Curt Kirkwood - Kings - continued...
Tuesday night, didn’t know what to expect; it’s hard to predict the crowd. So, we got to Kings before they even unlocked the door, killed some time at the next welcome mat down, Poole’s Luncheonette. One beer later Kings was ready to serve. We covered the door got another malt beverage and took residence up top by the soundboard. Pretty sharply around 9:30 local duo Viswas started their raga-style music on sitar and tanpura, very good.
Not long after their set Curt Kirkwood came in quietly and alone with his guitar and began to set up. It turns out that the crowd is a rather anemic thirty, more or less.
I had been anticipating this show for a couple of weeks. I really had a feeling it would be something above and beyond the mainstream and I was not disappointed. Kirkwood's gritty performance exceeded my lofty expectations and then some. He won a fan.
Curt Kirkwood, musician, visual artist, was born January 10, 1959, a good Capricorn boy. Long gone are the locks of flowing deep brown hippie hair tangle that framed his punk rock bumpkin from Phoenix persona with the Meat Puppets.
Like most, I came to the Meat Puppets and thereby Curt Kirkwood through Nirvana. Kurt Cobain seemed to have the insight to instinctively know which bands were really worthy of his stealing from them, you know, doing something new, original, and special. Cobain championed the Raincoats, the Vaselines and the Meat Puppets. All three were completely unique and their influence is everywhere.
As vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter with the Meat Puppets, Kirkwood established himself as a major talent. It is generally agreed that II is their benchmark CD, released by SST in 1983 and reissued and enhanced by Rykodisc in 1999. Anyone who knows the ‘pups will be familiar with Curt’s art, his paintings grace nearly every Meat Puppets CD cover.
Kirkwood’s music is a genre of one, a singular inspiration, and an archetype without boundary or limitation. Call it psychedelic cow punk jazz? Call it Americana? I don’t know; but what I do know is that Kirkwood plays his music at the edge, with passion, sincerity and humor. This approach leads to a tension filled atmosphere where anything can happen, brilliant, dazzling moments, moments where he paints himself into a corner a bit but he is never out of control, always pulling it back before all is lost.
His compositions are so unique and personal that some people will not “get” him but artists like Kirkwood are exactly what we need more of, performers who offer their own singular idiosyncratic vision and step out of the checkerboard square of sameness. Kirkwood’s music is traditional and cutting edge at the same time. His riddles and rhymes reveal a sense of humor peppered with a flair for the absurd and the surreal, seen through eyes wizened by life’s little curveballs and tragedies.
The ex-pup does not cut the rock star figure. His Little Dog Records bio calls him a modern day troubadour, the "psychedelic" Woody Guthrie and it is hard to argue with that. He is a major, thought little known, singer-songwriter putting it on the line bare bones, just him and his guitar, in the spotlight. Curt Kirkwood pulled it off with a ragged soulful voice, rasp-like wit and six-string virtuosity that made his Gibson Hummingbird cry and sing.
He played, I think, every song from his new solo release “Snow” among a set of thirty or so, mixing in old ‘Puppets favorites like “Plateau”, “Lake of Fire”, “Backwater” and a few tasteful covers. A highlight for me was his excellent take on Roky Erickson’s “Nothing in Return”. I am really glad I didn’t miss this one.
http://www.curtkirkwood.com/
Not long after their set Curt Kirkwood came in quietly and alone with his guitar and began to set up. It turns out that the crowd is a rather anemic thirty, more or less.
I had been anticipating this show for a couple of weeks. I really had a feeling it would be something above and beyond the mainstream and I was not disappointed. Kirkwood's gritty performance exceeded my lofty expectations and then some. He won a fan.
Curt Kirkwood, musician, visual artist, was born January 10, 1959, a good Capricorn boy. Long gone are the locks of flowing deep brown hippie hair tangle that framed his punk rock bumpkin from Phoenix persona with the Meat Puppets.
Like most, I came to the Meat Puppets and thereby Curt Kirkwood through Nirvana. Kurt Cobain seemed to have the insight to instinctively know which bands were really worthy of his stealing from them, you know, doing something new, original, and special. Cobain championed the Raincoats, the Vaselines and the Meat Puppets. All three were completely unique and their influence is everywhere.
As vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter with the Meat Puppets, Kirkwood established himself as a major talent. It is generally agreed that II is their benchmark CD, released by SST in 1983 and reissued and enhanced by Rykodisc in 1999. Anyone who knows the ‘pups will be familiar with Curt’s art, his paintings grace nearly every Meat Puppets CD cover.
Kirkwood’s music is a genre of one, a singular inspiration, and an archetype without boundary or limitation. Call it psychedelic cow punk jazz? Call it Americana? I don’t know; but what I do know is that Kirkwood plays his music at the edge, with passion, sincerity and humor. This approach leads to a tension filled atmosphere where anything can happen, brilliant, dazzling moments, moments where he paints himself into a corner a bit but he is never out of control, always pulling it back before all is lost.
His compositions are so unique and personal that some people will not “get” him but artists like Kirkwood are exactly what we need more of, performers who offer their own singular idiosyncratic vision and step out of the checkerboard square of sameness. Kirkwood’s music is traditional and cutting edge at the same time. His riddles and rhymes reveal a sense of humor peppered with a flair for the absurd and the surreal, seen through eyes wizened by life’s little curveballs and tragedies.
The ex-pup does not cut the rock star figure. His Little Dog Records bio calls him a modern day troubadour, the "psychedelic" Woody Guthrie and it is hard to argue with that. He is a major, thought little known, singer-songwriter putting it on the line bare bones, just him and his guitar, in the spotlight. Curt Kirkwood pulled it off with a ragged soulful voice, rasp-like wit and six-string virtuosity that made his Gibson Hummingbird cry and sing.
He played, I think, every song from his new solo release “Snow” among a set of thirty or so, mixing in old ‘Puppets favorites like “Plateau”, “Lake of Fire”, “Backwater” and a few tasteful covers. A highlight for me was his excellent take on Roky Erickson’s “Nothing in Return”. I am really glad I didn’t miss this one.
http://www.curtkirkwood.com/
posted by le monde moderne at 9:18 AM
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