Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun

Do, do, dodododo, duh-dah, dodododo. I recognize the opening chords like I recognize my own heartbeat. Such a classic. The Meat Puppet’s third album is of course different from every other one. Up On The Sun is what the Pups call their beer and weed album; which makes a lot of sense when you actually listen to it. Unlike their drunken brothers in arms, The Replacements; the Pups avoid the sloppy connotation of playing fucked up by basing their entire songs around their kooky indie rock progressions. Curt and Cris Kirkwood are two of my favorite guitarists and bass players, respectively. On this album, Curt goes full cartoon mode with his pedals and hooks; incorporating more layered sounds than their previous albums. You can tell they got more comfortable in the studio space and wanted to try out some new tricks. Also the weed and beer probably helped. The songs have a great variance to them. Swimming Ground is about dicking around as a kid in the summer and going swimming. Creator is about religion and hypocrisy. Buckethead is about a bucket you wear on your head. Enchanted Porkfist is about some pistachios, I dunno. There is a really unique funk that the Puppets do so well on this album, probably their funkiest album they ever did besides Live in Montana. It’s that technical 80’s funk, like Prince or Billy Ocean that has a distinct sound that was somehow ahead of its time and also indicative of it. The college rock landscape of the mid-80’s was an exciting time, full of bands each trying to do something a little different. The Meat Puppets embodied the loose structure of the scene and the rejection of conventional genres and sounds. There never was a band quite like them, and I dare say there never will. This album makes me want to sit on the beach for seven hours straight and stare at the sun until I’m hollowed out like a bowl.