Discography

After an entire season spent searching for the stories hidden in the grooves, we finish by hearing from someone who put them there. Last time, Derrick Bostrom helped us straighten out the Meat Puppets' first decade into their stint on London Records. Now, things get weird. In the final episode of Discography's season exploring The Meat Puppets, founding drummer, Derrick Bostrom, shares with Marc With a C end of the SST years into the band's major-label era: the unlikely explosion of Too High to Die , the end of the original trio, the years when Curt Kirkwood carried the Meat Puppets name forward without Derrick or Cris Kirkwood, and the even more unlikely road that eventually brought all three of them back together - And Derrick brought tapes. Hear Too High to Die -era recordings that have never circulated among fans, including the elusive title-song itself, plus not one, not two, but five different versions of the long-rumored track "Don't Touch My Stuff". Derrick shares the saga around the album that unexpectedly put the Meat Puppets in front of a massive audience—and what the familiar version of that story leaves out. This is anything but an exercise in settling scores. Derrick discusses the years when Curt kept the Meat Puppets alive without him and Cris, and why keeping that name and music moving ultimately mattered. Then we arrive at 2017, when Curt, Cris and Derrick reunited onstage for their induction into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame for their first performance together in more than twenty years, and how that reunion ultimately opened the door to another chapter of the band. Misconceptions, alternate histories, and lost songs are demolished in real time. At the end of this long road, we're not going to pretend we've completely figured out the Meat Puppets, because Derrick Bostrom made the whole story even weirder than we previously knew! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've spent seven episodes telling the story that The Meat Puppets' records contained; now we get to hear the story from someone who lived it. Host Marc With a C sits down with founding Meat Puppets drummer Derrick Bostrom for an extensive conversation about the band's history. In part 1, we're going back to the 1980s: when three guys from Arizona made an ungodly racket, somehow landed on SST Records, and spent the rest of the decade becoming increasingly difficult for anybody to categorize. Derrick helps untangle some of the chronology that's got muddled over four decades of retellings. He shares what it was actually like to exist inside the SST ecosystem - where releasing someone's records and understanding them were two entirely different jobs and making fun of the band on the air was just another day at the office. Along with tales from Derrick's lips to your ears, you'll hear slices of the unfinished, unreleased "homemade" version of Up on the Sun —an abandoned attempt at the album, offering a glimpse of familiar songs in their gestational phase. This isn't a documentarian's attempt to reconstruct the eighties from press clippings. This is Derrick's memories of how the records happened, what everybody gets wrong, what everybody somehow got right, and all of the strange little accidents that became Meat Puppets history. Somewhere along the way, a noisy Arizona punk band became one of the strangest and most original American bands of its generation. It turns out the guy behind the drum kit remembers quite a bit about how they got there! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some reunions chase the past. The Meat Puppets used theirs to prove the story wasn't over. Instead, this current era of Meat Puppets is characterized by: second chances, hard-earned wisdom, and a catalog that refuses to stand still. These later albums aren't epilogues; they're proof that artistic curiosity doesn't have an expiration date, and that a band can continue to surprise listeners long after the history books think the story has already been written. Host Marc With a C follows Curt Kirkwood and the reborn Meat Puppets through an unlikely and deeply rewarding revival. Beginning with Rise to Your Knees , continuing through Sewn Together , Lollipop , Rat Farm , and Dusty Notes , we'll explore a band that rediscovered its voice while refusing to become its own tribute act. Along the way, Cris Kirkwood returned to the fold, drummer Ted Marcus became a vital part of the band's modern identity, Shandon Sahm powered much of the band's post- Sewn Together studio work, and Dusty Notes welcomed both the return of original drummer Derrick Bostrom and keyboardist Ron Stabinsky, bringing old friends and new collaborators together for one of the band's richest and most adventurous albums; not to mention Curt's son Elmo becoming a full-time official member! This isn't a story about recapturing former glory, it's about what happens when musicians survive long enough to gain perspective and eventually put that into artistic motion. Rise to Your Knees announces that the Kirkwood brothers still share an unmistakable chemistry, Sewn Together finds them writing with renewed warmth and confidence, underrated albums Lollipop and Rat Farm continue to stretch their sound in surprising directions, and Dusty Notes embraces new collaborators without ever losing the personality that made the Meat Puppets unique in the first place. We'll also take a few side quests, exploring the projects and releases that filled the spaces between studio albums, showing that creativity never slowed, even when the gaps between Meat Puppets records grew longer. More than