Meat Puppets in a walk. I like the two JA recs I have, and both might be a more consistent listen than just about any Meat Puppets album. But the Meat Puppets started out as hardcore as Black Flag, & wrote a good tune or two along the way. And did that consistently over more than a decade. JA's appeal had a lot more to do with image & production, and I don't think it's a coincidence that they were therefore more popular. It took a lot of balls to be a band that sounded like the Grateful Dead on SST records in 1984, but that means relatively little if the music ain't no good. The Meat Pups were certainly that, and Cobain had pretty good taste. Their segment on the Nirvana Unplugged thing tops just about anything JA ever did so far as I'm concerned...but there's more, much more. Funny timing, I just listened to Meat Pups 2, Up On The Sun, & Live In Montana last week. They sound good. Still.