*From Billboard.com:


Edited By Jonathan Cohen. January 21, 2004, 3:30 PM ET

Ryko Collects Meat Puppets' 'Classic' Works


One of the most respected groups to emerge from the 1980s underground rock scene, the Meat Puppets, will be honored Feb. 3 with the Rykodisc release of "Classic Puppets," a retrospective featuring catalog tracks alongside rare and unreleased material.

Drummer Derrick Bostrom contributed liner notes to the collection, which primarily covers the Arizona-based group's first five SST albums -- "Meat Puppets," "Meat Puppets II," "Up on the Sun," "Huevos" and "Mirage" -- as well as the 1986 EP "Out My Way."

Four songs each are culled from 1983's "Meat Puppets II" ("Lost," "Plateau," "Lake of Fire" and "The Whistling Song") and 1985's "Up on the Sun" ("Swimming Ground," "Enchanted Porkfist," "Two Rivers" and the title track), while "Dough Rey Mi" appears from the group's 1999 concert album "Live in Montana."

"Foreign Lawns" and "H-Elenore" were originally bonus tracks on the Rykodisc reissue of 1982's "Meat Puppets," while "Light," "Strings on Your Heart," "Meltdown" and "New Leaf" are previously unreleased cuts.

As previously reported, founding bassist Cris Kirkwood was shot last month in a scuffle with a security guard at a post office in downtown Phoenix. Neither Bostrom or Kirkwood participated in the band's most recent studio album, 2000's "Golden Lies."

Here is the track list for "Classic Puppets":

"Foreign Lawns"
"H-Elenore"
"Blue Green God"
"Walking Boss"
"Lost"
"Plateau"
"Lake of Fire"
"The Whistling Song"
"Up on the Sun"
"Swimming Ground"
"Enchanted Porkfist"
"Two Rivers"
"Out My Way"
"On the Move"
"Burn the Honky Tonk Down"
"Confusion Fog"
"Get on Down"
"Look at the Rain"
"Sexy Music"
"Dough Rey Mi"
"Light"
"Strings on Your Heart"
"Meltdown"
"New Leaf"


-- Troy Carpenter, N.Y.