Desert-rock legends Meat Puppets returns this spring with their 14th studio album — the 12-track Rat Farm, which Curt Kirkwood dubs “real blown-up folk music” — and will support the release with a spring U.S. tour that will include as-yet-unannounced appearances at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.
The album — the band’s fourth since the return of Cris Kirkwood in 2007 — is due out April 16 on Megaforce Records. In addition to the Kirkwood brothers, the band now features drummer Shandon Sahm, son of Doug Sahm, as well as Curt’s son Elmo Kirkwood on second guitar.
Of the new album, Curt Kirkwood says:
“I tried to write stuff that would stand on its own — just the chords and the melodies, and play it kind of straight. I think that was the guiding boundary that I gave myself. It was one of those things where a lot of times, in the past especially, Cris would go, ‘Well, that’s all there is? Let’s put a prog rock part in the middle.’ But I tried to hold it off as much as I could.”
The band will precede the album’s release with a 15-date tour of the eastern U.S. South By Southwest dates, as well as shows in Europe, are expected to be announced soon.
Tracklist: Meat Puppets, Rat Farm
1. “Rat Farm”
2. “One More Drop”
3. “Down”
4. “Leave Your Head Alone”
5. “Again”
6. “You Don’t Know”
7. “Waiting”
8. “Time and Money”
9. “Sometimes Blue”
10. “Original One”
11. “River Rose”
12. “Sweet”
Meat Puppets tour dates:
March 28: VooDoo Lounge, Shreveport, LA
March 29: Bottle Tree, Birmingham, AL
March 30: 40 Watt, Athens, GA
April 1: Chameleon Club, Lancaster, PA
April 2: John and Peter’s Place, New Hope, PA
April 3: Mercury Lounge, New York, NY
April 4: Mercury Lounge, New York, NY
April 5: The Haunt, Ithaca, NY
April 6: The Club at Water Street, Rochester, NY
April 7: Skully’s, Columbus, OH
April 9: The Bishop, Bloomington, IN
April 10: Cosmic Charlie’s, Lexington, KY
April 11: High Watt, Nashville, TN
April 12: JJ’s Bohemia SA, Chattanooga, TN
April 13: Martin’s, Jackson, MS
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS:
- Free MP3: Meat Puppets, ‘Damn Thing’
- Meat Puppets return with ‘Lollipop’ in April
- Meat Puppets announce co-headlining tour with Dead Confederate in September
- In stores Tuesday: New studio albums from The Church, Meat Puppets
- Meat Puppets set spring tour to coincide with new CD, ‘Sewn Together’
Come to Idaho!
Not only has Meat Puppets managed to impress their fans with their unique brand of psychedelic punk, but they have also inspired numerous bands. Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh, and Pavement have all listed Meat Puppets as a major influence, and Nirvana even asked Meat Puppets to join them on their MTV Unplugged performance. Meat Puppets play a wide selection of their songs when they perform live. They play the classics such as “Plateau” and “Up On the Sun” as well as some from their newest album, Rat Farm. When I saw them play at the 40 Watt in Athens they did an interesting cover of the Beach Boys’ song, “Sloop John B”, as well as play “Lake of Fire”, which extended into an over ten minute psychedelic jam session.