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Rise to Your Knees

by Meat Puppets

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Where do Meat Puppets go when they die? They don't go to heaven where the angels fly, but rather take 11 years for a resurrection, then regroup and pick up where they left off. Granted, this reunion of the twisted, high-desert trio is devoid of original drummer Derrick Bostrom, yet it does include what Kurt Cobain once referred to as "the Brothers Meat": Curt and Cris Kirkwood and their hippified fusion of punk, country, metal, and psychedelia. There are no surprises from songwriter Curt, whose calming, monotone Neil Young-at-78-rpm voice and frantic lead guitar has kept the Puppets' moniker alive since bassist Cris left to battle drug problems. In time-warp fashion, the band plays as distinctively and playfully as ever, with songs like "Spit," "Island," "Disappear," and "Enemy Love Song"--and the Kirkwoods' still-unique vocal accord--drifting back to Up on the Sun, vintage 1985. Curt's 15 songs (which clock in at a generous 65 minutes) can get sludgy ("Radio Moth") and brooding ("The Ship") and melancholy ("Tiny Kingdom"), but his astonishing guitar never rests. And with a decade to make up to their mass of cult-following backers, Rise to Your Knees is the kind of record that might keep these Meat Puppets up for awhile. --Scott Holter