Alt-rock trio Meat Puppets [ tickets ] have nailed down dates for a late spring tour in support of the band's forthcoming studio album, "Sewn Together."

The Phoenix, AZ-based group--brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood, along with Ted Marcus on drums--kicks off the outing May 12 in Los Angeles. The 19-city slate includes two-night engagements in a couple of locations: May 30-31 in Chicago, and June 11-12 in New York City. Details are below.

"Sewn Together," the band's second studio album since the 2006 reunion and 12th overall, is due May 12. The set, recorded in a hometown studio using analog equipment, follows 2007's "Rise to Your Knees," which was the first new Meat Puppets album since 2000's "Golden Lies," and the first in a dozen years to feature both Kirkwood brothers.

"In the '80s, we used to just crap this stuff out," Curt Kirkwood noted in the band's bio. "Those SST records cost, like, five grand apiece, if that much, and those are the records that made people like us. Later, when we got into a position to work in bigger studios with outside people, we'd wind up spending a whole bunch of money and having to satisfy the people who gave us that money. We did that all through the '90s, and I'm just not interested in doing that anymore.

"Now, if I can get away with it, I'll make a record as cheap as I can and put as little work as I can into it, which is what we did with this one. I don't like putting a lot time into it. We cut a track, and if we've played it halfway right, we're done with it."