OPO: Mekons

Nothing at all from Curse... you folks are weird!

Though it's tough not to vote for "Thee Olde Trip To Jerusalem," "Slightly South of the Border," or "Bob Hope and Charity."

almost split my ballot for that one...

Where Were You: 26
Chivalry: 13
Last Dance: 12
Hard To Be Human Again: 9
Trimdon Grange Explosion: 8
Snow: 8
Memphis Egypt: 7
The Building: 6
Never Been In A Riot: 5
Ghosts of American Astronauts: 4
I Am Crazy: 4
Learning To Live On Your Own 4
Orpheus: 4
Brutal: 4
The Curse: 4
Millionaire: 3
Hole in the ground 2
Fight The Cuts: 2
Dan Dare: 2
If They Hang You: 2
Trouble Down South: 2
Letter’s In The Post: 2
Not A Bitter Man: 2
Darkness and Doubt: 2
Chop That Child In Half: 2
Last Night On Earth: 1
King Arthur: 2
Big Zombie: 1
Hello Cruel World: 1
Rescue Mission: 1
Garage D’or: 1
Psycho Cupid: 1
I’ll Have To Dance Then On My Own: 1
Only You And Your Ghost Will Know: 1
Blow Your Tuneless Trumpet: 1
Funeral: 1
Revenge: 1
Oblivion: 1
Fantastic Voyage: 1

Obvious, but come on.

Why no love?

1. Lost Highway - 625
2. Where Were You - 583
3. Chivalry - 313
4. Hard to Be Human Again - 225
5. Last Dance - 206
6. Darkness and Doubt - 189
7. Country - 184
8. Flitcraft - 170
9. Club Mekon - 167
10. Dancing in the Head - 166

(ie., "Fear and Whiskey" is far and away the most popular album among this group of youngersters.)

Documentary is on:

“Revenge of the Mekons” Documentary Reaches
And Exceeds Kickstarter Campaign Goal

After an outpouring of support from around the world, the Kickstarter campaign for the forthcoming documentary film “Revenge of the Mekons” has concluded. Not only did the project meet its initial goal of $20,000, but exceeded it by a staggering $15,000! The film will now be completed and see release in the near future thanks to the help of its 301 backers.

With funding now an overwhelming success, rewards for the film are now guaranteed. Rewards ranged from CDs from the Mekons extensive catalog to dinner with the band. Two fans even pledged $5,000 and will receive Executive Producer credits and tickets to the film’s world premiere. Some famous fans of the band have also supported the documentary, including SNL’s Fred Armison, Hugo Burnham of Gang of Four, former REM manager Jefferson Holt and author /comedian John Hodgman.

“Revenge of the Mekons” is directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Joe Angio, who also directed "More than a Game," and "How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)." According to Angio, the successful campaign would not have been possible without the great support from the Mekons themselves. Jon Langford said that the Kickstarter campaign “really energized” the band and reaffirmed why the Mekons should keep doing what they do so well.

Trouble Down South is about to drive me to tears.
The backing vocals are soo gorgeous.
Fear and Whiskey friday.

I've been loving "Myth" from Journey to the End of the Night lately. The whole album has such a great, bleary-eyed, defeated, 4 AM sort of atmosphere.

Yeah, that one, "OOOH" and "Natural" are downright post-apocalyptic in their sadness.

Earlier last month, Mekons announced their return with the band's 26th record, Ancient & Modern, which will be released on September 27th on the band’s own, newly reformed Sin Record Label. The band are taking their new (and old) songs on the road, and have divided up their shows, billing the performances as “A quiet night in with the acoustic MEKONS" or "A wild night out with the electrified MEKONS".

I really like the new song on first listen, nice to hear them sounding more charged-up.

Don't get *too* excited. The new album is mostly mellow - only a couple of rockers - though of course, still Mekons, still a bit weird and still good.

That's too bad. US tourdate list is pretty short so far, but it says they're gonna addd more.

Plus you've got to figure there'll be more shows when the movie comes out.

divided up their shows, billing the performances as “A quiet night in with the acoustic MEKONS" or "A wild night out with the electrified MEKONS".

Where was this from, and have they announced which of the announced shows are which category?

never mind, found it, and they have:

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?storyID=50641

Just purchased a&m (heh), anyone else? Seeing em in Brooklyn Friday.

