Comments on: Bostrom Dissertation Interview from 1993

By: Derrick Bostrom

Derrick Bostrom — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:03:13 +0000

Thanks Jim.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:58:28 +0000

Derrick,
Great interview. I remember seeing the MP live so many times from 86-91 and every show was great. I remember one show when Cris pushed you off of your stool and started playing drums and you picked up his bass and started playing. I was like, “man I never saw that happen at an AC/DC show”. The best three songs Nirvana did on that Unplugged show were the MP covers.

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 05:54:47 +0000

I first heard, or I guess read of, the Meat Puppets via the Minutemen’s Ballot result liner notes. I saw the Minutemen on “The Cutting Edge” and thought they were pretty cool guys. Soon after the Meat Puppets played near my house, at the John Anson Ford Theater. My favorite song was the whistling song, which of course was Maidens Milk! So the next day I went to the nearest weird record store and bought every Meat Puppet cassette I could afford. All but Up On the Sun of course! I always thought the best part of seeing the Meat Puppets was watching most of the crowd get angry during a Marty Robbins cover! You kinda paraphrased “Whatchoo make it man!” unintentionally in there somewhere which was also cool. What I learned from this was, I need to find some recordings by the:
Monitors, Lyres, Feederz, & Consumers! A good band is just a good band, selling out seems like just something that is fun to complain about. So do you have a longer list of good bands somewhere that I might hunt down?

By: Clayton Bentley

Clayton Bentley — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 02:34:30 +0000

I really enjoyed reading this phone interview. It paints a reality that is even more apparent now. It’s about the right producer, the hit song, and blah blah not the music. Maybe finially with myspace and protools on our personal comuters artist can attempt to take the music business back. But still, like you were saying to tour, it’s hard to do on a shoestring budget. The kids with the richist daddy’s might get heard but most of that crap we don’t want to hear. I liked the part about you being the survivors. You measured your success to out surviving your local scene. You guys did it pretty damn well. Your albums and youtubed live shows live on. I see cris is out and back with curt. I saw curt at the Troubador in hollywood last year for his snow album. I saw eyeadrift in 2002 in Portland Or. I still havn’t seen derrick with cris and curt. Meat Puppets

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 17:23:13 +0000

I just happen to be one of the least likely meat puppets fan ever. I am 15, and live in South Africa. I would just like to send my regards and intense respect and adoration of your music, despite the fact that i never have or will get to see you guys in concert (the onle time that has happened so far is in that music video for “Light” on the Monsters Ryko release) and will never hear you guys on radio, since i was only 5 when you broke up. Also, thank you for these instrumentals. Fantastic.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 04:05:28 +0000

I would like to give a hearty “AMEN brother!!!” to all of the above commentaries…

And give you, Derrick a mighty “THANK YOU” for your music, your passions, your noble endeavors…

Your incisively aware precision distillation of THE REAL DEAL.

You ROCK, brother!!!

By: Tommy

Tommy — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 22:32:47 +0000

I enjoyed what we called the indie scene when I was a teenager, though whether a band was independent or not never really bothered me. What did was the sound. Often a band became more popular and as a direct result they’re music became more diluted or tamer or something – a commercial quality that was sometimes indescribable but not un-noticed. As a passionate youth it would make me feel physically sick when a band went this way. Now I’m less green. Very few artists i guess are in it for the music. I still think you guys are amazing when i listen to the records. What’s impotant here is that you guys have been played sporadically on my record player for 15 years or more. Cheers

By: Shade

Shade — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:03:38 +0000

Especially for a Meat Puppet interview this here is a very serious and, dare I say it, coherent piece of communication. I really liked reading it too, as the music ‘business’ fascinates me in a ‘too disgusted to look away’ sort of way.

I think it’s admirable that the ‘Pups stook around without letting the music be fornicated by it. Making a business out of creativity, it’s a contradiction meant to forsake one or the other.. it’s sad that it’s so often the latter.

By: C.W. Humpage

C.W. Humpage — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:10:52 +0000

Derrick,

I’m fucking serious about you writing an account of the Meat Puppets’ history. The reasons are as follows:

1 – MP were a groundbreaking West-Coast punk act. Touring with other groundbreaking west coast punk acts. For guys my age (28) who are fans of music, We’d love to learn more about this relatively obscure era. Books abound about Brit-punk, NY punk, but not about West Coast Punk.

2 – MP were sucked into the “Grunge” movement. Again, dudes my age (28) would eat this shit up. Plus, this is new information for the younger set. For example, I meet younger guys all the time who say “Gee, whiz, Godsmack rules!” and they are really die-hard fans of rock and roll, but they don’t even know who Layne Staley or AIC was!

3 – You’re a damn good writer. The excerpts on this site are full of fucking funny shit. You, the brothers Kirkwood, and everyone else involved are some funny fuckers. I just want to say one more thing here, and that’s “fucking funny.”

4 – You’ve practically got the thing written here! You could go with a chronological set-up of interviews, write from your perspective, or go from a variety of angles.

5 – It would technically be a non-fiction book, so you could sent out queries to publishers without doing any more work then you are now. I’m saying, at least float the idea out there to publishers. You put in all that time having the unique experiences as a drummer for MP – that makes you CREDIBLE, and people and publishers are interested in CREDIBILITY.

6 – The whole saga of MP is both triumphant, sad, redemptive – its a ripping good yarn. You cats have some character.

7 – If synced up properly with what CK and CK are doing, you could raise awareness for the supposed “MP reunion” It would only add to their momentum.

I’m just adamently tossing this out there again. Granted, you may think I’m a fucking clown overstepping my bounds, but I’m just looking at this from the perspective of a writer marketing a story. The goods are there. Naturally, you may be wanting to put MP behind you, and that’s all well and good. But, the bottom line is you have the resources, you have the talent, and you have the story.

Okay – muzzle. Still loving the site, Bostworld, and MP tunes.

C.W. Humpage.

By: ramblin' man

ramblin' man — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:45:12 +0000

Of course it’s just a coincidence that you chose to post this now, when 1993 interview + “we plan to be around for another 13 years” = 2006?

Fascinating stuff, very unique sort of interview.