TROTSKY ICEPICK @ Echo

Meat Puppets || Listen || Watch
It doesn’t take long after listening to the Meat Puppets’ thirteenth studio album overall, ‘Lollipop,’ to realize that they have boiled the essence of what the group is all about right down to its core. As a result, singer/guitarist Curt Kirkwood, bassist Cris Kirkwood, and drummer Shandon Sahm have an instant Meat Puppets classic on their hands, and an album that fits in perfectly with such mid ’80s classics as ‘Up on the Sun’ and the underrated ‘Mirage’ (while not coming off as an attempt to recreate a certain musical era of the group). Interestingly however, the Meat Puppets did not achieve this by working out the songs’ arrangements beforehand, or even extensively rehearsing together. “This one here was an experiment in just viewing the parts as Tinkertoys, and seeing the little Tinkertoy circus that needed to be built, and putting it together simply like that,” explains Curt. “With just the band in the studio and the engineer, we didn’t learn the songs – we just went in the studio, and went, ‘OK, here’s your part. Now play this good.’ So we cut the stuff on acoustic guitar and drums first, and then built it. It’s an interesting concept of a way to do something. It seems like it might be a stiff way to do something, by just putting it together a piece at a time like that. But I really enjoyed it. I think the overall sound of the way it came out is kind of a contradiction of the way it was recorded. To me, that’s the coolest thing – to put something together like that, so you have the sum of the parts, and then the whole. The whole thing about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. To force yourself to do it that way. We were able to keep track of the music.” Produced once more by Curt, ‘Lollipop’ is the second Meat Puppets record to be released via Megaforce Records, and also signals the re-entry of former Puppets drummer Sahm back into the band (who previously played on the 2000 Puppets release, ‘Golden Lies,’ and supporting tour). Sahm- “Come October [2009], Curt called. I said, ‘Aren’t you you supposed to be out on tour with the Stone Temple Pilots? What’s up?’ He said, ‘Do you want to fill in and do these dates?’ We only had one day to practice. That was the icebreaker. The first show was in Mobile, Alabama at BayFest. It was probably 5,000 to 10,000 people. Right afterwards, Robert and Dean DeLeo came up and said, ‘You’re really great in the band. You really drive the band cool. You should be in there.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I’m filling in for right now. It would be cool…talk to ‘the boss’.’ Robert goes, ‘I’ll talk to him.’ Recorded at Spoon’s HiFi Studio’s in Austin, ‘Lollipop’ is chock full of tunes that run the stylistic gamut. Case in point, the album opening keyboard-laced “Incomplete” (that Curt wrote back in 1983, and envisioned as “something that I thought would be good for Elvis or Engelbert Humperdinck in the ’60s”) and the rocking “Hour of the Idiot,” to the sunny ska of “Shave It,” and such acoustic country ditties as “Baby Don’t” and “The Spider and the Spaceship.” And Cris certainly approves of the finished product. “The continuity that runs through Curt’s work is just a trip, and how you can reference different parts. I think it’s a fairly bitching effort, considering the amount of time we put into pre-work. I think it’s indicative of where the band’s at right now. It’s a fairly fluid moment, and that’s a trip, considering how long we’ve been at it and the band’s history. Curt’s been at it non-stop, and I’m pleased to be able to provide him with a stable outlet for his art.” And according to Curt, the band got back to trusting their instincts once more – a major catalyst in their earlier work. “The similarity between the ’80s and now is that once we started getting a lot of attention in the ’90s, we brought producers in and stuff, and there was a thing that started happening – and it might sound egotistical – but this band always ran off of my intuitions. As much as songwriting or anything else. I write intuitively, and I never wanted to be a songwriter – I just got into it when I had the band. I just wanted to be in a band. So it’s all been this intuition of ‘This is what we need to do.’ This was kind of taken away from us in the ’90s, as money came in and people said, ‘You need to do this.’ It clouded the whole easygoing…like, ‘Well, what does Curt think?’ You could say it was the money or it was the thrust of popularity stuff or the Nirvana thing. But it just was like the band as a whole quit trusting that, I think. We just became more compliant, and like they say, ‘Cooperation leads to corruption.’ So in this way, I think the album harkens back to that.” To support ‘Lollipop,’ the Meat Puppets are planning on touring steadily, including the group’s first substantial European tour in nearly two decades. Curt- “We took a good amount of time off in this last year and didn’t do any real big tours, so we could get this record done and just cool our heels a little bit. Now, we’re ready to get going again.” Cris- “We’re getting back to a place where…he and I have a bitching wavelength that we were able to get to. He so doesn’t need my support in a way, but I think he appreciates it in a way, and I know I love our relationship and the music we make together.” As they say, the proof is in the pudding, and ‘Lollipop’ is one tasty listening experience from beginning to end.

Flamingo

Trotsky Icepick|| Watch
Los Angeles post punk band formed by Vitus Mataré and Kjehl Johansen in 1986, following the demise of The Last and 100 Flowers. Named for the murder weapon used to kill Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, the band’s first release Poison Summer came under the name Danny and the Doorknobs. Trotsky Icepick released seven albums in an eight-year span; the first two on Vitus Mataré’s label, Old Scratch Grammophon, five on Greg Ginn’s label, Sst Records.

Members throughout the years: Kjehl Johansen (guitar/bass/vocals, ex-100 Flowers/Urinals), Vitus Mataré (guitar/flute/piano/organ/keyboards/vocals/producer, formally 100 Flowers/Urinals producer, ex-Last), John Frank (drums, formally of The Last), Jamie Lennon (keyboards), Jason Kahn (drums, ex-Leaving Trains/Downey Mildew/Universal Congress Of), John Rosewall (bass/guitar/producer, formally of The Last), John Talley-Jones (vocals/bass/guitar, ex-100 Flowers/Urinals/Radwaste/Vena Cava), Mike Patton (bass, formerly of Middle Class, The), Skippy Glogovac (drums), Hunter Crowley (drums, ex-Last).

8pm / $15 / 18+

April 5th, 2011 filed in events
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122628 Responses2011-04-05+23%3A55%3A05samantha to “Thursday 06.16.11: MEAT PUPPETS / FLAMINGO / TROTSKY ICEPICK @ Echo”

victorray Says:
April 8th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
could you please post a CURRENT pupps line up picture…the one you have up is in the 80's ,its 2011..
Lloyd Says:
May 21st, 2011 at 10:16 am
Yeah, and who's playing with Trotsky"s Icepick? I know folks who used to follow the various folks in TI over the years, and I'd like to pass on which ones they can expect to see at this show.
John Frank Says:
May 22nd, 2011 at 9:17 am
The 2011 version of Trotsky Icepick is:

Kjehl Johansen, Vitus Mataré, and Adam Marsland on guitars.
Tom Hofer on bass and John Frank on drums.
John Talley-Jones on vocals, with occasional Vitus.
Tom Says:
June 10th, 2011 at 10:17 am
And angelic choir vocals by Vitus, Kjehl and Tom
stephanie Says:
June 15th, 2011 at 7:29 pm
who is flamingo and does anyone know the set time list?
Pig Says:
June 16th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Flamingo was great (albeit a bit talkative) at the Detroit Bar last night, but the link above does not seem to be to the right band. Where can one find more information about them?
Ethyn Says:
June 17th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
meat puppets were great, on their game, as always
Tom Hofer Says:
July 25th, 2011 at 8:51 am
Flamingo is fronted by Curt Kirkwood's son. That's all I know about them,