This article (or section) may need to be xbxfied to
meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
|
| The Mekons |
Jon
Langford, Tom Greenhalgh, Sally Timms, Sarah Corina, Steve Goulding,
Susie Honeyman, Rico Bell, Lu Edmonds, Jessica Billey
|
| Background information |
| Origin |
 Leeds, West Yorkshire, England |
| Genre(s) |
Punk rock, Post-punk, Alternative
rock |
| Years active |
1977 – present |
| Label(s) |
A&M Records
Quarterstick Records |
Associated
acts |
The
Three Johns, Waco Brothers |
| Website |
myspace.com |
| Members |
Jon
Langford
Tom Greenhalgh
Sally
Timms
Sarah Corina
Steve Goulding
Susie Honeyman
Rico Bell
Lu Edmonds
Jessica Billey |
| Former members |
Kevin
Lycett
Dick
Taylor |
The Mekons are a British
rock
band. They are one of the longest-running and most prolific of the
first-wave British punk rock bands (rivaled in both
categories only by The Fall).
The band was formed in 1977 by a group of University
of Leeds art students that included Jon
Langford, Kevin Lycett and Tom
Greenhalgh - the Gang of Four and Delta 5 formed
from the same group of students. They took the band's name from the Mekon,
an evil,
super-intelligent Venusian
featured in the British 1950s-1960s comic Dan Dare
(printed in the Eagle). The band's
first single was "Never Been in a Riot," a satirical take on the
Clash's "White Riot", and for several years the loose-knit
band played noisy, bare-bones post-punk, releasing singles on a variety
of labels. The Mekons' first album, The Quality of Mercy is
Not Strnen, was recorded using the Gang of Four's
instruments, and due to an error by the Virgin
Records art department, featured pictures of the Gang of Four on the
back cover. After 1982's The Mekons Story, a
compilation of old recordings, the band ceased activity for a while,
with Langford forming The Three Johns.
By the mid-80s (revitalised by the 1984 miners' strike
and augmented by vocalist Sally Timms, violinist Susie Honeyman, ex-Damned
member Lu Edmonds, accordionist/vocalist Rico Bell (a.k.a. Eric
Bellis), and former Graham Parker and the Rumour drummer Steve
Goulding, among others) the Mekons had returned as an active group, and
began to experiment with musical styles derived from traditional
English folk
(tentatively explored on the English Dancing Master
EP prior to the hiatus), and American country
music. 1985's
watershed Fear and Whiskey, 1986's The
Edge of the World and 1987's Honky Tonkin
exemplified the band's new sound, which built on the innovations of Gram
Parsons and blended punk ethos and leftwing politics with the minimalist
country of Hank Williams. This style, sometimes
referred to as "post-modern country," is a direct forerunner of the alt-country
genre represented by bands like Uncle Tupelo.
Subsequent albums such as The Mekons Rock'n'Roll,
while containing several straightforward rock songs, continued to
explore the boundaries of the punk genre by utilizing diverse
instrumentation (notably the fiddle and slide guitar) and Timms'
haunting vocals.
The Mekons Rock and Roll was the band's
first major label release. Issued by A&M Records in 1989, Rock
and Roll was not a commercial success, but it was met with
critical acclaim. Arguably the best album of their career (alongside Fear
and Whiskey), it is perhaps the most accessible synthesis of
their experiments in country, rock and punk.
Just as the Mekons began to grow in critical stature, their
relationship with A&M Records became more tense, and unable to
fulfull their commercial expectations, the Mekons were soon dropped by
the label. However, not only did the band remain intact, they continued
to record at a prolific rate, releasing such notable albums as 1991's The
Curse of the Mekons, 2000's Journey to the End of the Night,
and 2002's OOOH!
Jon Langford has been busy as an artist and as founder of
several solo and band projects, including the Waco
Brothers (a punk-meets-Johnny Cash-like ensemble) and the Pine
Valley Cosmonauts (exploring the music of Bob Wills,
Johnny Cash and others). Besides his solo albums he has released CDs
with Richard Buckner and Kevin Coyne.
The band has toured and recorded with a mostly unaltered
lineup (Langford, Greenhalgh, Timms, Goulding, Bell, Edmonds, and
bassist Sarah Corina) throughout the 1990s and early 21st century, and
has a highly devoted following.
|
Contents
- 1 Discography
- 1.1 Albums
- 1.2 Singles
and EPs
- 1.3 Compilations
- 1.4 Miscellaneous
- 2 Other
Bands Referencing The Mekons
- 3 External
links
|
Discography
Albums
- 1979 – The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strnen
(LP)
- 1980 - The Mekons [aka Devils Rats and
Piggies a Special Message from Godzilla] (re-released in 1997)
- 1985 - Fear and Whiskey
(re-released in 2002)
- 1986 - Edge of the World (re-released
in 1996)
- 1987 - The Mekons Honky Tonkin'
- 1988 - So Good It Hurts
- 1989 - The Mekons Rock'n'Roll
(re-released in 2000)
- 1991 - The Curse of the Mekons
- 1993 - I ♥ Mekons
- 1994 - Retreat from Memphis
- 1996 - Pussy, King of the Pirates
- 1998 - Me
- 2000 - Journey to the End of Night
- 2002 - Oooh! (Out of Our Heads)
- 2004 - Punk Rock
- 2007 - Natural
Singles and EPs
- 1977 – "Never Been in a Riot" (Single)
- 1978 – "Where Were You" (Single)
- 1990 - Fun '90 (EP)
Compilations
- 1986 - The Mekons Story (re-released in
1993)
- 1987 - New York (re-released in
1990/2001)
- 1989 - Original Sin
- 1999 - I Have Been to Heaven and Back
- 1999 - Where were you?(Magnetic Curses- A Chicago
Punk Rock Compilation)
- 2001 - The Curse of the Mekons/Fun '90
(combined reissue)
- 2004 - Heaven & Hell (The Very Best of
the Mekons)
Miscellaneous
- 1996 - Mekons United (book with CD)
Other Bands Referencing The
Mekons
The 1990 re-issue of Too Much Joy's album Son Of Sam I Am
contains a track entitled "If I Was A Mekon", a tribute to the band.
External links
