The Meat Puppets spent the late eighties living out of a second-hand RV. We travelled the country like a rock and roll gypsy caravan — roadies, girlfriends, Curt’s pit bull and a trailer full of gear in tow. After driving all day, we’d hit town in the afternoon, winding right past the nicer neighborhoods until we reached that night’s shit-hole. As soon as we finished loading in and doing our sound-check, I’d make for the pavement, looking for anything else to do: a thrift store, a comic store, healthy food, even a laundromat. In the meantime, the Kirkwoods would pitch their nightly floating dope carnival in the parking lot.
But the grind was wearing us all down. With no new product to promote that year, attendance at our shows was dropping. As gates decreased, we got shorter and shorter shrift from the promoters. Meanwhile, we developed superstitious rituals: “warming up” before every show with muscle-wrenching “stretches” and loading up on herbal stimulants. We’d get on stage and pound on our instruments until we wore ourselves out — or until the audience left. We fought with everyone: our label, our booking agent, club employees, each other, sometimes even with the fans. We were exhausted. We’d been living hand-to-mouth for too long, playing too many piddly-shit gigs for too little money. We were squandering our reputation and burning ourselves out. Curt finally told us he couldn’t take any more.
During a break from touring, we cut a new demo and, for the first time in years, beat the bushes for major label interest. A couple of label reps came out to some shows, but none took the bait. In the end, Curt had no choice but to deal once again with SST. During a visit to California, he cut a rough version of “The Void” using Greg’s new drum machine. He liked the results. I’d been pushing him to use a drum machine on our next record, wanting a more level playing field against the rest of the mid-eighties rock world already on the sequencer bandwagon. I was tired of comping along in the background, and wanted the chance to actually compose my parts.
First, I laid down a basic kick and snare pattern on drum pads, playing along with Curt to a click track. Then the brothers came in one at a time and overdubbed their own bass, guitar and vocals. After they finished their parts, I composed my fills using the drum machine keyboard. Finally, I added live cymbals, replacing the click track with real high hat. This strategy suited us well, for at the time we were barely speaking to each other. I don’t think all three of us were ever all in the studio at the same time.
The finished product had a calculated hair metal sound to it. Just to make sure nobody missed the point, we added entirely too much reverb. The songs were pretty basic, and the poetry was stingy by Meat Puppets standards. Mostly, Curt just wanted to rock out; he didn’t want to be bothered by the rest of it. The album is hampered by our crappy “self production” and the leaden mechanical drum tracks, but the best songs eventually found life on stage. “Light,” “Attacked by Monsters” and “Touchdown King” became concert staples.
Once we delivered “Monsters,” we began our preparations for yet another season in the R.V. But a funny thing happened. Atlantic Records offered us and SST a nice sum for the rights to release the album. But Greg wouldn’t even consider giving it up. They had planned their whole season around the release, and everything was already printed and pressed. Both sides dug in. Suddenly, it became a lot harder to get somebody from either label on the phone. “Monsters” was a flop — poorly promoted and poorly received. We went out for another round of shitty gigs. This time around, all the opening acts had major label albums. While their promo teams beat a path to their dressing rooms, we were selling handmade tee shirts for gas money. We couldn’t even find our record in stores. We felt screwed.
It was around this time when rumors began to circulate that we were finished. And the rumors weren’t far from true. I hardly even felt like I was in a band any more. Nothing but inertia kept me going — that and the desire to see how the story was going to end. I didn’t want to give Cris and Curt the satisfaction of giving up before they did. I stopped smoking grass that summer, and spent most my time trying to make sense of our disastrous finances. When a major label contract finally arrived in the summer of 1990, it was a predictably shitty deal. But it was a lifeline, and we grabbed it. What choice did we have?
You’d think, given my critical eye for my own work, that I’d rate “Monsters” dead last. And it’s true: artistically, the album is my least favorite. But as a tactic to attract a major label deal, it was a complete success. And even if our new partners at London/Polygram didn’t particularly “get” the Meat Puppets, for a while at least it seemed the change would breathe new life into the band. And for a while at least, it did.
“Three Little Pigs” (“Monsters” Demos): MirrorCreator | Mediafire
“Three Little Pigs” Sessions MirrorCreator | Mediafire
“Monsters” Mixes: MirrorCreator | Mediafire
“Monsters” Studio Sessions: MirrorCreator | Mediafire
My point of view was from the other side of the stage. I loved all the late 80′s tours, but I must admit I had only seen the Chicago shows at the Metro and Vic….maybe shows were poorly attended in other cities, but Chicago loved (and still loves) the Meat Puppets. Some of the best shows by any band I have seen. I recall jam packed shows with numerous encores. Maybe you guys were faking enthusiasm, but we couldn’t tell… And I did see the RV and attached wagon parked outside, but I was never invited into the “floating dope carnival”. I guess I was lucky?
Thanks for the kind words, Steve! Where, as they say, would be we without the fans? Glad to be able to offer some insight into the creative process, and the epic friction that always occurs in the making of things people love. Alas, stick-in-the-mud that I was/am, I probably missed the greater portion of the drama, and the rest I’ve no doubt forgotten. Hope you enjoy the non-Flacs!
