BACK TO NATURE
A new record is on the way this August from my beloved Mekons, who haven't dropped one with new songs since 2002's OOOH. This one is supposedly an acoustic affair, thus the undoubtedly partially ironic title, Natural.Here's all I've been able to glean from the aether about the upcoming collection of tunes, in the band's own words (they function as a collective, so all materials are credited to the band as a whole):
For this record, they picked up their instruments and lost themselves far beyond the beaten path, out in the wilds of the English countryside. They drank whisky all night, listened to the rocks and Stones and tuned into strange old frequencies. They recited lines from Darwin and Thoreau and renewed their vows in a remote stone circle high up on the blasted heath where birds and branches sing beneath the roar of jet fighters as they swoop balletically over the sharp crags and dark water, rehearsing for Armageddon.
Hopefully I'll be able to see them this fall, and if they come to a town near you should see them rage against the dying of the light (with plenty of jokes).
PREVIOUSLY: A few years ago here I enumerated a few reasons I love the Mekons, but Luc Sante (author of the superb Low Life) provided an even better testimonial for the Mekons a few years earlier.
Read it and weep.