by Rob Cooper
Imagine this: David Lynch shoots a porno film. It's dark and kinda spooky, and deeply disturbing in a middle-brow suburban sort of way, but it looks good and somewhere deep down in its tortured convoluted soul it is sexy and alluring. The film is imaginary, but the soundtrack may as well be real. It's the latest effort from the Mekons, Me (Quarterstick/Touch and Go). As usual, the Mekons' sound is difficult to characterize. This time around it's a sort of synth/folk rock with lots of studio tape effects though it also careens drunkenly through torch-singer jazz and acoustic blues with hints of acid rock, electronica, spoken-word jazz poetry and just a dash of ecclesiastical choral singing. It's a bit lighter on the punk and country than past efforts, though both influences are hinted at throughout.
Again, as usual, it's kind of tough to figure out what they're getting at. When a band has had as many line-up changes and has as many notable personalities involved in the recording effort, it would be normal to expect some lack of focus or at least a bit of thematic and sonic fuzziness. On this record it's obvious that they're talking about sex (baby), but it's difficult to pin down beyond that. The record as a whole is a sort of Dali-esqe effort with fantastic landscapes populated by bizarre transformations of the everyday into the surreal. The rocking opener, "Enter The Lists," with Jon Langford on vocals, is perhaps the deftest and most accessible rock song yet released by the Mekons (do you think perhaps Langford's been spending a bit too much time with the Skull Orchard, his solo backing band? They feature members from Revco, Jesus Jones, KMFDM, and the Waco Brothers. Perhaps a bit of their pop sensibility is seeping in...) It's a nifty pop number with catchy vocals, a great hook and some cool organ/synth effects. There's even a bit of the usual Mekon weirdness as the latter half of the song is a Sally Timms narrated grocery list of common pharmaceuticals and beauty aids. "Narrative" is a darkly sexual tale told from the perspective of the family dog. "Tourettes" is an odd number: stream-of-consciousness lyrics recorded over female recitation of a dildo catalog and snippets of what sound like stage directions for a porno "Then they took off all their clothes and started giving each other oral sex...Fa so la te do, Deep Pan Pizza Pie...eight inches by two inches forty bucks...So natural looking" Weird. Cool. But definitely weird.
I don't know What It All Means, but I definitely like it. At least it sounds good. So many bands do weird things just for the sake of being weird and end up creating unlistenable crap. They forget that the whole point of music is to sound good, not to outdo the last band in how weird (and therefore how cool) they can be. The Mekons seem to come by their weirdness naturally, it's not just part of the show. They sure do make some pretty off the wall stuff; they're definitely gold medal winners in the Weirdo Olympics, but it never sounds like crap (at least not since they learned how to actually play their instruments in the eighties) and it's usually quite adventurous and entertaining musically.
In keeping with the whole multi-media artistic bent of the band, the packaging and liner notes add to the over all effect of the record. The art work is comprised of a number original sculptures, collages and photos by members of the band (or as the credits put it in an odd combination of egotism and intra-band egalitarianism, by "ME") The liner notes to the record sound as if they were written by a raving ego-maniacal genius (with equal emphasis on ego, maniac and genius). The notes sound like the voices in the head of person that would be interesting to meet, (but not one that I'd like my sister meet)..."I think back to the moment of My conception and hear the tired choked tadpole cries of the millions who just didn't make it. shot like sputniks into the Me-age only to twitch and congeal in the heat of opportunity. In this life, I know the is no room for runners up. There is only first place and I am it..." Yowza, how about that.
No record has ever been so scary and so fun at the same time. It's frightening to be asked to look so deep into one's psyche and the psyche of one's culture; to look at the seamy underbelly that rarely sees the light of day. At the same time, however, the record is jubilant. It seems to say, "Kinks, perversions, monstrosities of a sexual nature, and all manner of deep, dark twisted souls are all around you and in you but with a bit of coaxing and the right devil-may-care attitude you too can have fun with freaks around and within you." Not a bad message at all.
They have a big show coming up on Saturday, July 4, when they headline the Metro. It's the official Chicago CD release show, so don't miss it.
Centerstage Will Feed You
