Double live CD by the Meat Puppets. Does it add up to one good one?

 

[review by Bill Glahn]

Meat Puppets: Meltdown/Attacked By Monsters (Interference INTR2CD0006)

Venue: (CD1) 9/1/88 KCRW Studios, Santa Monica, CA (CD2) 4/16/93 KCRW studios, Santa Monica, CA

Sound Quality: very good low generation broadcast recordings, mildly compressed

Cover: 8-page booklet and tray card in slimline double jewel case

Tracklist: (CD1) Introduction-In Love/ Wish Upon A Stone/ Light/ Touchdown King/ Bali Ha’i/ Automatic Mojo/ He’ll Have To Go/ Magic Toy Missing/ Pass Me By/ Meltdown (CD2) Introduction/ Lake Of Fire/ Violet Eyes/ Never To Be Found/ Attacked By Monsters/ El Paso City/ White Sport Coat

Comments: 

The phone is no friend of Curt Kirkwood's. Too often, the tidings it bears are foul. He calls them “incomings from Tempe.” They go like this: Your brother's wife overdosed this morning; she's dead. Your brother got busted again last night, and he told the cops he was you. Your brother showed up at my house yesterday with a crack pipe and a bag of needles, and he looks like hell. Your brother took off from rehab. Your brother's holed up in a Motel 6 on the Black Canyon Freeway, smoking rock like it's judgment day. (Austin Chronicle, Shooting Star, January 1, 1999)

That was just the first paragraph of the revealing article in the Austin Chronicle documenting the band’s decent. You can read the whole sordid affair on this link. 

The last 2 albums that the original line-up would make until 2019 were the ominously titled Too High To Die (1994) and No Joke! (1995). The first of those two yielded the band’s only chart single, “Backwater.” The second, despite a crafty production by the Butthole Surfers’ Paul Leary (a man experienced in navigating minefields in a band prone to drug excess with newfound major label cash), barely dented Billboard’s Top 200 album chart. No Joke!, may have sounded great, but the subject matter was something radio wouldn’t touch.

As unauthorized live CDs go, there isn't a whole lot around on the Meat Puppets. That makes this release something of a surprise.

Meltdown/Attacked By Monsters presents two radio broadcasts from college station KCRW in Santa Monica. The first in 1988 when the band were darlings of college radio and the alternative press, the second as a major label act on the verge of stardom – in no small amount due to a guest appearance by the Kirkwood brothers on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged session.

On the 1988 broadcast, the Meat Puppets appear fairly focused on playing material for their album-in-progress, Monsters, with 4 tracks from that release and one more that would appear as a bonus track on a later CD re-issue of that album. There’s a couple of tracks from previous albums included in the set and a couple offbeat covers including “He’ll Have To Go,” performed in a way Jim Reeves fans couldn’t possibly envision. But a significant portion of the disc is taken up by the band doing their best to be “witty.” And failing. The sorriest example being the rather stupid rendition of “Bali Ha’i” that takes up the first 2 minutes of track 5 followed by 5 more minutes of a ludicrous conversation about Brian Wilson. “Brian Wilson led the band, Brian & the Family Stone and their big hit, ‘Stand.’” Please. And the DJ, of course, laughs at every witticism and plays along. She obviously feels the hipness of their presence and wants them back. Unfortunately these bits of comedy, which you will never want to hear again, are not indexed separately from the songs. There is some relief that the next track, a blistering version of “Automatic Mojo,” is a stand-alone track. As is the take on “He’ll Have To Go.” Then back to inane conversation tacked onto “Magic Toy Missing.” Disc one contains some brilliant moments and far too many cringe-worthy ones. On to disc two.

The 1993 broadcast repeats the formula of not separating songs from conversation, only it's much shorter in length. Sure, you get the song you’ve been waiting all this time to hear, “”Lake of Fire.” And it concludes with an acoustic version of Marty Robbins’ “White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation” before the all-too-precious DJ concludes the session. But it’s a totally uninspired version. The drugs are, apparently, wearing off.

In totality, the combined length of BOTH discs is a bit under 72 minutes. The amount of music presented is about half that. With a lot of editing, this might amount to a fine vinyl LP. Considering that the cost would be about the same as this 2CD without the bullshit, maybe some enterprising vinyl company will do just that.

Grade: despite the excellent sound, this gets a C-

Bonus view: a full concert from 1992. Great sound and visuals.