Meat Puppets: II LP

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Meat Puppets II 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" and "Lost") to slow acoustic songs ("Plateau" and "Oh, Me") to psychedelic guitar effects ("Aurora Borealis" and "We’re Here").

"Our back catalog is an American treasure and should be in the Smithsonian," said bassist Cris Kirkwood. "Megaforce is doing a huge service to the planet to make sure our music continues to get into the hands of everyone who needs to have the coolest record collection on the block."

"It was just like magic," said guitarist Curt Kirkwood of the SST years. "You could make a record, with no thought to how much it will cost. There were no time worries, no money - but it wasn't required. There wasn't any production. You just go in and play. It was like you were doing a gig. Then we kind of figured out how to mess around with production, when we produced Up on the Sun. But even that was done in three days. No one was trying to figure out how to make things sell, they were just letting you do it."

In 1994, Nirvana, touring in support of In Utero, asked the band to open some shows in October. A couple of nights into the stint, Kurt Cobain told Kirkwood that Nirvana was taping an MTV Unplugged soon, and that he needed the brothers to guest at the performance in New York. "He said he couldn't play the guitar parts," Kirkwood said with a chuckle. And so "Lake of Fire" and "Plateau," two of Cobain's favorite tunes off of one of his favorite albums, Meat Puppets II, became staples of MTV when the network was still a taste-making behemoth. As Kirkwood saw it, his songs were being interpreted by a once-in-a-generation talent. "That's a special voice," he said. "That's like a George Jones voice, somebody that's immediately recognizable. A Neil Young voice." A quarter-century later, the Nirvana association continues to be a catalyst for fandom. "It's been the most constant vein that draws people in," Kirkwood said.