Punk's last pioneer speaks out

For quite some time now, The Mekons have been one of my favorite bands, if I had to pick one at any given time, the likelihood is that it would be the Mekes. One of approximately two fans in Milwaukee. The title of this blog is from one of their songs.

They represent what Laurie Anderson once referred to as 'difficult music'. as opposed to 'easy listening', I suppose. They don't have a particular style they work with, they explore whatever they like, so I guess they can be a bit hard to warm up to for new listeners. They pissed off several fans when they released a semi-techno album at one point entitled "Me". Their first couple of albums (all the way from the dark dead days of 1977!) are noise-punk disasters by kids who refuse to even learn their instruments; but it paved the way for Sonic Youth and Pavement.

But that's also how they can continue to be one of the best bands over time- they don't get old. That's also how they have kept going for nearly thirty years. On their twenty-fifth anniversary, they played three nights at Fitzgerald's in Chicago, one night to approximately each decade (I've got a nice fan recording)

One of the founders of the band, Jon Langford, is performing a spoken word piece at Alverno College this weekend; damn it all, I've already got tickets for something else. The Onion (can wild mainstream success be far behind?) has an interview with him this week. A very interesting fellow.

They have a few albums on iTunes; there's a lot more information on a fan site, the Mekons
I encourage all to check them out. Maybe they will be just the antidote to the swill that passes for rock music these days.






"We are the greatest punk rock group in the world...Because we're the
only one left. All the others are working or dead."
- the Mekons