Music doc watch: Revenge of the Mekons

While recently binging music documentaries, 2013s Revenge of the Mekons seemed like an obvious choice. 

Intimate enough to be more of a story of the bands I rather than a “this happened then this happened” narrative l. It seems a perfect labor of love kind of project to capture the band. Truly, as the band says, success cause bands to break up, which is why they are together 40+ years later. Also they were loved by the critics, but critics get complimentary copies and don’t buy albums. 

 I first heard the punk Mekons on the Mutant Pop 78/79 compilation after I already knew of their 80s albums. In many ways, they have always had those punk ethos (and to my ears “Never Been in a Riot” and “Where Were You” are as good of punk anthems as ever were). The band started as an ambitious (but untalented) punk little brother to Gang of Four. “Never Been in a Riot” a response to the Clash’s “White Riot” from non-Londoners. The band, for the first but not last time, would be not well served by a major record label. Although they stopped performing for a time, they would not die, reuniting to play benefits for the Coal Miners Strike. 

Adding Sally Timms, violinist Susie Honeyman, multi- instrumentalist Rico Bell and a couple of established musicians in Lu Edmonds of The Damned and Steven Goulding of Graham Parker and the Rumour, the modern version of the band was born. The band would find an affinity for old time American country music which brought them their biggest success. 

They learn from the likes of the Chicago Honky Tonk pioneers the Sundowners; and Dick Taylor of the Pretty Things and a pre-Wyman Rolling Stones lineup had joined the band. While not a fully in depth history, it is interesting to see the old press kits and how close Mekons Rock N Roll came to being a hit. (As someone coming to age with 1980s Rock critics, it’s hard to imagine this album and Fear & Whiskey being lost to the collective memory). Next is 1991s The Curse of Mekons which seems like a self fulfilling prophecy. The band is dropped from the label after the staff that were promoting them are fired. 

The next phase shows the Mekons more of as a concept than band. There have always been the acclaimed albums and though they don’t get into specifics (you can pick 2000s Journey to the End of the Night or 2002s OOOH for example) but they do acknowledge every new Mekons album seems posed to be better than the previous. 

For their relative obscurity, they do get a buzz every time there a new release. We see the Mekons branch out in the 90s. They do music for Kathy Acker’s feminist musical Pussy, Queen of the Pirates. They go all in on painting and art in early 00s collaborative mixed media projects. They even form a children’s music band the Wee Hairy Beasties (one of the many Jon Langford bands that only have so much room to be mentioned in the documentary). 

In some ways, I am reminded of the Residents- more an art concept than a band. Meanwhile, album sales top out at 8000 and the band tours - mainly hitting their homes in Chicago and the UK and though they aren’t selling out arenas, seem to maintain the same size crowds. The doc may not be the flashiest but neither are the Mekons and it’s a perfect match for the band itself. A mix of high profile guests (Greill Marcus, Fred Armisen, Will Oldham, Jonathan Franzen) join Mekons past and present. 

If you aren’t inspired, you likely never will be. The band continues to reinvent itself and despite all the years together- they try to maintain the spirit of teenage punks.