Meat Puppets Bassist Gets 21 Months

[Bombay Chutney]

Yahoo.com
 
  MESA, Ariz. - Cris Kirkwood, former bass player for the Meat Puppets rock band, has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for attacking a security guard with a baton outside a post office.
 
    
 
 Kirkwood, 43, pleaded guilty May 10 to a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon.
 
 He was shot during the Dec. 26 incident at the post office in downtown Phoenix and authorities said he was on probation at the time for a 2000 drug offense.
 
 According to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court, Kirkwood was arguing with a woman about a parking space outside the post office when she approached security guard Thomas Goodrum.
 
 Kirkwood yelled profanities at Goodrum, then shoved the security guard.
 
 In the ensuing scuffle, Kirkwood managed to get Goodrum's collapsible baton away from him and hit him on the head, knocking off the guard's eyeglasses. Goodrum then pulled his handgun and fired a shot into Kirkwood's back, the complaint states.
 
 Kirkwood and his brother, Curt, fronted the Meat Puppets, a Phoenix-area band that had several hit records in the 1980s and '90s. They were cited as an influence for bands such as Nirvana and earned a gold record in 1994 for "Too High to Die."

[chaz]

Meat Puppets II and Up on the Sun are two brilliant albums.  Let's hope Cris can keep his shit together when he gets out of jail.

[Bags]

I have a personal vendetta against the Meat Puppets.  Hope he rots in jail.

[eltee]

Originally posted by Bagalicious Tangster:
  I have a personal vendetta against the Meat Puppets.  Hope he rots in jail.

An argument over a parking spot? Do tell.

[Bags]

They came and played at my college in...1988?  They were so friggin' rude, awful, obnoxious and arrogant to both the guy I knew who had booked them, and the campus band who opened for them (friends of mine).  And there was just no need to be such assh*les. As IF they were rock stars.  Blech, hated them ever since.  It's not like they were the Replacements...

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

Well they were playing at Vassar.
 
 

Originally posted by Bagalicious Tangster:
  They came and played at my college in...1988?  They were so friggin' rude, awful, obnoxious and arrogant to both the guy I knew who had booked them, and the campus band who opened for them (friends of mine).  And there was just no need to be such assh*les. As IF they were rock stars.  Blech, hated them ever since.  It's not like they were the Replacements...

[Relaxer]

Originally posted by Bagalicious Tangster:
  They came and played at my college in...1988?  They were so friggin' rude, awful, obnoxious and arrogant to both the guy I knew who had booked them, and the campus band who opened for them (friends of mine).  And there was just no need to be such assh*les. As IF they were rock stars.  Blech, hated them ever since.  It's not like they were the Replacements...

I'm sorry to hear that. I've heard that Curt is a good guy (don't know much about Cris or Derrick -- though Derrick's liner notes to the MP re-issues makes him sound pretty arrogant). Oh well, lots of rock stars are pricks, and none of them have put out such brilliant albums as the first four MP albums. Cris' bass playing is pretty suspect, but on MP, MP II, Up on the Sun and Mirage, it works perfectly. Those are some of the most classic albums of the 80s.

[nkotb]

I'm with Relaxer.  They're in a rock band.  That doesn't exactly classify them as being upstanding citizens.  What do you expect?  It's not you were hiring Hillary Duff...
 
 

Originally posted by Relaxer:
  Oh well, lots of rock stars are pricks

[Guiny]

Influenced Nirvana? I sooo don't see the resemblance or how they could have influenced Nirvana or all groups.

[thirsty moore]

On Nirvana's Unplugged, they covered the Meat Puppets.
 
 

Originally posted by Rob_Gee_a.k.a _Guiny:
  Influenced Nirvana? I sooo don't see the resemblance or how they could have influenced Nirvana or all groups.

[sonickteam2]

Originally posted by Rob_Gee_a.k.a _Guiny:
  Influenced Nirvana? I sooo don't see the resemblance or how they could have influenced Nirvana or all groups.

i definitely think they influenced Nirvana. so did Mudhoney and Sonic Youth, and countless other bands.  but who cares, cause Nirvana is crap.  They didnt "invent" grunge, they just made it radio friendly....something i am sure everyone here holds in high value!

[nkotb]

They even had the Kirkwoods come out for the covers.  Influence goes well beyond just how a band sounds...
 
 

Originally posted by thirsty moore:
  On Nirvana's Unplugged, they covered the Meat Puppets.
 
   

Originally posted by Rob_Gee_a.k.a _Guiny:
  Influenced Nirvana? I sooo don't see the resemblance or how they could have influenced Nirvana or all groups.

[/b]

[chaz]

Originally posted by nkotbie:
    Influence goes well beyond just how a band sounds...
 
  [

exactly.

[thirsty moore]

It's like when the interviewer drops the inevitable "influences" question to Sum 41, and the one time triangle player is like, "Yeh, I'm really influenced by McLuhan's writings on media."
 
 Fuck dat sheeeit.
 
 

Originally posted by nkotbie:
 Influence goes well beyond just how a band sounds...

[chaz]

Originally posted by thirsty moore:
  It's like when the interviewer drops the inevitable "influences" question to Sum 41, and the one time triangle player is like, "Yeh, I'm really influenced by McLuhan's writings on media."
 
 

I'd say that statement is a bit of a stretch in this situation.  Obviously Nirvana's records don't sound a thing like the Meat Puppets' early to mid 80's stuff.  But much of the Seattle/grunge thing came on the heels of the 80's american underground...post-hardcore bands like the MP's, Husker Du, other SST bands etc.   Based on that lineage I'd say it's easy to see how nirvana was infuenced by the Meat Puppets....at least that's how I see it.  Others may not agree and that's ok.