(December 2023) Episode 539 is MEAT PUPPETS. In a slightly alternate universe, I would have been into the Meat Puppets from the beginning. But maybe because I didn’t hang around the college radio station enough, I never experienced that entry point that many of my peers did (same goes for me with lots of SST and other bands that followed a similar career arc, like Flaming Lips and Butthole Surfers). Coming at this retroactively, I’m not sure how to approach them. Is it through their first punk offering, their odd prog-guitar/slacker-vocal thing from the late 80s, their Nirvana-aided 15 minutes of MTV fame, their later conventional rock and country rock? Don’t get me wrong, there is lots of good music in here. And I appreciate that they evolved and didn’t rely on retreads. But I can’t figure out what makes their music special enough to make me want to return to it. Maybe my hipper peers can inform me.
Favorite album: Meat Puppets II (1984)
Favorite song: Lake of Fire
Best mid-period album: Too High To Die (1994)
Best late-period album: Lillipop (2011)
Compared to expectations: ↓
Recommendation: Kinda depends on your preference, given their style evolution (see above). But I’d recommend the first two raw-sounding albums.
Opus Project 
I am similar but when taken by respective songs – beyond your good #1, each album does not stun but there should probably be a greatest hits – and if they had done three albums within 80% of the greatest hits, this would be an iconic band. I consider them temporally unfortunate yet career-wise, under-rewarded compared to so many others who have made a career over much less.
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