KC, meet the Puppets
Want some awesome news?
Alright, go to the Meat Puppets’ official MySpace page. Look where it says “Record Label.” Now look to the right. Do you see that? Do you see that!?
It’s official — Anodyne Records, a homegrown KC label, has signed the legendary cult band, which you may remember from their ’90s hit “Backwater” (strangely, the original video’s not on YouTube, but you remember the tune, yes?). Nirvana fans will remember the Pups’ role in Nirvana’s insanely popular Unplugged video and album — it was the Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood (not Kurt Cobain) who wrote the song “Lake of Fire,” for one thing. But if you were hip to the underground in the ’80s and (which I wasn’t at the time because I was a wee bairn), you’ll remember the Pups as a whimsical, hyper band out of Phoenix that fused this weird, frenetic country-bluegrass guitar and bass riffing with four-on-the-floor punk. They weren’t associated with grunge at all — totally predated it — until Kurt Cobain brought them into the spotlight, singing “Lake of Fire” and that one about “the bucket and the mop and the illustrated book about birds” all up on that MTV show, with the Kirkwoods playing with him. Sheeit. (Sorry if I’m not making sense — sleep deprivation has claimed its victim.)
Anyway, as you’ll learn from the Meat Puppets All Music entry, the Kirkwood boys haven’t played together in a long time. In fact, their day show at SXSW at the Anodyne Showcase at the Parish, will be the first time the brothers have taken to a stage together in at least 10 years.
Anodyne owner John Hulston just gave me the story over the phone. He had been following Curt Kirkwood’s solo career and caught wind that the Pups might be reuniting. He got in touch, initially seeking a song from them for a compilation CD he’s been gradually assembling. It turned out the Kirkwoods (together with drummer Ted Marcus) were looking for a label to put out the next fo-real Meat Puppets album. They began talking with this humble man from Kansas City, and, Hulston says, “we were on the same page the entire time.” And voila, Anodyne gets to make history.
