Meat Puppets
There are four early '80s American hardcore albums you must own: the debut from Flipper, the Minutemen'sWhat Makes a Man Start Fires?, Ian MacKaye's straight-edgeMinor Threat, and this, the taut, wired, explosive, and downright funny, fully realized 1982 masterpiece from Phoenix's Kirkwood brothers (Curt and Cris). Never had vocals sounded so skewed and manic, never had guitars sounded so hemmed in and angular. Hard-core fans loved the Puppets for their songs' breakneck speed. But, as they later proved, there was far more to them than the (non-)simple three-chord thrash. The fact this reissue contains 18 extra tracks (including the debut five-track single "In a Car," still one of punk's finest moments, and a terrifying, previously unreleased version ofFred Neil's tormented classic, "Everybody's Talking") is some bonus! Unmissable.--Everett True