OPO: Mekons

So there will be two new Mekons albums then? This collaboration with Fulks plus the one they recorded live in July in NY?

as I understand it, yes - this new one is news to me

Yeah, this isn't a Mekons album, per se, so much as some of them and Fulks as recorded in ... Scotland I think? The other album, recorded live in NYC, is a proper Mekons album.

http://www.npr.org/2015/11/10/454998315/songs-we-love-the-mekons-go-from-my-window

Lu Edmond's touring the US now with PIL again.

Debating seeing the min-Mekons on Fulks this weekend. Let's see if this pastes ...
https://video-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xtp1/v/t42.1790-2/10496296_310934385733849_360339034_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjc5NSwicmxhIjo1MTIsInZlbmNvZGVfdGFnIjoibGVnYWN5X3NkIn0%3D&rl=795&vabr=442&oh=29fb804280002972b2be023829a01900&oe=564E5B00

Have a copy of "Jura" I'll listen to tomorrow. In the meantime, show tonight was slight but fun. Jon, Sally, Rico and Robbie Fulks, the last of whom told stories of subbing for Tom on their Scottish sojourn, only to have Tom (who he did not know) show up and steal back the spotlight. Amusingly, Will Oldham was on hand tonight singing some backup on "Last Dance," meaning not one but two past or current Tom substitutes were performing.

I'd settle for that version coming to my locale

Just gave "Jura" a listen. It's pretty nice. Sort of the group (or parts of the group) at its most folky - strumming, droning harmonium/fiddle/accordion, harmonica, no drums, sea shanties and ditties, lots of nautical themes, a few lovely ballads. Fulks (though I am not usually a fan) gives it a novel (for the Mekons) musicality.

(To be clear, Tom ambushed the band during the recording, not last night.)

btw on 2nd viewing I am pretty sure i am dark but prominently left in a floor-level audience shot in the documentary for about 3 seconds (didn't note the timestamp)

really liked the short personal Lu Edmonds and Susue Honeyman scenes

There's a new Waco Brothers album coming in late February

yep---haven't had time to listen yet, but here's info:
https://www.bloodshotrecords.com/album/going-down-history

https://www.bloodshotrecords.com/sites/default/files/styles/product_large/public/BS233_cover_0.jpg?itok=gUMezGqR

(Other Bloodshot goodies linked from that page too)

Ooh, Waco Brothers in my neck of the woods in April. A Small Faces cover on it, sounds potentially good.

I didn't even realize there was a documentary until I saw it at the shop today. God, do I ever have documentary fatigue. But I do heart Mekons. Worth seeing?

Very much so.

I still need to see that too. Was waiting for a big screen DC showing, but don't think that ever or will happen

Waco Bros playing at WFMU's Monty Hall in Jersey City come April too. I should go.

Waco Bros streaming at AVClub

http://www.avclub.com/article/exclusive-stream-new-waco-brothers-record-its-enti-232610

There's not a bad Waco Brothers album. They also just released a fun live album available directly from Bloodshot.

The doc is now streaming on Netflix. Saw it last night and loved it.

There's not a bad Waco Brothers album. They also just released a fun live album available directly from Bloodshot.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, February 25, 2016 12:56 AM (1 month

Uh, my first listen to the latest one has me finding it very uneven. I like the songs that Langford sings on, but some of the others are too bar-band rock w/ a touch of country cliché. Maybe more listens will turn me around on this one.

Well, it's not bad but you're right, it's their most uneven release. More listens does help but only so much. I wonder if it's really the end for them.

Meanwhile I listened to Deano's digital album recently and it's good fun.

Saw them live last night (in the midst of a 4 city East Coast tour) and they were a lot of fun. Still like the songs where Langford is lead vocal on the best.

On the waiting list to see the Waco Brothers at a house concert Sunday. Here's hoping ...

They are playing in Rehobeth Beach, Delaware tonight as the Dogfish Head Ale Pub guy there buys and displays Langford's art.

http://www.dogfish.com/files/images/Johnny_Cask.gif

Finally saw the Mekons doc, and I want them to tour again and come closer to me than that beach locale 4 hours away. May have to settle for that I guess next time

Word on Facebook is there'll be California tour dates this fall.

Mekons "Fear & Beer (Hymn for Brexit)" Directed by Barry Mills

An exclusive preview from MEKONS EXISTENTIALISM, a new album/book/video to be released

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUxm_Pd0XRw

Mekons in Toronto at Turf Fest Sept. 16 to 18th weekend

Hoping they will come Southeast from Toronto. I also wonder how much of the new album has been recorded?

Weirdly timely, because wasn't the upcoming album the one recorded live (as filmed above) with an audience many months ago? Great song, though.

Watched the doc on Netflix last night. I've only ever been familiar with the albums from Fear & Whiskey thru I <3 Mekons, so all the older and the more recent stuff (as well as the side projects) is mostly a mystery.

As far as the later albums go, Journey to the End of the Night, Natural, and especially OOOH! (Out of Our Heads) are all delightful.

Apparently no PNW tour dates, bah. Currently contemplating turning down a potential job offer in order to go on Mekons vacation in the fall.

OK! all those of you who cried into your beer about us not coming west, well plan your road trips to sunny California, who knows when we will next have the energy to make it to the old U.S of A...ticket links at the events page today..get your tickets now to avoid disappointment

Sept 17th and 18th TURF Fest Toronto, Canada
Sept 19th The Hideout
Sept 20th The Hideout
Sept 22nd Pappy and Harriets Pioneertown, CA
Sept 25th A Ship in the Woods Escondido, CA late afternoon
Sept 28th Henry Miller Library, Big Sur CA
Sept 29th The Crepes Place, Santa Cruz, CA
Sept 30th Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA
Oct 1st To be Announced...

