Out My Way

When originally released in 1986, the six-track Out My Way EP was supposed to be a stop-gap release -- guitarist/singer Curt Kirkwood had broken his finger, and needed time to recover. Musically, the EP showed that the Puppets were moving on from their early punk sound to a more traditional rock direction. But the band's originality was still offered in abundance; for example, the album-opening "She's Hot" sounds like a jam session between ZZ Top and the Talking Heads. Also included was the spacious sounds of the title track, the carefree "Not Swimming Ground," and an explosive reading of Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly." The 1999 Rykodisc reissue more than doubled the original's track listing, containing such standout rarities as a Black Sabbath-esque reading of "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (from 1982), a fragile cover of the country classic "Burn the Honky Tonk Down" (originally popularized by George Jones), plus the experimental "Backwards Drums." ~ Greg Prato