Meat Puppets

In case Meat Puppets fans aren't already feeling like old farts, try this on for size -- the band's first EP, In a Car, came out in 1981. That wouldn't matter so much if Golden Lies didn't feel like the group's last gasp. Guitarist and cofounder Curt Kirkwood assembled these new Puppets, a capable group of young Texas musicians that includes Doug Sahm's son Shandon on drums. (Brother/bassist Cris Kirkwood left the band because of extensive drug and legal troubles.) Unfortunately, the new players simply duplicate the sound of the past few Puppets albums, resulting in a watery version of the original band. Even on "Hercules," Golden Lies' standout track, producer Paul Leary drives the band down the same ol' spooky-ooky highway his own Butthole Surfers so frequently traveled. Kirkwood's trippy lyrical shtick wears thin, and lines such as I see a spider-man jumping up and down/On a little pink dumpling just seem dopey. Maybe, in this case, twenty years has been long enough.