The Mekons: alt-country pioneers refuse to let their music die
After nearly 30 years of flying under the radar, The Mekons have earned their role as the godfathers of alt-country
Born in art school at the University of Leeds in 1977, The Mekons long ago conceded that fame and fortune were outside their grasp, and it shows. The band's fan site, while kept current, is run by a guy named Nobby and looks like it was coded in 1996. Unlike university peers Gang of Four, The Mekons are seldom cited as an influence by hipster punks. There hasn't been a "Mekons revival". Their fans are ageing with them, and the rest of the world doesn't seem to care.
Such creativity in the face of ambivalence is a central theme of Revenge of The Mekons, the aptly titled and engrossing documentary by filmmaker Joe Angio. The film traces the rises, falls and plateaus of the self-described British "fundamentalist punk rock art project", whose eight current members are a mix of visual artists, writers, singers, gallery owners and field-recorders and are spread across three continents in Southern California, Chicago, rural England, London and Siberia. (Multi-instrumentalist Lu Edmonds is married to a Siberian.) Their masterwork, the folk-based Fear & Whiskey, turns 30 this year, but it certainly won't be getting a Rolling Stone collector's edition. Among the public, the band's most notable link to mainstream success is because of a failed union: Mekons singer Sally Timms was married to actor-comedian Fred Armisen and pushed him to pursue comedy.
At one early headlining gig in Ireland, an unknown but cocksure young band called U2 opened for them; needless to say, the legendary Mekons curse didn't affect Bono. Others might recognise the magnificent artwork of singer-guitarist Jon Langford, whose distinctive portraits of classic country stars have earned him a following in the fine art world and have ended up as album covers. Eric "Rico Bell" Bellis is a painter and accordion player; he and his wife recently moved back to their home in Highland Park, Illinois, after four years in London.
Rather than quit, The Mekons have endured. Across the decades, the band have continued at a steady clip, an album every few years that generates oft-brilliant art to noble gushes but little more. "It's no joke, I'm telling you," sings co-founder Tom Greenhalgh in the aptly titled song The Curse of The Mekons.
"I can't think of another band where there's a bigger gulf between unanimous critical praise and this mass general public indifference," Angio said recently, a few days before his film made its Los Angeles premiere.