THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 30, 1994 TAG: 9408300071
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
HOPES WERE HIGH when the Meat Puppets released their eighth album, ``Too High to Die,'' in January. Their second record for major label London, the disc was expected to push the band over the top into a world of large-scale commercial success.
It did. By spring, the single ``Backwater'' was everywhere - even on Top 40 radio. The Phoenix band returns to this area with alternative superstars Stone Temple Pilots at William and Mary Hall on Wednesday.
Singer/guitarist Curt Kirkwood doesn't mind opening for such a massive act. The response, he said, is always good.
``I don't think people are that singular-minded. I think there's people who have never heard of us coming to the shows, but they end up liking us. The response to music is pretty basic. If they like it, they clap - or they mosh.''
Still, Kirkwood admitted, ``it's a different thing'' from a show that Meat Puppets headline. ``The energy is different. We have less time, and that's not as good. A lot of what we do is in the extrapolations, and you can't get that far out in a short time.''
``Too High'' features some of Kirkwood's best recorded playing. The track ``Never to Be Found'' is almost suitelike within its five-minute format, with the guitarist harnessing clean, soaring lines and expressive feedback. He credits co-producer Paul Leary of the Butt-hole Surfers for inspiration. Leary even changed Kirkwood's strings after each take, it's been reported.
``He brought in a bunch of his favorite guitars, and I brought in my guitars,'' Kirkwood said. ``I think that's pretty much the biggest thing he did, keeping things technically upright.''
Drummer Derrick Bostrom has said it's a pretty positive sound. But Kirkwood has his reservations about totally embracing the label.
``I don't know `negative' or `positive,' really,'' he said. ``There's definitely some negative stuff that's pretty cool. I think music is sort of beyond emotion and criticism, beyond evaluations.''
Are his lyrics merely word play, as some feel, or is there a world view lurking within?
``Most of it is word play,'' he said. ``It's just considering how the mind works and how English works. You can get some cool stuff if you just mess around with it. If you string them together, they mean something. It's not entirely random.
``But I do want to give some kind of a random feeling, to make them kind of elusively descriptive. I try not to be too pointed. Well, that's not true - sometimes there's a story being told. You just have to take each song apart. They all have a different motivation in how they're written.''
Does he mind people giving them extra thought?
``I don't know. It doesn't bother me,'' Kirkwood said, before concluding cryptically:
``People take religion seriously.''
KEYWORDS: PROFILE MUSIC by CNB