Meat Puppets II

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Meat Puppets II
Studio album by Meat Puppets
Released	April 1984
Recorded	April - May, 1983
Genre	Alternative rock, cowpunk
Length	29:57 (original) 48:01 (reissue)
Label	SST Records
Meat Puppets chronology
Meat Puppets (1982) Meat Puppets II (1984) Up on the Sun (1985)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	A−[2]
Magnet	(Favorable)[3]
NME	(8/10)[4]
Rolling Stone	[5]
Spin	(Favorable)[6]

Meat Puppets II is the second album by the Tempe, Arizona band the Meat Puppets, released in 1984. It is a departure from their self-titled debut album, which consisted largely of noisy hardcore with unintelligible vocals. It covers many genres from country-style rock ("Magic Toy Missing", "Climbing", Lost") to slow acoustic songs ("Plateau", "Oh Me") to psychedelic guitar effects ("Aurora Borealis") to hard rock ("Lake of Fire").

On the back of the original vinyl, the cover art is credited to Curt Kirkwood and Neal Holliday.

Rykodisc reissued the album in 1999 with extra tracks and b-sides, including a cover of the Rolling Stones' Aftermath-era track "What To Do."

The Meat Puppets' SST labelmates The Minutemen covered "Lost" on the EP Tour-Spiel and their last studio album, 3-Way Tie (For Last). Three of the album's songs were covered by Nirvana (as the Kirkwood brothers joined them onstage) during their "Unplugged" show for MTV ("Plateau", "Oh, Me", and "Lake of Fire").

The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and was also #94 on Pitchfork Media's "Best Albums of the 1980's".^[7] Slant Magazine listed the album at #91 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980's". ^[8]

The final track "The Whistling Song" was taken as the title of Stephen Beachy's first novel. Curt Kirkwood created the cover art for the novel.

The album was performed live in its entirety at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Monticello, New York as part of the ATP Don't Look Back season, and again in December at a performance in London.

Track listing

All songs written by Curt Kirkwood, unless otherwise noted.

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

1999 CD bonus tracks

13. "Teenager(s)" (Meat Puppets) - 3:36
14. "I'm Not Here" - 1:55
15. "New Gods" (Demo Version) - 2:13
16. "Lost" (Demo Version) - 3:03
17. "What to Do" (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) - 2:35
18. "100% of Nothing" - 1:50
19. "Aurora Borealis" (Demo Version) - 2:28

Personnel

• Curt Kirkwood - guitar, vocals
• Cris Kirkwood - bass, vocals
• Derrick Bostrom - drums

References