the new Mekons album DESERTED (2019)

I wanna get into the Mekons. could one of yall take a stab at a CD80 or otherwise direct me on where to start

Hmm I’d Fear and Whiskey is a classic but can be a little mystifying on first listen, Rock’n’Roll is great but maybe doesn’t showcase all their strengths, my CD80 or something close:

Orpheus
Ghosts of American Astronauts
Hard to Be Human Again
Only Darkness Has the Power
Oblivion
Slightly South of the Border
Thee Olde Trip to Jerusalem
Insignificance
Beaten and Broken
Millionaire
Hole in the Ground
Cast No Shadows
Mirror
Bob Hope and Charity
Tina
Space in Your Face
Memphis Egypt
Last Dance
Where Were You?

Not to mention Jon Langford’s contribution to Rudy and Gogo’s Cartoon Show: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KPMRxgnxQhw

thanks!

on an album level as a starter course I'd recommend Rock And Roll, Curse Of The Mekons, So Good It Hurts, and maybe the debut (Quality Of Mercy).

That's exactly right. Or the "Heaven And Hell" best of.

"Heaven and Hell" best-of is great, esp. for such a catalog. But I say otherwise start with "Rock 'n' Roll," "Curse," "So Good It Hurts," maybe "OOOH." If you like those (who wouldn't?), go "Fear and Whiskey," "Edge of the World," "Journey to the End of Night." After that you can go deep with other albums, larks, side-projects and hidden gems. Like the aforementioned "Orpheus," which iirc made its debut on a bonus disc hidden in the band's art book. There are several types of Mekons songs/albums. Some that recall the folk-punk of the Clash or Pogues. Some that are kind of deconstructed folk. Some deconstructed punk. Some deconstructed folk-punk. Some experimental stuff. Lots of great lyrics and singing.

video, w/ US tour dates

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/mekons-new-song-lawrence-of-california-album-announcement-786013/

aw man I don't wanna drive to Seattle but I just might

more dates may come

That song is great.

I haven't been interested in Mekons albums in a long time, much prefer Jon Langford's other projects. But this tune is damn good.

Anyone heard "It Is Twice Blessed", the Mekons 77 album they released last year?

Just bought myself a ticket to see them in London for the first time. My dad bought Edge of the World, Honky Tonkin', So Good It Hurts and Rock 'n' Roll back when I was a teenager, then I bought The Curse of the Mekons myself. That's the last one I've heard and that was...over 27 years ago. Have I missed anything vital?

I Heart Mekons is pretty classic as well, it gets spotty after that

OOOOOOH!

So Greenhalgh will be on the tour, presumably?

Don't see why not! I only saw them maybe once in recent years without him.

Yes, Tom is touring with them and the US label is Bloodshot.

thanks... i did see Bloodshot yesterday w/ the preorder info.

Now here's a new one. They're playing here in mid-July - July! - and the show just sold out almost immediately. I know the Hideout is small, but still. I had set an alert and everything but had to step out for a bit, and that bit was apparently enough to miss out.

they just added three more shows, as per their FB page :)

Not on sale yet, but yeah apparently that weekend.

It's a lovely, sad, sort of dreamy album.

(Plus some rocking.)

out today?

it seems so

https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/sc-ent-mekons-deserted-album-review-0329-story.html

Good, long Langford interview: https://thequietus.com/articles/26268-jon-langford-mekons-interview

I need to give the album more listens to wrap my head around it fully but at first listen it might be my favorite since OOOH! Great closer.

Funny:

Continuing this goth digression for a moment, isn’t the music of ‘Trouble Down South’ from Fear And Whisky lifted from ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’?

JL: It was written in 1982. When did ‘Bela Lugosi's Dead’ come out?

1979

JL: Then we definitely ripped off ‘Bela Lugosi's Dead’.

And this might be an answer for the ages:

You’re a prolific and well-regarded artist, you play in numerous other bands and you certainly don’t make any money from being in The Mekons. Why are you still a Mekon?

JL: Because they're my friends.