Seeing them tonight. If Evanston wasn't a pain in the ass, I would have seen them last night, too. Though acoustic Mekons shows can be a mess (or messier).

Can't make the Sat night acoustic show here, maybe they'll show up at Occupy Wall St. (who?)

In Arlington VA at Iota outside W. DC tonight Thursday for an acoustic gig. I might skip it and go to a Latin Colombian thing instead (love the Mekons live though; it's a tough call)

did you make it? shoulda! mekons live is a greatthing

taking my cue from D Wolk:

Mekons shows are heavily populated by grouchy old guys.

PRESENT!

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/reviews/albums/15869-mekons-ancient-modern-1911-2011/

x-post -I did the Colombian (Pernett) thing instead. Have seen the Mekons a number of times plus a great, tiny room Sally Timms gig.

Well, they were never popular, and they haven't been fore of critical mind since their major label days, I'd say. They've put out a ton of stuff since then, but they don't/can't do a lot of touring, and they don't get a lot of promotion, etc. That they exist at all is miracle enough for me/most.

There was a documentary film made about them which possibly helped explain them to those who didn't already know.
I wonder if they are not well-served by the streaming era, because (to me) they are not necessarily the type of band where you hear one song and feel you have to hear more right away. In other words, it is the concept and history of Mekons which would potentially bring in new listeners, and that aspect is not really fed by hearing one song on a playlist or compilation. (I consider myself a minor, not a major fan, but consider them unique.)

Maybe? Their best stuff is pretty immediate, imo. Recently they've been kind of willfully obscure or high concept, more akin to the shaggy early days. But a couple of the Quarterstick albums are as good and "accessible" as anything they've done.

Shot this on the hottest day of the year at a small backyard festival in Rhode Island in 2019. Sound is crap, but I was practically on the stage. I kept waiting for Tom Greenhalgh to knock the phone from my hand, as I was right up in his grill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTeL5EgCiJk

I guess it was too hot for him to do his high kicks.

This past Sunday I was in Evanston visiting a friend and we went out to get lunch, next to the restaurant was a little alley with a little stage getting set up & a couple of people strumming acoustic guitars. As we are walking up I am loudly mentioning how much I love getting a bite and listening to live acoustic folk music in the afternoon, we realize the place we wanted to go to is closed, so we turn and walk back past these two suburban folkies who are just staring daggers at me at which point I recognize them as Sally Timms and Jon Langford.

Every time I've seen the Mekons, Sally is staring daggers. I think that's her resting face.

Hah, Sally and Jon are the nicest people.

LOL, absolutely. Also, they were just playing acoustic shows around NYC (like earlier this month) - they get around fast!

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/244521540_2072035062957097_117436574389308295_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=A8c48bjH4TQAX9tR9hO&tn=nMaCpl2pu4gQQq4y&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=8f1400515a1f78a9e04cd4bba809e44d&oe=61807186

Freakons is a supergroup of sorts, a pairing of Jon Langford and Sally Timms from long-running UK punk rockers The Mekons and pioneering Kentucky-based alt-country outfit Freakwater’s Catherine Irwin and Janet Beveridge Bean. After first connecting nearly a decade ago, Freakons is releasing its eponymous debut studio album this Friday on Fluff and Gravy Records.

...The concept is explained surrealistically on “Dark Lords of the Mine,” the opening track on Freakons.

“There’s this crazy thing on YouTube of [legendary actor] Richard Burton on The Dick Cavett Show, this rambling, fantastical monologue on his family’s experiences mining in Wales and that there’s this thread of coal that runs from the Bay of Biscay, through Wales, and all the way to Appalachia,” Irwin says. “We were like, ‘Is this true? I don’t think it is.’ It’s so deranged. But Jon pulled ideas for the lyrics from the interview.”

...In using coal as a narrative thread, Freakons examines its history and its future. The group tells the stories of men and women who sacrificed their health and safety by working in the mines, but also looks ahead to what’s next for workers who are viewed as obsolete in the face of a rapidly evolving society.

“No one really knows what to do if mines become a generational thing of the past,” says Langford. “It’s an existential thing; a whole way of life is going to be changed. There’s a whole group of people who haven’t been taken care of. Trump whipped them up and said he’d bring back coal, but he didn’t. Governments haven’t shown a plan or worked on training or providing jobs in greener industries.”

https://www.nodepression.com/freakwater-and-the-mekons-unite-as-the-freakons-for-rich-vein-of-songwriting-about-coal/?utm_source=No+Depression+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a6b20ada1b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_3_22_22_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_659325596f-a6b20ada1b-226384157&mc_cid=a6b20ada1b&mc_eid=b850f832a1

Sounds like the Mekons just finished tracking a new album in Spain. Why Spain? Who knows! Will it be another high concept album? Who knows!

