Meat Puppets II [Bonus Tracks]

1	Split Myself in Two 2:22
2	Magic Toy Missing 1:20
3	Lost 3:24
4	Plateau 2:22
5	Aurora Borealis 2:44
6	We're Here 2:40
7	Climbing 2:41
8	New Gods 2:09
9	Oh, Me 2:59
10	Lake of Fire 1:54
11	I'm a Mindless Idiot 2:26
12	The Whistling Song 2:56
13	Teenager(s) Bonus Track 3:36
14	I'm Not Here Bonus Track 1:55
15	New Gods Bonus Track / Version 2:14
16	Lost Bonus Track / Version 3:03
17	What To Do Bonus Track 2:35
18	100% of Nothing Bonus Track 1:50
19	Aurora Borealis Bonus Track / Version 2:29

Barnes & Noble

By the mid-'80s, the kids who'd invented hard-core punk were getting a little older and a bit tired of kicking out the same loud, brash, 30-second jams. Some turned to jazz, others to '60s psychedelia. But many, including the Meat Puppets -- shaggy noisemakers from Phoenix, Arizona -- turned to country. Or, to put it more accurately, they settled a country all their own. Fronted by the Kirkwood brothers, guitarist Curt and bassist Cris -- who'd raised each other on a steady diet of banjo pickin' and THC abusin' -- the Pups perfected a jangly, whimsical sloppiness. Released in 1984, Meat Puppets II is where Black Flag meets the Grateful Dead. Gorgeous acoustic guitars weave in and out of gentle distortion while Curt and Cris giddily wander the desert, stumbling after sunsets and mumbling lines like "I'm gettin' tired of living Nixon's mess." This is one of the prettiest albums of the '80s. A decade later, Kurt Cobain would wander his way through three of this album's best songs on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York. But in 1984 this strange, infectious record was as distant from the mainstream as the Arizona desert is from Madagascar, which is probably why it feels so free. Jon Dolan

All Music Guide

The Meat Puppets' second album, 1984's appropriately titled Meat Puppets II, has since gone down in the rock history books as an all-time classic, and rightfully so. The Meat Puppets were one of the first punk acts to inject different musical styles into their sound, something that was an absolute no-no at the time -- especially the sparkling sounds of country. The trio resembles a more conventional band than on their white-noise self-titled debut; the songwriting had improved dramatically, and you could even clearly decipher the playing and singing this time around. As many '90s alt-rock fans know, Meat Puppets II reached a whole new generation of fans when Nirvana covered the album's three best tracks on their MTV Unplugged special from 1994 -- "Plateau," "Lake of Fire," and "Oh, Me." But this was an incredibly consistent recording from beginning to end; other highlights included the instrumentals "Magic Toy Missing," "Aurora Borealis," and "I'm a Mindless Idiot," the rockers "Split Myself in Two" and "New Gods," plus such mellower fare as "Lost," "We're Here," "Climbing," and "The Whistling Song." An essential recording that sounds as fresh and inviting as the day it was released. [The 1999 Rykodisc reissue containes seven additional tracks, including the contrasting two-part epic "Teenager(s)," as well as "What to Do" and "100 Percent of Nothing."] Greg Prato