Thanks for that, 'JoeStork'. Looking forward to finally seeing them this Friday.

Saw them last night in Leeds, a gig promoted by John Keenan who promoted their very first show, and wants, according to Langford, to promote their last show before he retires; so as JL said, if they make it to Brighton tonight, he'll need to keep going for a while.
Great show, funny, emotional....first time I've seen a full Mekons gig in 24 years! (and 40 years since my first) Almost all of the same people, minus Debbie, and Mitch doing Where Were You? just as he did in the Rock Garden in Dublin back then.

i wanna get on the Mekons. where do i start? s&d? would have been in leeds last night if not for work.

xp I was thinking of going to the Brighton gig tonight but I don't think I can :( maybe next time

What did they play.'sonofstan'?

i wanna get on the Mekons. where do i start? s&d? would have been in leeds last night if not for work.

Most people are probably going to suggest 'Fear & Whiskey' and 'Rock n Roll'. I don't know the former, but whenever the Mekons crop up on ILM people go on about it. The latter is good, but not necessarily typical.

Off the top of my head, I'd recommend listening to these songs:
Hello Cruel World, Oblivion, King Arthur, Sweet Dreams, Alone & Forsaken (off 'Edge of the World')
I'm Not Here (1967), Ghosts of American Astronauts, Fantastic Voyage, Robin Hood (off 'So Good It Hurts')
Pretty much everything off 'Rock n Roll'
Brutal and Lyric off 'Curse of the Mekons'

Obviously they've released lots more that I don't even know

As mentioned upthread, the "Heaven & Hell" best-of is a great primer.

it's been really heartwarming to see all the pics Sally has been posting on FB

"What did they play.'sonofstan'?"

Most of the new record, including two as the first encore, before Memphis, Egypt and Where were You? From memory, (not in order) Hard to Human, Ghosts of American Astronauts, Millionaire, the Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Last Dance, the one from the Bowery live record with the word 'Expiate' in it (Sally and Jon had a routine about this)Hole in the Ground (I think?) and that's all I can remember....

Listening to the new record now - great so far...

Album's great.
I can't wait until July, when I'll be standing in front of the stage as they tear it up in someone's backyard in Rhode Island.

it's been really heartwarming to see all the pics Sally has been posting on FB
I love her selfies, which seem to always show just the top of her head.

haha yes

This thread got me thinking about bands that have had long runs of consistently good albums, regardless of commercial success. I honestly can’t think of another group that has been so good for so long as The Mekons. They’ve been around for over 40 years and have been churning out generally excellent — and challenging — material for 34. (Some would argue even longer; “Where Were You?” came out in 1978, after all. For me, however, it really all started with Fear and Whiskey.)
For comparison’s sake, the Stones were relevant, IMO, from 1964 to about 1981 — 17 years.

I would definitely argue longer, I love all of the early "Mk 1" lineup era especially the English Dancing Master EP

Yeah, you're probably right. I don't love most of their earlier recordings, but it's certainly edgy stuff.

the Teeth/Guardian/Kill/Stay Cool double 7" is super great as well

I really wish they would reissue this:

https://www.discogs.com/The-Mekons-The-Quality-Of-Mercy-Is-Not-Strnen/release/996072

Yeah, it deserves a deluxe treatment gathering up all the non-lp material from that era.

For comparison’s sake, the Stones were relevant, IMO, from 1964 to about 1981 — 17 years.

And fittingly, early Stone Dick Taylor was in the Mekons for the band's formative years of Fear & Whiskey through Rock 'n' Roll.

Jesus, how did I not know that? Did he tour with them, too? I saw them in Providence, RI in 1987.

Was very happy to see them play Fantastic Voyage.

xpost I think so?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/apr/19/pubs-disco-and-fighting-nazis-how-leeds-nurtured-british-post-punk

i'll be the (mostly) bald guy asleep on my feet, curmudgeon

Seeing them tomorrow in a backyard in Rhode Island! Will be a sweat fest.