Ya know, I saw you guys on that Monsters tour at the Coach House, a crappy dinner theater in Orange County (San Juan Capistrano???), on a sunday night, with no opener. Every possible thing should have told me “don’t go” but how could I miss it? And man, that show blew! Curt decided he was Miles Davis and turned his back on all the solos, plus his chord wouldnt work and he threw a fit and one of the brothers girlfriends/wives had to help him realize what the hell was wrong. That was odd. But then again, an encore was performed (cant be counted on- touche), why I have no idea. But it was fun watching all 3 of you guys run up and down the stairs with a look of “need to pee” both ways. The only real “highlights” were you telling a woebegone Curt to remind the audience that the world was created 40 years ago and the rest was implanted in your brain as a cruel joke (clever), and a cool country song aout “hold me close to keep awy the ghosts”, of which I have learned to check the George Jones songbook, but cant seem to place. What is that song???
Regardless, Monsters holds up reasonably well, in my opinion. The production is indeed a bit reverbed, but it flows. TD King and the Void are sweet as hell. Plus the drums dont sound nearly as fake as on Mirage, where they were a bit silly. And that one took 2 months?
Thanks for the good stuff Derrick. Your new format threw me. I thought it may be all over with the book!
That song was “Something I Dreamed,” which was on the live George Jones I used to offer on this very blog! The link has long since expired, unfortunately, but you can still catch that cut on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4SRtaLrWOg
I remember the SJC Coachhouse. As I recall, it was sometimes the last date of a tour. Not always the best time to see us! Glad you “enjoyed(?)” it!
The new format threw you. I got tired of running two blogs.
Thanks Derrick. I mean, it was musically competent and everything… I guess you need memories like that in your life, which makes all the other terrific shows all the more memorable. I mail it in on the end of my week too, and I only got a 20 minute commute. Damn, I can’t believe I kind of knew it was George Jones, but still missed it! Appreciate it.
Greetings!
Forgive my post, I realize that what I’m about to do here is an internet faux pas, but I’m inquiring about booking. I saw a few booking links elsewhere but they looked bogus to me and I usually prefer to go straight to the source.
I own Strummer’s Village Tavern in dusty Yuma AZ. As anyone who has spent significant time in Yuma can tell you, it’s a very stubborn town that likes to keep things painfully uniformed and a person’s clout depends almost entirely on their last name.
Little do people realize, there is actually a significant subculture in town that has been dying for some weird to be introduced to the dry-toast-and-sour-milk “nightlife” that Yuma offers. That’s where we come in.
A combination of bored youth and old relics make up our loyal crew, some passionately referring to themselves as “SCUMBAGS” (complete with corresponding patches displayed on the back of their jackets and vests), and with their help we have successfully turned Strummer’s into the music venue that the area was sorely lacking.
We now boast live music on a weekly basis; some are local shows or overflow from the comfortably-in-reach scene in SoCal, but we have also firmly entrenched ourselves in the Rockabilly/Psychobilly scene, with bands like the Koffin Katz, Rocketz, Lowclass, Astro Zombies etc., never going through the Southwest without dropping us a line, as well as scoring some pretty heavy hitters in the ska/reggae scene, such as the Skatalites, Aggrolites, and coming soon The Toasters.
Most of these bands have never stopped in Yuma before, so we’re pretty damn proud. Positive word-of-mouth in the scene has helped tremendously, and we always ALWAYS make sure that any bands that come through feel at home.
If there’s any possibility of getting a date with the Meat Puppets, please send me an email at rollinmason88@gmail.com, or at least tell me to screw and let me know who to bother instead.
Look forward to hearing from you, been a fan for a long time and a lot of people down here would love to see you guys.
themeatpuppets.com
It took a little work, but here’s the list. Thank you so much for posting all of this. It is much appreciated.
The Meat Puppets “Monster” Studio Sessions c. 1989
01.ThreeLittlePigs.Monstersdemos
02.ThreeLittlePigs.Sesssions
03.Monsters.mixes
monsters_alt_mixes
monsters_sessions
04.Monsters.StudioSessions
I remember seeing the RV in front of Max’s On Broadway in Baltimore in 1988, it had AZ tags and a dancing bears sticker on the bumper
Hello Derrick,
Is there any chance of releasing the full live recordings of the 2 Meat Puppets shows used to create “Live in Montana?”
I can’t remember what you said in the cd liner notes, but did you pick those shows because they were best performances or for the crazy locations? Or both….love to hear more 1988/89 shows that you considered for the cd, but didn’t use. Thanks!
I don’t believe there were any liner notes to that record; just tour drawings. I chose the shows because they were back to back nights in the same state with similar audio quality and similar enough of a set to list to give me enough coverage of the material I wanted to feature. The album was a very last-minute job after the original plan fell through. I gave our sound man the opportunity to put together his dream “Davo’s Picks” disk from all the live recordings he’d made over the years. But at the last possible minute, he was like, “sorry man, didn’t do it.” So, I did what I could to salvage our commitment to the label. Not terrible, under the circumstances, but very much a hail mary pass to save an otherwise botched job.
Thanks for the reply! That live album really is a breath of fresh air! It’s almost better that it was a last-minute job, because you did a great job with it, apparently under some pressure to get it done. Those track were raw yet refined…quite fascinating to me actually. Did you already have the 1988 time period in mind or was it, once again, the same reasons you stated before, that made you choose those shows? I guess that tour encompassed tracks from all of your records that Rykodisc was re-releasing. I’d love to hear more shows from that period if you have any to post from your collection. Thanks again!