MEAT PUPPETS "IN A CAR" 7" (World Imitation/SST, 1981)

The Meat Puppets' legacy contains several universally embraced highlights. Their aciddrenchedindiecountry masterpiece of a second album. Their unlikely 1984 U.S. tour with labelmates Black Flag. Their also unlikely but well-executed appearance on Nirvana's legendary MTV Unplugged performance. Their still unlikely 1994 alternative rock hit, Backwater (most certainly influenced by their aforementioned television appearance with Nirvana), off their 8th studio album, 'Too High To Die'. But to designate their debut record as a hardcore classic might seem, to many at least, the unlikeliest feat of all. And yet the band makes a rather convincing argument.

With their 1981 debut EP, 'In A Car', this rough-and-tumble band from Phoenix, Arizona comes charging out the gate with 5 tracks and about 5 minutes of some of the sloppiest, craziest, and most interesting hardcore the world had seen, particularly in 1981. The sound of punks murdering a circus clown, the Meat Puppets would begin to shift their musical direction shortly thereafter, as their 1982 debut LP and subsequent releases would reflect. Thankfully, such documentation remains.