Staff Picks

This week I’ve got The Punks: Lost and Found as my record of choice. If you’ve ever gotten to a point in your life where you thought, “I need more Stooges material,” this would be the answer.

The first time I came across this band was on a compilation of theirs just called The Punksand it stayed on repeat for an extended period. After a while, I got to a point where I needed more, and like a prayer was being answered, shortly thereafter Rave Up Records released this Lost and Found anthology. I was beyond stoked. It’s a double LP, so the first record was the same tracks from The Punks comp that I already knew well. The second record didn’t disappoint with 11 more tracks of the same hard-driven sound that I heard on the previous material. These songs feel like a band that was bridging a gap between late 60s garage rock into the next generation of punks of the late 70s and early 80s. There are parts of this record that feel like it even touches on early hardcore. There’s a track on this called “Into Action” that seems to have an early example of a d-beat.

All in all, I think this record reaffirms that proto-punk is probably my favorite subgenre. It’s the perfect mix of punk with raw rock n roll that gives this type of music a unique authenticity.

This week I’m choosing The Meat Puppets album Huevos as my staff pick. This record usually gets a lot of play in the summer with songs about rain, fresh fruit and paradise. It’s a nice record to put on for a hot day and imagine a place with these things. Even with summer being over, the heat lingered long enough for me to get a few more plays in before things start to cool off.

I think this is the last Meat Puppets album that I like In their catalog. The record between Up On The Sun and Huevos and everything after just never hooked me like their earlier releases and Huevos. And while this record has a similar straightforward energetic, psychedelic looseness like Up On The Sun, it has more of a rock n roll edge to it since apparently the band was going through a heavy period of ZZ Top worship and it’s very clear that’s kind of what they were going for. Overall the record is a fun listen from start to finish and good for just about any time of the year, but best on a hot day when there’s little to no relief but the cool blue cover and songs about rain and fruit to take your mind off the heat.

The Meat Puppets have been one of my favorite bands for almost 20 years and while this album isn’t really my most liked album of theirs, it feels like it deserves more recognition. Check it out if you think this might be your thing and thanks for reading.

This week I’m choosing We’re Only In It For The Money by The Mothers Of Invention as my staff pick. I’ll usually go a while without listening to this, but once I do, it’s on repeat for at least a week. Frank Zappa can sometimes be fairly polarizing to music fans and I can totally understand why. His music can go to levels of technical and goofy that can be off-putting, but there’s usually a strong message in the words, like in this album.

It feels cliche to say but, anytime I listen to this record, it feels almost ahead of its time. I can’t help but notice how relevant and poignant the critiques are of American society at the time, and that I can see some of that relevance today. The cynical but realistic premonitions of authoritarian rule, the relentless ridicule of hippies and squares alike delivered with a type of humor that doesn’t get old for me. On top of that, the track “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance” seems to be a song promoting body positivity, which I can’t imagine a whole lot of that going on at the time.

Meanwhile, all of these thoughts are set to some catchy psychedelic pop tunes like a creepy Sgt. Peppers. Maybe that’s what they were going for, since the back cover of We’re Only In It For The Money is a spoof of the Beatles record. All of this for me makes for a solid record and I would recommend it to any music fan even if you hate Frank Zappa. Thanks for reading!