Meat Puppets: Sewn Together
June 9th, 2009 by Chad Radford in Music news
Meat Puppets always seemed a bit out of place amid the lexicon of SST punk. Despite their hair-thrashing, high-energy performances, brothers Chris and Curt Kirkwood had more in common with the amphetamine hue of Grateful Dead circa American Beauty than Black Flag. As years passed, their rustic, psychedelic tendencies fanned out into middle-of-the-road oblivion, but Sewn Together changes all of that. Despite spotless production, the album is an intuitive and melodic nod to the good old days of their 1984 masterpiece, Meat Puppets II. As the breezy drift of “Sapphire,” the wild west rhythms of “Blanket of Weeds,” and the allegorical surrealism of “Clone” and “The Monkey and the Snake” take shape, the album feels like pure nostalgia for the feel-good rock of the ’70s. Such a retro refit suits the group well for its matured return to form. 4 out of 5 stars
Meat Puppets play the Earl. $15. 8:30 p.m. Tues., June 16.
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