Meat Puppets II is a cross between country-rock and punk. If that sounds
like a strange mix, rest assured, the band carries it off perfectly, creating
their unique brand of music. This is no weird attempt at a “crossover”,
it's a seminal eighties album and a pioneering one on the “alternative”
front.
The Meat Puppets were the first to use country rhythms, country beats
and guitar pickings in a true rock’n’roll way. In fact they could even
be credited as having rejuvenated a morose genre. But the album shouldn't
really be seen as a country album as it shouldn't really be considered
to be a punk one. Like all great albums, it transcends laws of genre and
is simply content to prove its point by the amazing songs upon it. It simply
uses country rhythms and sounds at moments because these rhythms are powerful
ones. In fact it restores the true power to this country guitar picking
and these country beats by blending them with distorted guitars, grungy
walls of sound and tormented and off key vocals.
This is just not some punk band endlessly strumming the same chords
on overdriven amps. There is a layering of instruments playing various
parts, often a “clean” sounding country picking mixed in with a grungy
distorted guitar. The sound is complex and successful and makes a good
use of disharmony, which is the sign of the “alternative” band (although
they weren't called that in 1983). There are three instrumental tracks
on the album, and each gives evidence, in its own way, to the band's growing
musical mastery.
The Meat Puppets’ music is indeed a unique thing. Most of the songs
are fast moving, with country beats and guitar picking and grungy guitars
and the singers wailing voice giving an extra boost to the overall impression
of intense energy. Some songs even break out into psychedelic sections.
Now I know this is a difficult word to use, especially in the light of
what I have already said about how the band sounds. The word must be understood
in the context of the punk and country genres. This is not psychedelic
as in “Grateful dead”, rather it is the interaction of fast guitars taking
off into a kind of ethereal interaction. On “Plateau” there is one such
psychedelic break, as on the instrumental “I'm a mindless idiot”. On “Lost”
there is another such break and there is also a wild, discordant and dark
psychedelic moment on “New Gods”. On the instrumental “Aurora Borealis”
it gets as psychedelic as the country-based nature of the song will allow.
All in all, it's a great album, and I'm relieved to say that it was
one of the (too few) good ones that I caught the first time round (It came
out in 1983). (Although I’ll admit to buying the cd edition after having
heard the famous Nirvana “Unplugged” recording and saying “Hey, that's
a Meat Puppets song ! ”).