OPO: Mekons

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/17/mekons-tour-diary-episode-one-in-which-lu-goes-awol/

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/20/mekons-tour-diary-episode-2-beached-in-rehoboth/

Writing new songs in the van...

excellent, thanks

well they are recording an album at the gig... Thursday

all those deep cuts ment'd above in the touring repertoire

from 2008

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1X8P5nZiII

a magic moment from Tuesday night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z0P1hu1ljM

Yeah, watch Rico tumble over the amp around a minute or so in!

"I remember when I had my first pint, Eric."

i was looking elsewhere when that happened so it's nice to have video.

Sally Timms on her Facebook page: "One of the greatest moments in mekon history at 1.40, laughing till I cried."

i havent gotten deets on recordmaking gig last Thurs

You know what I've always wondered? Why a band composed of so many visual artists and artists in general is always light on t-shirts and such. They were selling tour posters at one of the gigs I went to, and it would have sucked as an ad in a free weekly.

http://www.nyctaper.com/2015/07/mekons-july-21-2015-bowery-ballroom-flacmp3streaming/

i still have an intact white-on-black tee w/ a Langford-distressed portrait of Patsy Cline.

(20+ years old)

Yeah, I've got a couple, too - just a plain Mekons on black, as well as a I Heart Mekons shirt. But I'm afraid to wear either anymore, since they are falling apart. Langford once gave my daughter a yellow kids Mekons shirt, but dunno what became of that ...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/27/mekons-tour-diary-episode-three-where-we-please-everyone-by-playing-like-utter-bloody-garbage/

The opening band is called the UnGnomes (strangely healthy looking hardcore punks, average age 17) and they introduce their final song (possibly “Kill Rahm!”) by announcing that the old people will be up next. I accidentally channel too much punk spirit and mosh our accordion player Rico off the side of the stage during our 23rd encore. He is caught by our bass player’s wife and is undamaged, but this is a prelude of things to come!

UnGnomes is Langford's son Jimmy.

notes on the recording of the live record: http://killingthebreeze.com/mekons-this-is-what-punk-and-survival-look-like/. "The band repeatedly reminded us that they’d “never done this before,” and it soon became clear that they had never played many of the songs through before."

Nice piece. One of my favorite aspects of the Mekons is that almost every piece you read over-romaticizes and emphasizes the punk stuff so much that when neophytes finally hear the band, and hear stuff not totally unlike crossover Clash or the Pogues plus a bit of Johnny Cash (Langford's Waco Brothers were once ingeniously and accurately described as "part Cash, part Clash"), I can imagine them taken aback by the fun, hooks, relative accessibility. The pre-"Fear and Whiskey" stuff, sure, that's a mess, but almost everything since has been relatively straight forward and/or rousing.

couple of ex-ILXors were at the rekording

The pre-"Fear and Whiskey" stuff, sure, that's a messthe best

fixed this for u

It's both! A mess and ... well, I won't call it best at all, but it's great.

part the last

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/29/mekons-tour-diary-the-season-finale-mekonception-in-redhook/

man "psycho cupid" is a wholesale rip-off of "on some faraway beach" but I can find only one reference to this similarity on google??

new album on Nov. 27th RSD

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hear-robbie-fulks-and-cowpunkers-the-mekons-wild-beaten-and-broken-20151105

So there will be two new Mekons albums then? This collaboration with Fulks plus the one they recorded live in July in NY?

as I understand it, yes - this new one is news to me

Yeah, this isn't a Mekons album, per se, so much as some of them and Fulks as recorded in ... Scotland I think? The other album, recorded live in NYC, is a proper Mekons album.

http://www.npr.org/2015/11/10/454998315/songs-we-love-the-mekons-go-from-my-window

Lu Edmond's touring the US now with PIL again.

Debating seeing the min-Mekons on Fulks this weekend. Let's see if this pastes ...
https://video-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xtp1/v/t42.1790-2/10496296_310934385733849_360339034_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjc5NSwicmxhIjo1MTIsInZlbmNvZGVfdGFnIjoibGVnYWN5X3NkIn0%3D&rl=795&vabr=442&oh=29fb804280002972b2be023829a01900&oe=564E5B00

Have a copy of "Jura" I'll listen to tomorrow. In the meantime, show tonight was slight but fun. Jon, Sally, Rico and Robbie Fulks, the last of whom told stories of subbing for Tom on their Scottish sojourn, only to have Tom (who he did not know) show up and steal back the spotlight. Amusingly, Will Oldham was on hand tonight singing some backup on "Last Dance," meaning not one but two past or current Tom substitutes were performing.

I'd settle for that version coming to my locale

Just gave "Jura" a listen. It's pretty nice. Sort of the group (or parts of the group) at its most folky - strumming, droning harmonium/fiddle/accordion, harmonica, no drums, sea shanties and ditties, lots of nautical themes, a few lovely ballads. Fulks (though I am not usually a fan) gives it a novel (for the Mekons) musicality.

(To be clear, Tom ambushed the band during the recording, not last night.)

btw on 2nd viewing I am pretty sure i am dark but prominently left in a floor-level audience shot in the documentary for about 3 seconds (didn't note the timestamp)

really liked the short personal Lu Edmonds and Susue Honeyman scenes

There's a new Waco Brothers album coming in late February

yep---haven't had time to listen yet, but here's info:
https://www.bloodshotrecords.com/album/going-down-history

https://www.bloodshotrecords.com/sites/default/files/styles/product_large/public/BS233_cover_0.jpg?itok=gUMezGqR

(Other Bloodshot goodies linked from that page too)

Ooh, Waco Brothers in my neck of the woods in April. A Small Faces cover on it, sounds potentially good.

I didn't even realize there was a documentary until I saw it at the shop today. God, do I ever have documentary fatigue. But I do heart Mekons. Worth seeing?

Very much so.

I still need to see that too. Was waiting for a big screen DC showing, but don't think that ever or will happen

Waco Bros playing at WFMU's Monty Hall in Jersey City come April too. I should go.

Waco Bros streaming at AVClub

http://www.avclub.com/article/exclusive-stream-new-waco-brothers-record-its-enti-232610

There's not a bad Waco Brothers album. They also just released a fun live album available directly from Bloodshot.

The doc is now streaming on Netflix. Saw it last night and loved it.

There's not a bad Waco Brothers album. They also just released a fun live album available directly from Bloodshot.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, February 25, 2016 12:56 AM (1 month

Uh, my first listen to the latest one has me finding it very uneven. I like the songs that Langford sings on, but some of the others are too bar-band rock w/ a touch of country cliché. Maybe more listens will turn me around on this one.