A few months ago Jon Langford played an acoustic set at an art opening called Utopia: Impossible Cities. I half-jokingly mentioned to a friend who was attending to tell Jon that I really enjoy the Mekons album The Edge of the World. The next morning my friend gives me a card which read: "Thanks for the great taste in music! Jonny X"

Not Crap

not crap!

Everything I've heard of theirs (very little) has been very not crap.

What do you people recommend? I only have Rock 'N' Roll which I like, but I wouldn't say its a great record. I Am Crazy and Club Mekon are damn good, though.

What about Sally Timms and Langford solo stuff, too?

Only going by their first album, ('cause that's the one I got) Not Crap.

I don't think I've ever seen as overrated a singer/songwriter as Jon Langford. Don't know about the Mekons, but his solo stints w/Sally Timms and the Waco brothers smack of self promotion and hubris, not talent.

I see them hanging, self-importantly, at the Hideout frequently at their special "VIP" table. To me, they represent a major, disturbing shift of appreciation from talent.... to a lifestyle.

aaron wrote:i love the mekons! "where were you?" is one of my favorite singles.

Mine too!

Also, still very much an engaging and fun live band.

They are also the subject of one of my favorite record reviews. It is written by Christgau and makes a very good point.

MEKONS
Maxwell's, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, New Jersey, 201-653-1703
It's been 25 years, so do the math—if they were the Rolling Stones, they'd be recording Steel Wheels. Not many bands get that far, and fewer still retain much honor in the process. In their intermittently distracted way, the Mekons have turned a collegiate experiment in art as politics into a lifework that takes into account all the disappointments of art and politics but refuses to capitulate. Bitter—of course. Depressed—not so's it gets them down. Defeated—only by death. (Christgau)

garble wrote:Everything I've heard of theirs (very little) has been very not crap.

What do you people recommend? I only have Rock 'N' Roll which I like, but I wouldn't say its a great record. I Am Crazy and Club Mekon are damn good, though.

Definitely Fear And Whiskey.

I don't pay much attention to the solo stuff.

Jon Langford once gave me a huge bearhug and a kiss (they happened to be playing a show, and afterwards someone told him it was my birthday, and how much of a Mekons fan I was.)

He is not crap.

Even the sub-par Mekons stuff is better than most bands can ever hope to perform. Their live shows are always entertaining. They played here at the Mercury Lounge a few days after Joey Ramone died. Sally had the flu and kept leaving the stage to throw up - and whenever she did, they played another Ramones cover.

I have loved hard, drank much, danced goofily, been dumped, broken hearts, had mine broken, been broken, had bottles broken over my head at Mekons shows.

As long as they can stand on stage and bring it, I feel it's my duty to stand out there in the crowd and see them.

Not fucking crap.

I was in my early twenties. Seen lots of great bands. This was a few years ago, before I'd committed parts of their catologue into my regular listening.

They put on one of the top ten shows of my life. Not crap at all. Long live the Mekons.

I have just listened to Fear and Whiskey for the first time, and although I need to listen to it more to let it sink in, it's already sounding like one of those albums that I just am going to be listening to for a long time afterwards.

Not crap.