Track Listing

1. Up on the Sun
2. Maiden's Milk
3. Away
4. Animal Kingdom
5. Hot Pink
6. Swimming Ground
7. Butckethead
8. Too Real
9. Enchanted Pork Fist
10. Seal Whales
11. Two Rivers
12. Creator
13. Hot Pink [*][Version]
14. Up on the Sun [*][Version]
15. Mother American Marshmallow [*]
16. Embodiment of Evil [*]
17. Hot Pink [*][Version]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59395 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
This is the album where most fans agree that Curt, Cris, and Derrick came into their own as a totally original artistic force, where the intricate wordplay of Curt's heat-driven visions is finally matched by the tricky rhythmic exchanges and turbulent, trippy melodicism emanating from the instruments. When listening to songs such as the whistle-led "Maiden's Milk," the outrageously Talking Heads-funky "Away," or the giddy, rollicking "Seal Whales," it becomes almost impossible to believe that only three instruments could create such a delicate, textured record. It truly seemed that this Phoenix trio had managed to capture the sound of the desert on vinyl--the sense of echoing loneliness, the cactus prickliness, the vast open spaces. This reissue (originally released in 1985) includes five bonus eight-track demos. --Everett True

From the Label
Includes five previously unreleased tracks, plus a live video of "Swimming Ground" originally prepared for French TV. Also, an essay by Scott Schinder and recording notes by Derrick Bostrom.

The high watermark of their early years, "Up on the Sun" remains as most Meat Puppets fans' all-time favorite. Recorded in just three days back in early 1985, the album recieved universal praise. In the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Mikal Gilmore described it as the "most articulate version yet of what is proving to be one of the more intriguing private musical languages in American pop." Richard Grabel effused thusly in New Musical Express: "Uplifting, delicate, inspiring, intricate, personal, important -- 'Up on the Sun' is all these things."

For this edition, the album has been expanded to include five additional tracks, including very different demo versions of "Hot Pink," "Up on the Sun," and "Maiden's Milk," plus the previously unreleased "Embodiment of Evil." Also included is the original extended instrumental of "Hot Pink."

As an added bonus, the albums in this series include an "Enhanced CD" partition for play on home computers. "Up on the Sun" offers a lucky find, a complete live video of the Meat Puppets performing "Swimming Ground" at Hollywood's Music Machine club in January of 1986. Originally produced for French television by I/O Productions, this video offers a rare glimpse of the band at the peak of their early career.

Customer Reviews

Sun-baked goodness
Listened to this'n driving from El Paso to Phoenix to see The Flaming Lips back in '89. Plays like an endless stretch of scrubby desert. My ex-wife began her ship into evil psychosis because I wouldn't take this tape out of the player. She hit me with a sandwich and tried to get out of the car. It's that good!

Best album of the eighties
This record is certainly on par as one of the best albums of the eighties along w/ Zen Arcade, Double Nickels, also on SST. This is a psychedelic masterpiece...probably as good as Cream Disreali Gears was when it came out.

Perfect
How many albums can you think of that you like EVERY song on ? For me, the Beatles' "Abbey Road " and "Murmur" by REM come to mind. After listening to "Up on the Sun" by the Meat Puppets for the past 6 months, it has just hit me that this is a perfect album; I love every song on it.

The songs are fast, simple, fun, and really catchy. This record sounds like it is was recorded live in the studio during a session where the band had a lot of fun; it sounds real, not fake. The music is not as deep as the music on the Meat Puppets' album which came before this one (Meat Puppets II) but that's OK, it's a different album (by the way, Meat Puppets II is great and nearly perfect). Most of the songs focus on electric guitar but there are also songs where the bass rules the guitar (Maiden's Milk, Hot Pink). I have never heard bass like this before; it's amazing.

For anyone who likes alternative music, this is a must have.