In a Car

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In a Car
EP by Meat Puppets
Released	1981
Genre	Alternative
Length	5 at 5:19
Label	1981: World Imitation 1985: SST Records
Producer	Meat Puppets
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Meat Puppets chronology
In a Car (EP) (1981) Meat Puppets (1982)

In a Car is the Meat Puppets' first recording and was originally issued on L.A. art collective/record label World Imitation records as a 5 track 7" EP. It was recorded in Silver Lake studio in Los Angeles on the June 4, 1981 with Ed Barger (who had engineered several early Devo singles). In a Car was first re-issued as a 7" on SST Records in 1985 after the success of their early LPs. The EP was also included on an SST compilation cassette (and later cd) "The 7 Inch Wonders of the World".

While the original EP featured only five tracks, six tracks were recorded at the session including the song "Hair" written by fellow World Imitation band Monitor. It remained unreleased until Rykodisc issued the song as a bonus track (with the entire first EP and many outtakes) on the 1999 reissue of the first LP, Meat Puppets.

The EP contains 5 songs in as many minutes and is the band's most hardcore release. On first listen, many of the lyrics sound like unintelligible screaming and (with the exception of the instrumental "Out In The Garden") the songs are thrashed through at breakneck speed. The group would begin to move away from this sound on their first album Meat Puppets, and completely abandon it on all subsequent releases. An interesting note is that the EP predates the many extreme music styles with roots in hardcore punk, such as "grindcore", "power violence" and "screamo"-style emo, by up to a decade.

Although the band are often associated with the early 80's U.S. hardcore scene, during their initial tenure in L.A., when In a Car was recorded, they were more closely aligned with the post-punk and art-rock community which spanned groups like the Urinals and Human Hands through to the L.A.M.F.S.(Los Angeles Free Music Society).

[edit] Track listing

(All songs written by Meat Puppets)

1. "In a Car" – 1:15
2. "Big House" – 1:01
3. "Dolphin Field" – 1:04
4. "Out in the Garden" – 0:59
5. "Foreign Lawns" – 0:34

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