Bears

San Francisco greeted Griddle's fourth album, MEAT KITE, with open arms and pogo-happy legs. Returning to the Rickshaw Stop, the band played an 80-minute set that included a horn section, string players, and cameos from Riot Gorilla, Professor Slap, Renee Padgett, and others.

Opening the show were the legendary Alternative Tentacles punk-jazz scientists of Victims Family, who called Griddle's Kimo Ball up to guest on a track from their Apocalicious album.

Griddle's new album finds the four men pushing their creative arrangements and writing ideas further than even before, without losing the sing-along melodic quality of earlier albums like "Turning Violet."

The rubbery sax-and-bass riff of "Overheard on a Plane" kicks off the album, with its off-kilter, whole-tone bounce. Horns appear in subtle cameos tucked in throughout the album, but are most pronounced on the opener. "The Censors of Cincinnati" combines avant piano panning with a true story about the First Amendment battles in Seal's hometown, while "California will Crumble into the Sea" uses Brian Wilson-style sung harmonies to give a playful lift to its darkly satirical subject matter.

The centerpiece of the record, though, might be "Sweet, Ugly Me," a lumbering Sasquatch stomp that features the viola and cello of Laela Peterson-Stolen and Patty Espeseth. An image-rich story about a beach and a staircase (I'm still wrapping my head around it), it's a sign of Griddle really coming into its songwriting prime that the tension builds without collapsing into chaos.

In the time leading up to Meat Kite, Griddle's four men explored other projects: Kimo Ball recorded and toured with Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine and produced an EP for Renee Padgett; Christopher Fortier played acoustic guitar with Ivy Junction and PG&E (Pacific Grass & Electric), plugged in his slide guitar with Cult of Gunton and toured with Booker T and John Doe; Chris McGrew wrote film scores and did a bevy post-production audio; and Kevin Seal collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including 20 Minute Loop, Michael Zapruder, Scott Pinkmountain, John Murry, EB3, and the W*A*S*H band.

They all returned to Griddle energized and inspired, and brought fruit from their voyages into the studio for this one. From the scorched-earth psych of "Bears" (featuring longtime Tin Huey and Tom Waits horn maestro Ralph Carney) to the warm, woody instrumental "X11," evidence of the band's creative fire is all over this record. Here's hoping it finds an audience that will appreciate its idiosyncratic, widescreen charms.