X-post— Wife and I were watching the Brooklyn show from upstairs, near where longtime music fans Dennis & Lois were. I am balding too. Fun 2 hour show of old and new songs. In addition to shoutouts to Dennis & Lois , I heard Langford mention Ira and Georgia ( Yo La Tengo). I didn’t see them but I guess they were there.

Morb, hope you liked the show too.

I saw Ira in the downstairs bar immediately after arriving. (He was the sound engineer at Maxwells for the first Mekons show I saw in '86.) I stood on that little raised are right at the lip of stage left so I could lean against the wall when I got tired.

"I'm senile as well as arthritic." - Sally after skipping a verse of "Millionaire"

Jon suggested that on Saturday they would be "eaten alive by ticks in a swamp in Rhode Island."

Hopefully SF will be a good relief for them from that, then. And the venue has AC.

I love Greenhalgh's voice so much.

always happy to hear "Chivalry"

as I think I've mentioned before, in the '80s he was the sexiest skinny bloke alive

"I'm senile as well as arthritic."

I hope Timms works this line into a lyric.

also she said to Langford (grinning jokily) "I pretended for the longest time to hate you, and then I realized I really do hate you."

JL: "I'm a very hateable person."

Those two are the funniest.

Looking forward to this

Great interviewing @TheMekons (alongside @DougHenwood & @lfeatherz) last night about punk antifascism in the 70s, musicians’ role supporting the epochal mineral strike, how to turn 300 years of English working class history into a pop song, the radical roots of country and more! pic.twitter.com/dJJMl1qLeZ

— ☭🕷️🐬The Antifada🐬🕷️☭ (@the_antifada) July 20, 2019

whoa

Shot these last night — playing in someone's backyard on the hottest day of the year. Swamp Stomp 12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-en9id8EZJ8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOLJEeAkjQQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTeL5EgCiJk

That's awesome. I wish I got to see them this time around, though they do seem to have settled on a pretty consistent "hits" set. But what "hits"!

How many people were in the backyard?

They sold 200 tickets, I believe.

New album has been growing on me— Lawrence of California sounded great live.

Saw them last night in LA, great show (tbh I thought the Rhode Island performances linked above were a little low energy).

prob cuz it was over 100 degrees

That's what I guessed, tho the LA show was pretty warm by the end. The A/C was overwhelmed.

https://twangville.com/artist-q-and-a/sally-timms-explains-how-the-mekons-dont-function-like-a-normal-band/

Sally Timms interview from May

Saw them last night in LA, great show (tbh I thought the Rhode Island performances linked above were a little low energy).

prob cuz it was over 100 degrees

My phone didn't capture the sound very well. Also, true on the second point. They were also getting eaten by bugs.

yo Seattle ilxors, I will be at the Tractor Tavern tomorrow night wearing a black Dog Faced Hermans t-shirt, say hi!

Oh rad, will do! A couple weeks ago a coworker in a different office recognized my Jon Langford shirt during a meeting, turned out he'd seen them 6 times before.

I spotted you for a brief moment, I’m wearing a paisley shirt over a green Hollow Earth Radio t shirt

sorry I missed ya! holy shit that show was great

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-mekons/2019/tractor-tavern-seattle-wa-239e14e3.html

how did I miss Little Sparta?!?!?

https://littlesparta.bandcamp.com/

Huh. Very little info about them elsewhere, thanks for the tip!

(Sally, Susie, and two other guys)

Why is it described as "LITTLE SPARTA are a London based three piece featuring Alan D. Boyd, Susie Honeyman and Scott Skinner," when it's a four piece, with Sally on vox?

Sally's not on all their releases, at least one has another vocalist and another is instrumental.

RIP Dr. Morbius

Just listened to 2020 Mekons album exquisite for first time. It’s on bandcamp and not on Spotify. More dub and experimental but some rock tunes. They recorded this one from their own locales and shipped songs around electronically, rather than trying to travel and record together during Covid

I really love 'Buried Treasure' and there's some other great songs too

looks like it just got released again on vinyl and is now sold out on vinyl

Exquisite
by Mekons that is