Most of us chasing dreams of becoming rock journalists cannot afford air fare and such to head ourselves out to annual festivals like SXSW. That doesn't mean we're not going to do our best to cover such events from the distant confines of New York City. For example, the venerable Meat Puppets are back in the swing of things with a release date of April 12th set for their new record "Lollipop" to hit stores, the Pups played four shows over the course of the SXSW proceedings, and us here at the Jay Porks Experience are here to let all of you know what you may have missed(a lot of so called journalists attending SXSW were too busy trying to sneak into a Foo Fighters secret gig or in hotel rooms spinning the new Radiohead over and over again trying to convince somebody that it doesn't suck.) and of course a look into the near future what we have lined up for all things Meat Puppets in 2011...
-3/17/11 So the Meat Puppets rolled into SXSW playing a set at La Zona Rosa for Rolling Stone. A set that included a new song "Town" from the forthcoming record "Lollipop", as well as some old favorites as well. The Rolling Stone website has video posted of "Oh Me", "Plataeu", "Town" and a 11 minute version on "Lake of Fire" to finish off a set played to the most intimate looking for crowds. Of course RollingStone.Com is giving me trouble embedding there video into this post, so the link to "Town" and the other songs the Pups played for Rolling Stone can all be found by clicking the link after the colon: Meat Puppets La Zona Rosa
-3/18/11 St. Patricks day brought on the Meat Puppets 2nd annual "High Tea for Twits" gig at the Dog & Duck Pub. the lineup was 12:00 The Fledgelings,12:20 The Daylight Titans,1:00 Emily Long,1:40 Sally Crewe and the Sudden Moves, 2:20 Ethan Azarian, 3:00 Doug Gillard (formerly of Guided by Voices), 4:00 Moonlight Towers, 4:45 Hickoids, 5:30 The Service Industry with the Meat Puppets headlining at 6:15.. A version of "Lake of Fire" recorded by someone in the crowd has surfaced itself onto YouTube and should appear right below this paragraph3/19/11 the Meat Puppets hit the stage at a showcase for Waterloo Records. They went on stage at 2PM.
Later that evening, from 9:50-10:50, the Meat Puppets played a set with veteran psychedelic rocker Roky Erickson( from the 13th Floor Elevators). From what I gather from the mass media highway known as the Internet- two songs they played are "You're Gonna Miss Me" and "Starry Eyes"
In May, the Meat Puppets will head overseas to the UK and the Neatherlands for their first tour of Europe in over 20 years. Upon their return to the states, it's said that the Meat Puppets should kick off a US tour June 9th back in TX. Through June they will be going west and in July they're slated to head back towards the east coast. When there's more info released or confirmation of more US tour dates, we'll have it all here.
Confirmed 2011 Meat Puppets tour dates:
05/13-14 – Somerset, UK @ All Tomorrow’s Parties 05/16 – Dusseldorf, DE @ Zakk 05/17 – Berlin, DE @ Magnet Club 05/18 – Antwerpen, BE @ Trix Club 05/19 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg 05/21 – Brescia, IT @ Latte & Live 05/22 – Livorno, IT @ The Cage Theater 05/24 – Vienna, AT @ Szene Vien 05/25 – Munich, DE @ Substanz 05/27 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust 05/28 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen 05/30 – London, UK @ The Garage 05/31 – Dublin, IE @ The Button Factory
In addition to that the Meat Puppets will be supporting the band Slightly Stoopid on their tour from April 27th and May 7th of this year (except for Beale Street Music Festival on April 29).