I think that was their recording plan for 2020 that got postponed.

They've been sharing a few pics of the recording sessions on Facebook

Maybe it's my non-audiophile old school Koss over-ear headphones, but I've found that listening to the Freakons on free version of YouTube Music while reading lyrics on Bandcamp to be the ideal experience. Words are imaginative enough, without getting(too) arty-gimmicky extending realism through good turns of phrase that streak the coal dust on faces passing through once again, as the compelling music and the people in it push against limits of their situation, which are also limits of the Freakons' basic take: once again, as usual, the miners get reduced, by sympathizers as well as their bosses, so that we get no sense of what made this way of life bearable, and for some, seemingly inevitable--even desirable, financially and otherwise, even while knowing the risks and odds involved----Steve Earle & The Dukes' Ghosts of West Virginia is the only album I know of that speaks to and of this complexity.
But Freakons tunnels through it, for sure, with a tenacious vitality and recurring rowdiness. The women do most of the upfront vocal work, but Langford pitches in back there, and provides a very satisfying closer.

The Mekons’ Jon Langford & Sally Timms and Freakwater’s Janet Bean & Catherine Irwin are joined here by the stellar string and vocal harmonies of Jean Cook (Ida, Tara Jane O’Neil, Skull Orchard) and Anna Krippenstapel (The Other Years, Joan Shelley, Freakwater), along with special guest, the beloved guitar genius Jim Elkington (Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson, Eleventh Dream Day, Horse’s Ha, Skull Orchard, Freakwater, The Zincs).

Belgian painter Jo Clauwaert created the album’s intricate gatefold cover. Images from song lyrics and related history emerge and recede again in this gorgeously illustrated artistic fever dream.

Thanks for the reminder. I need to listen to Freakons

Saw the Waco Brothers last night in Washington DC. Last show of a 6 night East coast tour. Langford sounded good, and was entertaining and funny with his between song chat. They did a fair amount of songs from their latest album ( and some of those I liked). They also covered Undertones “Teenage Kicks” and Bobby Fuller 4 ( done Clash like) “I Fought the Law” plus a Small Faces song

Langford is going to do some gigs with Will Oldham in the fall ( pr says it will be like a pandemic show they did together earlier)

Saw Langford tonight with Bonnie P Will Oldham. Good show although a bit too much cutting up and goofy sing alongs with audience. I liked when they did Mekons songs. Oldham was in good voice at times. Langford sang one song from the recent Jon Langford and the Men of Gwent album “Lost on Land and Sea”

Thanks, hadn't heard of that album!

I had not either. Langford was just over in Wales for a week publicizing it. No Mekons in that group, other than him.

https://jonlangfordthemenofgwent.bandcamp.com/album/lost-on-land-sea

The Bandcamp bio for Langford and Men of Gwent says the November 10th released album is the group's 3rd one. I missed the first 2.

Thanks! And now I see that this was added last month:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0308921547_10.jpg

Jon Langford wants to share his Gubbins with the world - songs that fell between the cracks, tunes too exuberant and twisted to hang with the popular crowd, stuff he just forgot about and pleasantly surprised the old welsh bugger when he rediscovered them in the basement.
released October 6, 2023

how did I miss Existentialism?!? incredible album, with definite throwbacks to the post-punk sounds of the 2nd LP lo those many years ago

Not sure I ever listened to that one either. It's a live one, recorded in Brooklyn in 2015 I just read.

it's really good - I have almost all their albums, only missing ME now I think, plus that Mekons 77 thing, can't believe I missed this altho to be fair it's from 2016

I did not mention itt that I finally got to see them a second time - the first time was an off night in Portland OR in 1992. this time was a sold out show in Seattle in summer 2019, and they were everything I could have wanted and more. I also had too much to drink and got sick later, but thankfully I remember everything up to the encore, then it gets hazy

I recently watched the Revenge DVD documentary, and was struck (speaking of Mekons 77) how close they all still seemed to be, even the ones who left in the early 80s.