OPO: Mekons

From the five albums I've heard, my one pick might be... "John Barry"?

OPO - OK it's probably Where Were You but that doesn't need any help so gonna say Teeth since nobody else has

"Teeth" is absolutely top tier, good call

yeah, both the original and the Punk Rock version are great.

have a hard time not sticking with "Last Dance," which I decided was my favorite song at age 16 or so. But "Hard to be Human Again" is amazing to see live, and "Orpheus" is probably my favorite of their many self-referential songs (plus it sounds like they've been reading lots of Russell Hoban).

I was listening to Ancient & Modern a couple weeks ago, it's an interesting album, not the first album i'd recommend to people, but quite worthwhile and "Geeshie" is really wonderful.

youtube.com/watch?v=-TSQ1q6u1hw

meh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TSQ1q6u1hw

xp I was SO EXCITED when I saw "Orpheus" in the setlists that I was checking out as the tour progressed, I couldn't place it's origin at first but it's on that amazing art book/CD they did (Mekons United).

Interesting that this thread pops up — I was just thinking earlier this week that the Mekons seem to have disappeared into a black hole as far as cultural relevance; some years ago, people would talk about them much more frequently and now I never see them mentioned as a favorite band, an influence, or anything else. They just seem to have dropped off the radar. Am I wrong?

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.