{"id":858,"date":"2007-10-04T10:17:36","date_gmt":"2007-10-04T14:17:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-10T16:40:38","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T16:40:38","slug":"the-mekons-naturally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/the-mekons-naturally\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mekons, <em>Natural<\/em>: Mr. Mod&#8217;s Favorite Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros Album"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I346vltDiNY?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nA few weeks back I was drafting a review of the latest release by <strong>The Mekons, <em>Natural<\/em><\/strong>. You may have heard of this album. It&#8217;s their <em>Led Zeppelin III<\/em>, their back-to-nature, mostly acoustic, British-folk hoedown in which they&#8217;re presently touring in support of with stools and slightly exotic folk instruments in tow.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/RockTownHall\/Mekons_Natural_02_Dickie,ChalkieandNobby.mp3\" title=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/RockTownHall\/Mekons_Natural_02_Dickie,ChalkieandNobby.mp3\">&#8220;Dickie, Chalkie and Nobby&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/RockTownHall\/Mekons_Natural_09_TheHopeandThe Anchor.mp3\" title=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/RockTownHall\/Mekons_Natural_09_TheHopeandThe Anchor.mp3\">&#8220;The Hope and The Anchor&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I had been featuring tracks like the charmingly rickety <strong>&#8220;Dickie, Chalkie and Nobby&#8221;<\/strong> and pretty <strong>&#8220;The Hope and The Anchor&#8221;<\/strong>. I had been trying to describe the rural punk-reggae of <strong>&#8220;Cockermouth&#8221;<\/strong>, thinking this album was an album only The Mekons could pull off. Then I received this note from <strong>Mr. Mod<\/strong>, who had caught site of my first draft and had already received a copy of the album in preparation for loading tracks onto the site:<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Ed,<\/p>\n<p>This album is <em>great<\/em>! I&#8217;ve been waiting for a Mekons album like this since <em>Honky Tonkin&#8217;<\/em>. This is the album Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros should have made rather than those world music, name-checking pieces of mediocrity! Let me know when you finish the review and I&#8217;ll load it up there. Thanks.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Leave it to our fearless leader to tell the dead what they should have done with their final years on earth. We talked a little more about the album, and he kept coming back to his <strong>Joe Strummer obsession<\/strong>. I started to lose interest in my own review, and encouraged him to write the review.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nah,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know enough about those guys. I&#8217;ve always liked them in bits and pieces, but they&#8217;re one of those bands I want to be something other than what they are. It&#8217;s hard to explain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To help us understand what Mr. Mod thinks about this album, The Mekons, and the legacy of Joe Strummer, I asked him if he&#8217;d concede to an interview. Graciously he agreed to let down his typically objective role in moderating Rock Town Hall and tell us how he really feels. The following is a transcript of our brief chat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>KingEd:<\/strong> So you like <em>Natural<\/em> a lot? Why did you immediately relate it to <em>Honky Tonkin&#8217;<\/em>? Do you like any other Mekons albums?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mod:<\/strong> I love this new one, and I was reminded of <em>Honky Tonkin&#8217;<\/em> because it was the first album I&#8217;d heard by them since that one in which I could focus on the songs. They didn&#8217;t throw a bunch of stuff that usually distracts me from what I do like about them into the middle of songs. I don&#8217;t know a lot about their means of production, but The Mekons seem big on throwing a monkey wrench into their music. Those first country-influenced albums that preceded <em>Honky Tonkin&#8217;<\/em> had good songs, but they sounded like they recorded those records in an oil drum. I&#8217;ve heard some of those later &#8220;rockin'&#8221; albums, and I&#8217;m immediately distracted by their poor ability to play power rock guitar. <\/p>\n<p>Also, I&#8217;m never sure exactly who sings what, but from seeing them live years ago, I did notice that he guy who&#8217;s not Jon Langford &#8211; some guy named Greenlagh &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><strong>KingEd:<\/strong> Greenhalgh.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mod:<\/strong> Whatever, I never get his name straight. Anyhow, I think that guy sings a lot of the songs I like best. His voice reminds me of Joe Strummer&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p><strong>KingEd:<\/strong> I see. Hence, the Strummer thing. So why is <em>Natural<\/em> the album Strummer should have made? Isn&#8217;t it good enough that it&#8217;s your favorite Mekons album in some time?<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/RockTownHall\/Mekons_Natural_04_WhiteStoneDoor.mp3\" title=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/RockTownHall\/Mekons_Natural_04_WhiteStoneDoor.mp3\">&#8220;White Stone Door&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mod:<\/strong> This may be the benefit of The Mekons having flown under the radar for all these years and unfair to have expected of Strummer, but as a huge fan of Strummer, I would have liked for his legacy to have ended with one more great release, not just a &#8220;pretty good one for that Mescaleros stuff.&#8221; To me, <em>Natural<\/em> picks up on a lot of the &#8220;deep track&#8221; elements of <em>Sandinista<\/em> that Strummer tried to continue in his solo career but could never do as effectively and directly as The Mekons do here. The Mekons have always pushed forward and tried on new sonic landscapes, but on this album they simply allow the growth to take root; the songs sound natural. All the awkward elements they&#8217;d shoved together since the mid-80s have settled into a very dignified, confident album. The Clash never had this period of &#8220;closure&#8221; following <em>Sandinista<\/em>. I think Strummer was headed that way, but he was letting that Sam Ash Sound creep in and undo a lot of good that was indended. This new Mekons album contains not a whiff of the Sam Ash Sound.<\/p>\n<p><strong>KingEd:<\/strong> Well&#8230;you&#8217;re a strange bird, but you make enough sense. Thanks for your thoughts on this album. If it means anything to you, I think it&#8217;s really good, but to me it&#8217;s a bit of a lark. I&#8217;m looking forward for the band pushing forward once more. I&#8217;m fine with their version of rockin&#8217; guitar anthems.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mod:<\/strong> Thanks for turning me onto this album, Ed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks back I was drafting a review of the latest release by The Mekons, Natural. You may have heard of this album. It&#8217;s their Led Zeppelin III, their back-to-nature, mostly acoustic, British-folk hoedown in which they&#8217;re presently touring in support of with stools and slightly exotic folk instruments in tow. &#8220;Dickie, Chalkie and <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/the-mekons-naturally\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[65,36],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}