Interviewing Jon Langford of the Mekons on Thursday ...

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Just wondering if anybody has anything they're desperate to ask Langford.

― Phil Christman, Wednesday, 12 November 2003 01:26 (twenty years ago) link

Yes -- will there ever be another Great Pop Things book?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 November 2003 01:30 (twenty years ago) link

Three Johns reissues?

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 12 November 2003 01:44 (twenty years ago) link

and Great Pop Things is definitely seconded. Mo' Chuck Death!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 12 November 2003 01:44 (twenty years ago) link

There are a number of uncollected comics but also a series of weird one-offs the team has done together, including this one hilarious history of Cliff Richard's movie career that has to be read to be believed.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 November 2003 01:53 (twenty years ago) link

Still in touch with the Gang Of Four Guys? Where do all the Mekons live, and how often are they together, and what are their day jobs? How's living in America during "these times"? Why don't the Brits "get" the Mekons more than they do?

― peepee (peepee), Wednesday, 12 November 2003 02:32 (twenty years ago) link

"Why did you do the cover for that pieceashit book by Joe S. Harrington?"

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 12 November 2003 02:34 (twenty years ago) link

Hey, how come I wasn't on the list at that one show? You promised!

― spittle, Wednesday, 12 November 2003 07:30 (twenty years ago) link

I was waiting in a bar where were you?
I was buying you a drink where were you?
I was crying home in bed where were you?
I watched you from a distance did you see me?
I was standing a queue did you see me?
I had yellow hair did you see me?
I want to talk to you all night do you like me?
I want to find out about your life do you like me?
Could you ever be my wife do you love me?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 12 November 2003 10:48 (twenty years ago) link

1) He hasn't thought about doing another GPT book, but was flattered anyone cared, and said something along the lines of "That might be fun, just gotta get around to it."
2) Same with Three Johns. Sounds like it could possibly happen, so cross your fingers and keep up the pressure (he confessed that he'd rather spend time on new stuff than deal with the pain in the neck of getting stuff reissued, which is why you don't see *Quality of Mercy* in stores ...).
3) Hasn't seen Andy or John in awhile, but saw Hugo (I think) awhile ago ... also sees Roz from Delta 5 now and then (I hadn't known that he was their original guitarist!).
4) Tom's in Sommerset, Jon's in Chicago and I think so is Sally, Sarah and somebody else are in England, and I don't have my notes in front of me re: the others ... Sounds like they see each other several times a year and email very frequently, which is how they get around to continuing to make albums. Langford makes his money from art.
5) As for Brits "getting" the Mekons, he said, "It depends."
6) Didn't ask about Joe S. Harrington.
7) He seems like a very nice man, but having been married for awhile with two kids (one of whom has just discovered reading and is "obsessive," to his dad's obvious delight), I don't know that talking with you all night or being your wife is immediately possible. Your post raises a good question, though--why didn't they redo "Where Were You" for the new album? Maybe because its original incarnation is so perfectly "what that song is" that they couldn't have topped it (where they do feel like most of the songs on *Punk Rock* are good enough songs to deserve better than their Quality of Mercy/Devils Rats/Gentle Rain from Heaven versions).

― Phil Christman, Monday, 17 November 2003 19:37 (twenty years ago) link

Thanks!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 17 November 2003 19:39 (twenty years ago) link

eight years pass...

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/theater/2012/01/12/richard-byrnes-new-play-neropseudo-guest-starring-the-mekons-jon-langford/#more-64523

― curmudgeon, Friday, 13 January 2012 17:06 (twelve years ago) link

Long live Jon Langford and all his contributions to the art world.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 13 January 2012 17:19 (twelve years ago) link

six years pass...

anyone heard the Four Lost Souls album? touring this month into Sept.

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 11 July 2018 15:11 (five years ago) link

It's ok, he adds soul touches that are fine but not what I want from Jonny boy.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 11 July 2018 15:59 (five years ago) link

I really enjoyed it, but xgau and Edd Hurt thought it was uneven. Opinion and fact (or press release backstory here, orig posted on OPO Mekons:

Haven't taken in all the words, though or maybe in part because they fit perfectly, but this is rich, robust, good and bad time music, with Nashville, Muscle Shoals, Chi and El Lay cats, also splendid female vox, sometimes singing lead. "Four lost souls! All ablaze as they vanish down the stairway." Kinda wish he'd saved some of this material for a Mekons record, but can't imagine they could perform it any better.
Press release:
Jon Langford's Four Lost Souls

(released on September 22)

Four Lost Souls was recorded over four days starting on November 8th – the day after the 2016 election – at the NuttHouse in Sheffield, AL. The album originated in 2015, though, 100 miles north in Nashville where Jon Langford (Mekons, Waco Brothers) produced artwork for Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City, the long-running exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Fate had it that one of those Nashville Cats, bassist and producer Norbert Putnam, was so enamored with Langford’s paintings and piratey singing, he invited the stranger to come record in the Shoals.

A year after the album’s beginnings the Welsh-bred, Chicago-based musician and visual artist Langford is in that studio with many of the musicians who put the region, as well as renowned FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, on the musical map. Among them, members of the Swampers, David Hood and Randy McCormick—world famous players who have performed on all the songs you ever loved. Together they dutifully crafted a project brimming with images of killing and hope, Faulkner, the Natchez Trace, and the sea.

Read the full story with annotations here! (good pix too)
https://www.bloodshotrecords.com/four-lost-souls

― dow, Wednesday, 11 July 2018 20:17 (five years ago) link

I was kinda underwhelmed by my one listen. It was ok. Langford is always entertaining live, wish he wasn’t skipping my part of the US on this tour

https://www.bloodshotrecords.com/tours-events/178

― curmudgeon, Thursday, 12 July 2018 02:23 (five years ago) link

one year passes...

he's playing live right now on FB, from the back of a moving pickup truck

― sleeve, Saturday, 4 April 2020 21:52 (four years ago) link

Yeah, two blocks from here. My friend just sent me a great picture from his front porch. Truck trailing balloons, driver wearing a medical mask.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 4 April 2020 22:07 (four years ago) link

he just did the Three Johns 'Death Of The European"!

― sleeve, Saturday, 4 April 2020 22:09 (four years ago) link

I was going to (literally) run over to watch but he's (literally) on the move!

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 4 April 2020 22:10 (four years ago) link

the live feed is charmingly amateur

― sleeve, Saturday, 4 April 2020 22:10 (four years ago) link

If he passes my house I'll be sure to wave.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 4 April 2020 22:12 (four years ago) link

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