anything, we'll examine how the band balanced continuity with reinvention, welcoming new musical voices while honoring the peculiar spirit that Curt and Cris built decades earlier in the Arizona desert. Sometimes the road circles back! Links: The Meat Puppets Marc With a C on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sometimes the end of one band is the beginning of several new adventures: unlikely supergroups, overlooked masterpieces, and the quiet confidence of an artist who kept moving forward no matter what name appeared on the album cover. Host Marc With a C follows Curt Kirkwood through the years in-between incarnations of the Meat Puppets; writing and recording with a remarkable cast of collaborators. First: the supergroup Eyes Adrift, alongside Krist Novoselic of Nirvana and Bud Gaugh of Sublime. After that band's brief lifespan, Kirkwood and Gaugh regrouped as Volcano. Finally, Curt stepped out completely on his own with the understated and deeply personal solo album Snow . This isn't an intermission in the Meat Puppets story, it's a chance to see one of alternative rock's most distinctive songwriters through a different lens. Eyes Adrift blends the musical DNA of three legendary bands into something entirely new, Volcano expands Curt's love of reggae, country, and psychedelic rock into a loose, sun-soaked collaboration, and Snow strips away nearly everything but the songs themselves, revealing just how timeless Kirkwood's writing had become. Curt never sounded like a guest in anyone else's band; these collaborations grew naturally from friendships rather than celebrity. In this episode we examine what happens when a songwriter with nothing left to prove simply follows his instincts. These records may not bear the Meat Puppets name, but they carry the same unmistakable fingerprints: surreal imagery, desert horizons, and melodies that always seem to find beauty in unexpected places. Links: The Meat Puppets Marc With a C on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Not every chapter in a band's history is defined by triumph. Sometimes the most revealing stories are the ones told through uncertainty. Host Marc With a C chronicles the Meat Puppets' journey through one of the most turbulent periods of their career. Beginning with their overlooked record No Joke , continuing through the You Love Me EP, the reflective Golden Lies , and the raw Live album released by DCN Records; we'll examine a band trying to hold itself together as the ground beneath it continues to shift. Along the way, the classic lineup of Curt Kirkwood, Cris Kirkwood, and Derrick Bostrom comes to an end, with both Cris and Derrick Bostrom departing the group entirely. Meanwhile, deeper personal struggles cast an ever-lengthening shadow over the years to come. This isn't simply a story about records. It's about resilience under impossible circumstances. No Joke pushes forward, despite growing instability, You Love Me captures Curt Kirkwood still willing to experiment, Golden Lies carries an unmistakable sense of reflection and weariness, and Live serves as a snapshot of a group of ringers that could summon remarkable chemistry even as their own future became increasingly uncertain. We'll explore how lineup changes altered the band's dynamic, how addiction and personal turmoil threatened to eclipse the music in the public narrative, and why these releases are more than a bridge between better-known eras. Even in the darkest moments, Curt Kirkwood's songwriting continues to search for beauty, humor, and humanity where most bands would have settled for despair. There are endings that no one could yet recognize as endings, songs that carried more weight than they first appeared to, and a band whose greatest challenge was never writing remarkable music: it was surviving long enough to keep playing it. Links: The Meat Puppets Marc With a C on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Success changes every band. For the Meat Puppets, it simply gave more people the chance to discover what was there all along. Host Marc With a C follows Curt Kirkwood, Cris Kirkwood, and Derrick Bostrom as they leave SST Records for London Records, navigating the leap to a major label with Forbidden Places , breaking through to a wider audience with Too High to Die , and revealing another side of their all-too “Automatic Mojo” on the intimate and barely-known Camp Songs (a live compilation released in 2023 that contains performances from this era). Along the way, we'll also revisit one of the defining moments of the decade, when an appearance alongside Nirvana on MTV Unplugged introduced millions of listeners to songs the Meat Puppets carried with them for years. This isn't a story about "selling out". It's about what happens when this incredibly singular band suddenly finds itself in the spotlight. Forbidden Places refined the band's ever-expanding palette, Too High to Die channeled that adventurous spirit into some of the most immediately memorable songs of their career, while things like the 10” EP Raw Meat and Camp Songs stripped everything back to reveal just how well-rounded the group always really was. Through changing audiences and growing expectations, the Kirkwoods never stopped sounding like themselves. In this episode, we explore the strange relationship between underground credibility and mainstream success, the strangeness of "Alternative music" in 1994, how one unforgettable television performance reshaped the band's public perception, and why the biggest hit in a catalog often tells only a fraction of the story. We'll also examine the creative momentum that carried the