the new Mekons album DESERTED (2019)

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

in my roughly 30 or so years of presenting artists, the Mekons stand out as a highlight - probably the nicest, most decent group of ppl i've ever worked with. Did a show with them in 90 or 91 while still in college, their US agent was someone I worked often with and knew I was a fan and so they actually made a US "tour" happen for me. I still have the T-shirt, '48 Hour Party'. They did a show in NYC Fri night, at my college just outside Philly on Sat, and then Hoboken on Sunday night. My show was the anchor to get the other 2 and they told me they flew over with empty suitcases to just go shopping.

Part of the 'shopping' happened after the show when the manager of the college bookstore who was also a huge Mekons fan and had known them personally for years opened up the place for them and they dove into the opportunity to grab books on critical theory, art history, etc

amazing show, and all just lovely ppl. Aa a fan I used to try to go see them elsewhere but then moved back to Ethiopia. Over a decade later I'm at a music conference in Rotterdam and bumped into one of 'em and we had a great moment.

I heart mekons!

have my tkt for the 19th in Brooklyn

Didn't get tickets to either of the ticketed shows here, but I'll probably seem them at a street festival in between. Possibly Madison, too.

Gonna be visiting NYC so wife & I got tickets to see em in Brooklyn July 19.

Seattle on the 25th for me

last time I saw them was... 1992? Heatmiser opened. Not a very good show iirc.

I'm road tripping to the Madison show, can't wait.

Wasn't able to catch any of the shows, but apparently sounding same as they ever were/good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSc4b_f8xe4

so psyched for Seattle!

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.

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