jakestevetim

recorded / mixed by shane

mastered by will @ dead air


Three years ago, when Steve told me that he and his roommates were starting a band together called Meat Dreams I thought, “that’s not going to happen.” But then I saw they had already spray painted the name onto a broken television sitting in the pile of garbage on their patio and I knew I was wrong. These boys had a strong will to create noise together — a misguided will to be sure — but one that could not be stopped. Meat Dreams formed in Belchertown, Massachusetts in the most decrepit house I’ve ever been to. They quickly became an important band for a small group of people whose idea of fun is huddling together in a crumbling house in the woods and destroying their hearing.
Somehow, I was able to convince them to let me record them. It was a perfect match: I had as little knowledge of what I was doing as they did. Over the course of three short, spastic, and heinous releases, Meat Dreams was uncompromising in their commitment to be weird and unlikeable. I saw it firsthand in every decision they made: no bass guitar, noisy, out of key synthesizer blurbing over the songs, Jake’s frantic shrieks and wails. No, Meat Dreams could never have been popular with the punk crowd. They’re too funny. They have a funny name, a funny sound, and funny lyrics. They don’t have a marketable image or identity their fans can assume. On the other hand, they were also never accepted by the indie rockers whose ears were shriveled by the vulgar cacophony. Being as it were, Meat Dreams meant a lot to the unlucky few who understood it.
Their live performances were always entertaining and punishingly loud. Technical difficulties were frequent and the vocals almost never audible (drums too for that matter). Tim somehow made a string of P.O.S. guitars and a half-broken combo amp louder than most four piece bands combined. I watched many people leave rooms due to the sheer volume as Meat Dreams raged through their sets. Broken cymbals and poorly-tuned drums were the norm. But none of this mattered when you were watching them. Meat Dreams live, as on record, was an ecstatic expression of absurdity — the only sensible reaction to our chintzy, bargain-bin culture. Audience response was typified by confusion. Describing their sound was difficult, yielding comparisons as wildly divergent as Limp Bizkit and the Crucifucks.
If I were to assign Meat Dreams a family tree of similarly deranged punk bands I would mention Flipper, No Trend, Killdozer, etc. Someone else (probably Steve) could do a better job of this than myself, but I liken them to the anti-hardcore Hardcore bands. Except Meat Dreams is fun and perversely catchy while those bands are not. The members’ varied backgrounds in Hardcore Punk, Noise, and Hip Hop converged to form something truly non-conforming in sound, though occasionally you will hear a snippet of something recognizable like Black Flag or Rock music, only to have it dissipated by whatever musical swerve they take next. The biggest hallmark of their sound is definitely Jake’s vocals. I describe them as a Disney character rapping at warp speed and collapsing into a tantrum. If Discharge rests at one end of the word-count spectrum in punk, Meat Dreams is at the other. Lyrically, Jake makes use of irony, self-deprecation, surrealistic imagery and blunt honesty to point a quavering finger at the world around him. There’s a real pain beneath the layers of sarcasm and insults he hurls at the listener. Check out “Tasting Notes” for a good example.
For their last record Meat Dreams wanted a clearer and more straight forward sound to complement the batch of songs they had written. I think these are the best ones yet. The sound is more focused and less reliant on gimmick and blown out production to get its point across. It should help them reach a slightly — slightly — wider audience. There are still plenty of trademark Meat Moves, but the songwriting sticks to your ribs more. It’s an apt farewell for a band who was just figuring out what it wanted to be.
Ok, that’s probably too much to write about a band like Meat Dreams. You most likely will not like them, but if you do you’ll really like them. Against my better impulses, I really like them. Thanks for the times, boys.

-Shane