After three decades of ups and downs, the Meat Puppets aren’t just the guys who played with Nirvana BY LAURA JOHNSON
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he song wasn’t his. “Nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop / And an illustrated book about birds,” warbled Kurt Cobain during Nirvana’s classic MTV Unplugged in New York sessions. He was borrowing “Plateau” from the Meat Puppets, an obscure altrock band that wasn’t even part of the Seattle scene. From the cozy stage, a greasy-haired Cobain puffed on a cigarette and invited the act to play backup to the chagrin of MTV, which would have preferred a bigger name to that of the ultra-indie Meat Puppets. That was 20 years ago, a moment in time that arguably was the Meat Puppets’ most memorable. Two more of their songs — “Oh, Me” and “Lake of Fire” — were performed at that show. A year later, the three-piece would find a hit with “Backwater.” But after 1994, things fell apart. Bassist Cris Kirkwood, who had started the band with his guitar-
ist brother Curt, found solace in a drug the other Kurt knew a lot about: heroin. For an entire decade, the demons of drug addiction ruled Cris, leaving Curt to carry the torch.
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hey began as a nearly-punk outfit in Phoenix at the start of the ’80s. The Meat Puppets’ debut album — 14 tracks that clocked in at 21½ minutes — saw frontman Curt screeching out indecipherable lyrics over howling guitars and pounding drums. On the next album, Meat Puppets II, the band pulled away from that hardcore sound, dabbling in psychedelia and country and forcing Curt to actually sing — which didn’t stop the band from doing shows with other punk groups. “That’s where we started out, we liked to play fast,” Curt says from his tour van during a recent phone interview. “We were never just punk, but
that’s how we got in. But that’s where the creativity was, in the punk scene.” By 1985, the Kirkwood brothers and drummer Derrick Bostrom got out of the hardcore scene, choosing instead to do their own shows. Five years and four albums later, London Records came calling, leading to a tour opening for Stone Temple Pilots and the all-important cameo with Nirvana.
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he forgiveness part wasn’t easy. But there wasn’t some “prodigal brother” moment, with dramatic scenes of weeping and hugging, when the Kirkwoods reunited in 2006. Cris simply said he was sober and that he wanted back in the band. He had gone to prison in 2004 after a confrontation with a security guard the previous year that left him with gunshot wounds, serving nearly a year behind bars. That opened his eyes; that was ...continued on next page enough.
NOVEMBER 21, 2013 INLANDER 47