Who would have thought that the Meat Puppets--for so long the indie world's southern-fried, long-haired riff mongers--would ever hit it big? Back in the 1980s, when skate-rats and hippies alike traded worn-out copies of MEAT PUPPETS II and HUEVOS, few thought it would come to this. Now, 10-plus years into their career, the Puppets are enjoying success with NO JOKE!, as kids clamor to see if the real thing is as good as the band Kurt Cobain paid homage to on Nirvana's MTV UNPLUGGED album.
The group has changed a bit--their kookiness has mellowed into more laid-back, heavy riffage ("Scum"), but it is still charged by the Kirkwood brothers' guitar-happy sound. Curt Kirkwood achieved mild notoriety in the late 1980s for citing ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons as his favorite guitarist, and indie-rock meets country-blues is an apt description of their overall sound. NO JOKE! also mines the loping, hopalong hillbilly sounds of the Kirkwoods' off-kilter harmonies--the pleasing chorus of "For Free," for instance.
It may be more straight-ahead than previous Meat Puppets releases, but Butthole Surfer Paul Leary's aggressive production brings a hard-hitting punch to their sound. The Meat Puppets, after all, are NO JOKE!