Meat Puppets through one of alternative rock's biggest cultural moments without sacrificing the oddball perspective that made them impossible to imitate in the first place. Because for the Meat Puppets, the destination was never fame, it was always the next song waiting just beyond the swirlin' backwater. Links: The Meat Puppets Marc With a C on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every great band reaches the point where evolution isn't optional, it's inevitable. In this episode, host Marc With a C explores the Meat Puppets at the close of their run with SST Records. We begin with the concise songwriting of Huevos , capturing the trio's onstage chemistry on Live in Montana , and arriving at the ambitious, loudly expansive Monsters . Through it all, Curt Kirkwood, Cris Kirkwood, and Derrick Bostrom continue to redefine what a rock band could sound like without ever losing sight of who they were. This era sees the band learning that complexity doesn't always mean adding more notes; it can mean saying more with fewer. Huevos pares songs down to their essentials, Live in Montana (released in 1999, but chronicling two live shows in 1988) reminds us that the Meat Puppets were never content to reproduce their records onstage, and Monsters finds the band embracing a heavier, more muscular sound without abandoning its psychedelic heart; reaching toward a broader audience while remaining unmistakably Meat Puppets. We'll dig into the tension between discipline and freedom, the way these records balance memorable hooks with moments that seem to float just outside conventional structure, and how the band's desert-born psychedelia became less about sonic effects than about perspective. Even when the songs are grounded, they still look over the next hill, asking what else might be waiting there. Monsters aren't always frightening, memories refuse to sit still, and performances reveal new shapes every time the songs are played. These are albums where the obvious path is almost never the interesting one, and where the music reminds you that change isn't something to fear. Sometimes you don't outrun monsters; sometimes you invite them into the song! Links: The Meat Puppets Marc With a C on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Meat Puppets didn't leave psychedelia behind after Meat Puppets II , they disappeared into it. In this episode, host Marc With a C follows Curt Kirkwood, Cris Kirkwood, and Derrick Bostrom through three releases that transformed the band's sound without sacrificing its identity: the luminous Up on the Sun , the adventurous Out My Way EP, and the dreamlike Mirage . Still recording for SST Records, the trio embraced melody, atmosphere, and fearless experimentation, proving that "punk" had never been the destination. This isn't a story about a band mellowing with age, it's about artists becoming increasingly comfortable trusting instinct over convention. The songs stretch toward the horizon, guitars shimmer like heat rising from desert asphalt, and melodies drift in and out of focus like mirages themselves. Their psychedelia isn't just an effect, it's a perspective; one where the ordinary world quietly slips the leash. Discover why these albums reward the kind of listening that lets your mind wander rather than race toward conclusions as they blur the lines between country, folk, garage rock, and cosmic exploration. All the while, Curt Kirkwood's elliptical lyrics leave just enough space for listeners to finish the picture. Expect conversations about suns that never quite set, landscapes that seem to breathe, and visions that vanish the moment you think you've understood them. The Meat Puppets were never interested in handing you a map, they're more interested in showing you the horizon... and asking what you think is waiting there. Links: The Meat Puppets Marc With a C on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season Five of Discography begins where the desert first started humming: before Too High to Die , before MTV, before “Lake of Fire” became somebody else's campfire song. Host Marc With a C traces the earliest evolution of the Meat Puppets through three foundational releases: the frantic In a Car EP, the feral self-titled debut, and the astonishing leap that is Meat Puppets II . Along the way, we'll follow Curt Kirkwood, Cris Kirkwood, and Derrick Bostrom as they transform from Arizona hardcore outliers into one of the most imaginative bands to emerge from SST Records. This isn't a show about gossip or mythology; it's about the stories pressed into the vinyl: how five minutes of chaos on In a Car hinted at something stranger. How the debut LP stretched hardcore until country, folk, and psychedelia started leaking through the cracks. And why Meat Puppets II remains one of the most startling artistic left turns in American independent music. In this season debut, we'll examine songs that seem to wander in circles only to arrive exactly where they needed to be; across desert landscapes, black rainbows, lakes of fire, plateaus, through tumbling tumbleweeds, and the peculiar way the Kirkwood brothers make existential dread sound oddly comforting. Proof that sometimes the strangest path is the straightest one, because the best records don't just ask you to listen, they ask you to keep climbing until you find yourself up on the sun. Links: The Meat Puppets Marc With a C on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Discography returns for its fifth season on August 5th. The legendary artist whose oeuvre we're unpacking? None other than your favorite musicians' favorite musicians: The Meat Puppets! Join host Marc With a C for a seven episode sojourn, weekly on Wednesdays. