Starting with their next album, Up in the Sun, the Marionettes started doing things their own way. They bought an RV and contacted Frank Riley, who booked artists such as the Violent Femmes, the Replacements, and REM, to plan tours outside the SST bubble. They called Los Angeles Times Music critic Robert Hilburn in Phoenix as part of a push for the mainstream press. Their intentions were increasingly clear: They wanted to sign to a major label. However, in the second half of the 80s, work began to suffer. The critically acclaimed Up in the Sun a series of hit-or-miss records followed. “You enter a whole different level of slogging and career, and then nothing Up in the Sun it's almost as brilliant,” Bostrom admitted in Prato. “You get that success and you want to build on it. The only direction you're thinking of going is like, mainstream. We're making songs that are less quirky, more trying to reproduce typical pop sounds and not having as much success with that.”
Meanwhile, their peers were leaving them behind. By 1990, the Replacements and Dinosaur Jr. were signed to Sire, Hüsker Dü and REM were signed to Warner Bros. and Sonic Youth to Geffen. A possible deal with Atlantic for the Puppets' sixth album Monsters blocked by Ginn, leading to litigation on both sides. Eventually, they signed to London Recordings for 1991 Prohibited Placeswhich sold 60,000 copies—their biggest hit yet, but still far short of their ambitions.
Help came from an unlikely source. The Puppets learned that they were the favorites of grunge wunderkind Kurt Cobain through an interview on Spin; shortly afterwards, they were called upon to open a branch of it In the womb tour (Cobain used the tour as a sort of showcase for his influences – others who had opened included the Boredoms, Half Japanese and Butthole Surfers). Backstage at the Buffalo show, Cobain made an announcement: He had just signed on to play MTV Unplugged, and wanted the Meat Puppets to play as well. The recording would take place in less than two weeks.
It was a gesture of solidarity from the biggest rock star in the world. MTV was not thrilled. They had imagined that Cobain's guest stars would be Eddie Vedder or Chris Cornell, not a pair of unknown brothers playing songs from a decades-old album. But at night, the Kirkwoods were there, hidden behind matching shoulder length brown curly hair. Curt used a quarter to pluck Pat Smear's red, white and blue Buck Owens guitar, while Cris borrowed Krist Novoselic's acoustic bass. “This is Kurt and this is Chris,” Novoselic introduced them to the crowd. “No, this is Kurt and this is Christ,” Chris replied. “No, I'm Thing 1, and this is Thing 2,” Kurt retorted. The band, backed by Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl, played raucous versions of “Plateau,” “Oh, Me” and “Lake of Fire,” with Cobain spinning in an office chair like a busy child, his voice softer. Curt the wild boar.
