Meat Puppets: Live In Montana : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Live, the Meat Puppets were hardcore's Grateful Dead, blending improvisation, psychedelia, funk, country and metal into a perverse, original sound and presenting it all with plenty of punk-rock ("Come up here and suck my dick, asshole") attitude. This belated first live album from the legendary Phoenix trio is taken off soundboard tapes recorded more than a decade ago. It is especially welcome since it reveals that the Meat Puppets made music that was far more eclectic and playful than the boogie-woogie guitar rock they put on their studio albums from the late Eighties. But be warned: The Meat Puppets were perpetual underachievers. "Be irresponsible and lazy," singer Curt Kirkwood announces on the anthem "Party Till the World Obeys." Both on originals ("Automatic Mojo," "Lake of Fire") and on covers ("Paranoid" and "Blue Bayou"), their voices miss more notes than they hit, and as a band, they ain't too tight. Of course, the same can be said about the Grateful Dead, and since their Montana shows are only on bootleg tapes, this has got to be the best live album ever recorded anywhere near Butte. (RS 811)

RICHARD ABOWITZ