I don't know if I can even deal with the idea of seeing Mekons and the Clean in one weekend.

Ha ha, last time I saw the Clean, last year, David was a total grump and left the stage early. Some fan came up to play Tally Ho with Robert and Hamish.

Always love the Mekons here, gonna catch both shows for sure.

Can I get their dayjob bosses to give them more time off so they can do some US East coast dates as well?

LIMITED EDITION OF 1000

Includes 96-page book of writing and art, plus new 12-track CD, plus access to view Barry Mills' Mekonception video.

A book, a cd and a movie all rolled into one glorious, multi-media mekon-tastic package!!

Published by Verse Chorus Press in San Francisco, we (Bloodshot) got our mitts on a few hundred to sell to you directly.

In July 2015, with the help of 75 mekoristers, MEKONCEPTION took place at Jalopy Theater in Red Hook, Brooklyn, an event dedicated to creating a new record in real time around a single microphone. "Why should a record take more time to record than it does to listen to!" was the concept.

Twelve chapters of writing and art from mekons and mekon friends, inspired by each song on the CD.

MEKONCEPTION footage has been turned into a video art document by Barry Mills. A viewing link and access code is provided in the book.

https://www.bloodshotrecords.com/album/existentialism-book-cd

Great news, thanks. I've got Fear and Whiskey and The Edge of the World, pretty much the peak of their 80s punky tonk, right? I know there's more, and tempted to spring for this relatively pricey cut-out----anybody heard it?
---from xgau's 70s Guide, archived on his site:
Original Sin [Twin/Tone, 1989]
Fear and Whiskey was a triumph in search of a war, and even their fans lost the two EPs that followed in the shuffle. Minus a Merle Haggard cover and plus two other cuts, one of which stinks just in case you mistook them for great artists, all this product comes together on this remastered repackage, and it coheres wonderfully--the EPs resonate off an album that doesn't leave you hungering for something completely different when its thirty-five minutes are through. If you're among the millions who missed Fear and Whiskey, this is a golden opportunity. These guys know how to make the most of failure. That's the kind of anarchist revolutionaries I like. A

It's pretty cool, worth getting for "Beaten and Broken" alone

It's worth hearing; also, among the peak cowpunk period albums, I think Honky Tonkin' is very close in quality to Edge of the World.

o damn, I dont have that one either...

New album is pretty great, very shambling and sort of seat of pants a la early/mid Mekons (Fear and Whiskey, Edge of World, Honky Tonkin'), flavors of Go4 in there, plus plenty of dub, dark miserable dirges ... the use of the amateur choir recorded I presume at that NYC gig is very spookily effective. Key takeaway lyric from the Timms-sung "Bucket:" "the sky is grey/my bucket's got a hole in it/and every day it rains/we are already dead."

Mostly the hits last night, but lots of stuff from "Curse of the Mekons," not just the title track and "Wild & Blue," which they do all the time, but (with a guest horn section) they did "Blue Arse" and "100% Song," too.

Finally got to the album, though still not the video or book---but it def stands on its own while invoking not to mention flaunting associations with other media, starting with that in-your-face-duh title, Existentialism, ooo-wee. Hear now the brainy Brechtians of Bloodshot ((also shouting out "Adventures In The Skin Trade!" for Welsh homeboy Dylan Thomas and their own claimed exploits, of course): it's rough and slick, theatrical as hell., a series of scenes linked by grabby nuanced mood and attitude and tone, mainly of voice, since this is mainly voices z rhythm section with other sounds coming in on cue, but zinging by: what xpost Josh said about the dub thing, also kind of a skiffle feel at times, and other old rock tie-ins, from the Caribbean influence, and punk---this is all stuff the Clash liked too, and the male voices sometimes make me think of Strummer (and this set reminds me that the Mekons contributed to The Sandinista! Project. wherein many different artists took different kinds of adapt re-shots at the Clash's sometimes chops-challenged three-LP adventure).

So they're still doing what they can to make existence worth continuing, and/or killing time, providing sing-along entertainment on the train, in the lobby, maybe the hipster rest home (ending with, "You seen it all, but ya don't---remember!" But then ya do, then ya don't, and a mention of history at the very end). Getting under my skin, among my nerves at times, but in a gooood way, and also "Bucket" seems like it might be a Masked Marauders-type parody: bootleg f that time of Marianne Faithful met the Mekons, while "Nude Hamlet" has smoked the Complete Basement Tapes and the Clash continuation, before killed in his youth (short-ass track for such a killer, damn) by "These are our orders, sir!": hearty action-packed pagentry of "1848 Now!" and "Simone On The Beach" is "riding naked through the town to expiate the burden of her guilt", tell it Sister!

It all seems like the latest stage, with more immediate appeal, as I hear it, of what they were up to on Natural, where, as xgau put it, death songs come alive--not just Tom's dismal opener and Jon Langford's can't-come climax and everybody's desert prophecy, but the animal fables, the mystery history, the agricultural workers' carouse, the unplugged teeter-totter for the digital age. Except now it's not quite unplugged, they've got some reloadable cards, some kind of budget for incremental juice. Also Sally and Susie and Lu ride through often enough.

I meant "voices x (not z)rhythm section", also "adept (not adapt) re-shots", although those are adaptations too, o course.

"These are our orders sir": a perhaps approximate quote from "1848 Now!"

Their set at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (at just past noon!): http://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com/2016/webcast/?mrid=106719

I missed it, having gone to the show the previous night, which was excellent and hilarious as ever. They seem to have a greatest 'hits'/career overview setlist pretty well worked out, though they did play a couple from the new album. Only song I was expecting and didn't hear was "Ghosts of American Astronauts." Susie told an impressively terrible joke after much coaxing. They're pretty much all that gives me hope about aging.