Sunday, June 14, 2009
A+E, Music, Reviews
The Meat Puppets
“SEWN TOGETHER”
(MEGAFORCE)
Courtesy of Daffodil Publicity
MEAT PUPPETS
w/Retribution Gospel Choir
Tuesday, June 16
8:30 p.m.
$15 “I know it's been awhile, but when did the Meat Puppets turn into Crosby, Stills and Nash?” might be your initial reaction when pushing play on the Puppets’ sophomore release after a long layoff. The opening title track floats along like any number of strummy Amerciana bands without half the history, hardships or drama this three-piece has weathered during a stormy 27-year run.
Even fans likely didn’t predict the Kirkwood brothers would give it another go in 2007, and if that year’s almost surreptitiously released “Rise to Your Knees” comeback missed capturing the frazzled, sun-bleached psychedelic country of the Puppets’ prime late-’80s output, it was far closer than most would have expected.
Constant touring supporting Built to Spill and even Stone Temple Pilots, along with a new drummer, refined the group’s direction, and “Sewn Together” is the near-triumphant result. It takes a few songs for the threads to mesh, but by track five, “Rotten Shame,” the driving rock and darker psychedelic impulses that typified the band in its salad days are back. Guitarist, frontman and songwriter Curt Kirkwood’s uniquely dusky voice is perfect for this off-kilter folk/country-rock hybrid.
Longtime followers will notice a polished production edge, but once the guitar solo kicks in on the pulsing “S.K.A.,” they won’t care. Curt’s lyrics are typically impenetrable—rabbit holes, rubber babies and donkey receivers (?) populate the creepy “Nursery Rhyme”—yet well-suited for music that reveals more eerie, ominous details once you dig beyond its deceptively slick, country-rock veneer. 3 STARS—Hal Horowitz