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Discography Producer Cat Blackard reports in with a brief update on the show and a new documentary about Discography 's host, Marc With A C. The film is called Half Serious, Half Kidding: The Digital Footprint Of An Obscure Rock Star it's coming soon to streaming platforms, but if you're keen to get a limited run physical copy with a soundtrack, zine, and a wealth of bonus content... now's your chance - until Thursday, May 2 at 11:50 AM Eastern, that is. Back it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwacdoc/marc-with-a-c-documentary-on-blu-ray-with-soundtrack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Discography host Marc With a C posits (and tries to answer) the eternal question: what IS Black Sabbath? Armed only with the records, some supplemental reading material, and a little commentary through the season from Jim Myers of Milk Carton Superstars, Razorfist (aka The Rageaholic, host of Black Sabbath: Metal Mythos ), Ernie Cunnigan (producer of the Forbidden album, guitarist for Body Count), and some recited exclusive commentary from a source that could change all that you know about Sabbath, Marc chronicles their post-Forbidden releases/activity/false starts, including Heaven & Hell's The Devil You Know , all the way to 13 ! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Discography host Marc With a C posits the eternal question: what IS Black Sabbath? Armed only with the records, some supplemental reading material, and a little commentary from Razorfist (aka The Rageaholic), Ernie Cunnigan (producer of the Forbidden album, guitarist for Body Count), and some recited exclusive commentary from a source that could change all that you know about Sabbath, Marc chronicles their music from The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr, Dehumanizer, Cross Purposes and the too-often maligned Forbidden record on this episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Discography host Marc With a C posits the eternal question: what IS Black Sabbath? Armed only with the records, some supplemental reading material, and a little commentary from Jim Myers of Milk Carton Superstars, plus Razorfist (aka The Rageaholic), Marc chronicles their music from Technical Ecstasy all the way to the oft-misunderstood Seventh Star album on this episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The wait is over! Host Marc With a C posits the eternal question: what IS Black Sabbath? Armed only with the records, some supplemental reading material, and a little commentary from Jim Myers of Milk Carton Superstars, Marc chronicles their music from the 1969 debut all the way to Sabotage on this episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With literally hundreds of compilations exploring the continuum of The Who's canon discography and beyond... keeping track of variations and critical recordings can be genuinely maddening! Let Discography 's host, Marc With a C, be your leader and your guide to the compilation cream that rose to the top and the remixed albums that are completely essential for any self-respecting Who fanatic. Learn about how the legendary band's catalog got into such messy shape, and if you've joined us for our entire journey through the Who's history, this epilogue episode ties up some of the loose ends in The Who's canon as we look onward to the future. On this series we aim to provide an exhaustive but equally entertaining look at a musician's work. Taking on one of the greatest and most important acts in the history of rock music is something we don't take lightly - as evidenced by our comprehensive journey through not just the band's work, but also their complete solo careers. That's a lot of records! And with Pete Townshend and Roger Daltry recording a new Who record at this very moment, it's a history that's very much still on-going. For the dedicated Who collector, getting is all is a next to impossible feat, and Marc can't really offer you any easy answers, but if you're into the minutia of just how far one can exploit a catalog of recorded songs? This might be your favorite episode of Discography yet! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After John Entwistle's shocking death on the eve of The Who's 2002 tour, few could have been blamed for considering that event to be the proverbial "end of the road" for the group. Even fewer could have predicted that it would instead be followed by one of the largest tours in the band's history and their first album of new material in well over two decades, Endless Wire . But that's not all! If you'll carefully check the liner notes to Roger Daltrey's 2018 album As Long As I Have You - you might even notice enough appearances from Pete Townshend to consider it a secret Who album. Rather than being The Who's twilight years, the era from 2002-present is actually among the most productive periods since their initial heyday! Host, Marc With a C, digs into the circumstances that brought the Who to a full-fledged reemergence - even when the backstories aren't particularly flattering. In fact, there's an especially ugly elephant in the room that we have to address right off the bat, and you might want to consider this introductory text to be a trigger warning. Grim and grimy tidings aside, The Who soldier on valiantly, traveling to nearly every continent possible, reviving ideas, songs, and vault material, and just when we think they're done... Well, they shocked us by announcing work on a new record shortly after we concluded