playing bass.
Invariably, the Puppets have developed an uncouth set of norms resident to the band that is spacey and sedative, with psychedelic dreamland guitar solos and lyrics that invoke Alice in Wonderland imagery. Still, the band dabbles prominently with certain rock influences that conclusively, defy a genre. Curt’s temperate stage presence and dreamy poetics are well balanced by his brother’s energy-fed bravado, which whips him around the stage like someone twenty years his younger.
On The Meat Puppets latest release, Sewn Together, it is clear that Curt has a penchant for good song writing, that mirrors his close to thirty years professional experience. The singer makes a big conscious effort toward not writing the same song twice and is to a point where drawing upon his own influence of the past many years has proven influential in furthering the Puppets sound. He talks candidly about his lifelong journey and cites that he is still growing and learning along the way.
“The most crucial one is that I’m really happy playing music regardless of the circumstances financially and in terms of the success and all of the different things that go hand and hand with that effort,” he says. “It’s something I’ve always known about myself and it’s why I got into music in the first place. It’s easy for me to do and it makes me feel satisfied even if I’m really poor or whatever. It’s a fun way to make a living.”
It’s clear that the Meat Puppets evolution over the years has been very unique and Kirkwood’s general demeanor towards his off kilter path is modest with an intrinsic gratitude. His humility was furthermore underlined in closing as he extended his highest hope for 2009, “Good shows and peace on earth.”
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