Missed Masterpieces: The Mekons

Posted // 2011-06-07 - Yesterday, I did what I do every five years. Every album I haven’t listened to for more than five years is given to charity, usually the library. This time it was around 30 albums.

Why? I get sick and tired of pompous, uptight assholes who are proud of listening to albums nobody else in the world has ever heard of—the latest, greatest piece of horseshit ever recorded.

I love all the famous naughty things: Jack Daniel's, Jim Beam, Johnnie Walker (Black's all I’ve ever been able to afford), Colombian Gold, Panama Red, Skoal Long-Cut Straight, Camel filter-less, etc. 

But my favorite drug is and always will be ADRENALINE. Fifty years old and I just bought a long-ass skateboard to cruise to the liquor store. I get to make big surfboard turns 30 percent of the way down to State Street, even though I have chronic pain due to the fact I don’t have much of a lower spine left. Well, kiss my ass. I'm not going to die until I’m dead. And unbearable pain can’t really get more than unbearable.

The Mekons play Rock & Roll with violins and other strange instruments. But if you listen to it, you can’t deny its serious rock & roll. They play music like it’s adrenaline.

The best years of my life were from 14 to 19, when I was always on the edge of disaster, when I lived on steak and eggs and adrenaline. That doesn’t need to end in middle age. The Mekons don’t give a shit about genres, age or anything, as far as I can tell. They just strap on their instruments and crank out music that gets anyone from 10 to 100 feeling like they’re in their fucking prime.