'Meat Puppets II'

Meat Puppets II is probably one of the most influential records in music history.

Consider without it, Nirvana might not have existed in the form and compacity (if at all) that we all knew and love about them.

Listen to this album. You quickly realize why the Kirkwood brothers guested on Nirvana's Unplugged album as Kurt Cobain warbled through "Lake of Fire," "Oh, Me" and "Plateau." If nothing else, Cobain actually gave the songs a bit of structure. Although neither Kirkwood or Cobain had the low register for "Plateau." Hell, Kirkwood had no register.

The Meat Puppets are important and that makes them influential and being influential is a level of musical grandiosity reserved for a priviledged few.

Meat Puppets II was released in 1984, a full seven years before Cobain and Co. would release their magnum opus, Nevermind, a distinct homage to what bands like the Puppets were doing by moving past punk and above the new wave popification of punk. They went to the opposite direction without going backyards.

They tip the scales measuring two parts punk with one part psychedelica and country. Curt Kirkwood's guitar playing might be some of the most important playing for the entire decade. It's wistful. Almost polite yet playing the good son to the violently dissonant vocals.

The Meat Puppets are also one of the few bands that peaked by backing another band. It's like if the Beatles never got any bigger than backing Tony Sheridan in Hamburg.