recording this season. Marc With a C is your leader, he is your guide, and he's all too happy to help you Be Lucky on this Amazing Journey! Albums touched on in this episode include Then & Now , Edge Of The World , View From a Backstage Pass , Endless Wire , Live At Hull , Going Back Home , As Long As I Have You , and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 90s were a strange and unpredictable time for The Who. The band was back as a touring act but little else, meanwhile the individual members pressed on into their solo careers. Townshend's passion projects paved the way for eventual Who material, Daltry soldiered on to find a way forward musically, and Entwistle threw caution to the wind to start his own group with friends Steve Luongo and Godfrey Townsend (no relation). These twelve-odd years are the building blocks of how The Who put themselves back together - recreating the sounds of their records onstage for the first time - instead of the other way around. Plus... there's some very deep wells of little-known, but vital material to explore. Prepare for Maximum Discography! Join host Marc for a fan's-eye-view into the controversial 1989 reunion tour and a deep dive with Cap Blackard into the pros and cons of the two different versions of Townshend's concept album, Psychoderelict . Eventually the band returned to loudest, classic-style performances for the most surprising reason of all: Townshend getting as close to finishing Lifehouse as possible. Those stripped down gigs from 1999-2001 were well received. In fact - some believe The Who's appearance at the Concert For New York can hang with the leagues of Queen at Live Aid! But the new highs weren't to last, this episode goes up to the very last notes John Entwistle would ever play onstage with his childhood friends before his untimely passing in 2002. Albums covered in this episode include Join Together , Rocks In The Head , Psychoderelict (both the dialogue and music-only versions), Thirty Years of Maximum R&B , Live At Isle Of Wight 1970 , Left For Live , A Benefit For Maryville Academy , BBC Sessions , The Blues To The Bush , Lifehouse Chronicles , Music From Van-Pires , Scoop 3 , and more from this era! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following the release of their 1982 album, It's Hard , The Who called it quits and spent the rest of the 80s redefining their solo careers. Join Discography host Marc With a C as he chronicles what he's dubbed "the first farewell era" - exploring the ways that the group had splintered and how they carried on in finding their individual voices. John Entwistle wouldn't have much luck getting his new record off the ground, Roger Daltry released a series of baffling solo projects, while Pete Townshend dabbled in film, book editing, and pursuits that would increasingly incorporate interwoven stories. This is where Discography's commitment to discovering WHO the band really is kicks into gear as we dive into not just what the members do between albums, but what they do when there's no band to fall back on. And there's plenty of revelations to go around! For instance: Marc admits that he'd misunderstood the intent of Townshend's Iron Man album for years, and posits a theory about the White City album/film that's so controversial that it may make you rethink everything you think you know about The Who's chronology! During this period, the three remaining members would occasionally find themselves reunited for the odd benefit or awards show, but in 1989 the bands silence was truly broken when they returned to the touring circuit with a massively expanded lineup. It's an especially strange but rewarding era for our three remaining protagonists, and the story isn't even close to being fully told yet! Albums touched on in this episode are It's Hard , Scoop , Parting Should Be Painless , Who's Last , Under a Raging Moon , White City: A Novel , The Rock , Deep End Live! , Another Scoop , Can't Wait To See The Movie , The Iron Man , and other assorted releases from the era! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Between 1977 and 1982, The Who changed in inconceivable ways. They were still a huge live draw, they were making massive hit records, and their tenure as stars of the silver screen was only seeming to grow, but this period certainly contained some of the saddest chapters in Who history: the death of the seemingly indestructible Keith Moon, the passing of previous manager Kit Lambert, and the Cincinnati stampede that left many fans injured or deceased. However, the records the group made during these trying times remain as solid as anything that any group of humans could hope to churn out under such dire circumstances. This transitional time that saw the band bring drummer Kenney Jones into the fray and allowing an outside keyboardist to appear on the stage with the group in the form of John "Rabbit" Bundrick. Meanwhile, Pete Townshend's solo successes sometimes overshadowed those of his main group. Join host, Marc With A C, for this highly emotional episode leading us into some of the most hotly debated moves that The Who would ever make. And to think... we're only half of the way through this season! This episode we explore Rough Mix , Who Are You , The Kids Are Alright , McVicar , the soundtrack version of Quadrophenia , Empty Glass , Face Dances , Too Late The Hero , All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes , and a few other assorted sundries from this era! Be sure to check out our full index of every record discussed - over in our Reverb LP record bin! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.