mekons news

Jun

New CD: Exquisite out now

Posted by nobby Published in General

In Paris, in 1925, Yves Tanguy, Jacques Prévert, André Breton and Marcel Duchamp invented a game they called ‘cadavre exquis,’ derived from a phrase that came up when they first played: ‘le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau’ (‘the exquisite corpse will drink the new wine’). Basically each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule or by being allowed to see only the end of what the previous person contributed.

In the current plague year 2020, after a planned rendezvous in Valencia was necessarily cancelled, mekons adopted this method as a means of collectively assembling lyrics and tunes and recording their new album.

Locked down in various locations, scattered from the West Coast of California to the East End of London, they sang and played into their mobile phones and emailed, uploaded and Whatsapped their wailings, beatings, scratchings and strummings around the globe through the billions of interconnected nodes of our networked panopticon. Mike Hagler assembled the results in Chicago and sent them to be mixed by The Baron at Chateau Trumfio.

With the US/UK now twinned together under Prime President Minister Dominic McDonald-Johnson’s death clown kakistocracy, avidly acting out the disaster capitalism playbook while twin plagues of ancient systemic racism and the American virus continue to ravage and kill and squawking out of this nightmare sleep of reason, come chlorinated chickens home to roost in a nest of hypocrisy, impunity and conspiracy.

While we look towards a worse economic depression than the 1930s, scanning our eyes towards the horizon of annihilation, take joy while you can from falling statues! And, well, you just might be tired from having to take to the streets: what better time to settle down with a fancy hydroxychloroquine cocktail, mainline some bleach and dig the mekons’ new surrealist sounds?

Colin Stewart
Bridlington
June 2020

credits

released June 19, 2020

Baron Von Munchio
sub-sonics & other electronics

Comteboy de Langreamont
vocals, guitar, title, keyboards, u-bass & percussion

Honeyman Ray
violin

Luanora Carrington (ex-Lubu Roi)
ud, saz & cumbus

The Marquis Tomato de Ironingboard
vocals, Spanish guitar & outoftune piano

Ricmedios Bellvaro
vocals, accordion & keyboards

Sallyvador Dolly
vocals

St. Yves Pantalon-Mécanique
drums & percussion

with thanks to:

Max Ernst Crawfish
trumpet on ’Nobody’

Ricardo Jolie Chose
lead guitar on ‘What Happened to Delilah?’

Exquisite was recorded in lockdown on mobile phones, broken cassette recorders, clay tablets & other ancient technologies in Aptos, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York & Devon.

Tracks collated by Mike Hagler in Chicago
& mixed by The Baron at Château Trumfio.

no comment

Jun

Exquisite lyrics

Posted by nobby Published in General

ESCALERA

False lover plant a weed for me
In spring among prize flowers
And I will pay you back again
Through winter’s frozen showers.
As snow and ice invade your heart
In hate you shall be dressed
A cold east wind will ring your neck
With sharp rain on your breast

They dragged the traitor through the streets
They hung him upside down
And he will long regret the day
He tried to buy this town

The King is already asleep
And now it’s past midnight,
Still you have not come
Who is loving you tonight?

“I’m coming for what was promised.”
Pusole escalera de oro (She let down a stairway of gold)
por ella se había subido (He has climbed up it)
se agarraron de la mano (They took each other’s hand)
y hacia la alcoba se han ido (And went to the bedroom)

Who is loving you tonight?
quién amor puso contigo?
quien te esta viviendo esta noche?

WEST YORKS BALLAD

Grim City Vicar Lane
Hide in the arcade from the rain
Order out order in
In strife the exile life begins
Grievous Armley no repentance
Short cuts to a shorter sentence
Caught in thoughts that should stay hidden
Walking , treading, riding, ridden
On a tow path by the dead canal
Grim City cannibal
Large as lunch and quite banal
Down the Whip to meet a pal

But I’ll just lie here in my bed
Thoughts of you roll round my head
Warm and still here’s where I’ll stay
Til all those thoughts just roll away

The Ace of Clubs is shut forever
The same old jokes tired and lame
The wiring blew no one came
No better way for a getaway
So head off for a week in Spain
Wallet fat in your back pocket
Pass through walls fly like a spirit
The exile life and how to live it

But I’ll just lie here in my bed
Thoughts of you roll round my head
Warm and still here’s where I’ll stay
Til all those thoughts just roll away

A furious gale blew off the moors
The city center choked and fell
Under the arches an old steel door
And steps descending into hell
A house came down and crushed a car
We stood around there was no sound
We waited til we could no more
Fell backwards through the pub’s front door

Grim City black and white
I’ll walk you home it’s dark tonight
Dark and wrong and cold and late
Through the back streets paved with hate

THE INHUMAN

There are things that won’t let me fall asleep tonight
A painful ancient gnawing sense of shame
Some unknown omission
Some forgotten sin
A dark disgrace that hides without a name

I close my eyes and wait in soundless night again
I cross my arms and tremble on my bed
I’m not afraid
Of human beings
Only the inhuman inside them x 2

I dreamt that I was woken from my sleep today
I rose and held such strength in my two hands
Freedom is a dream perhaps
Not destined to come true
A pity if you have not dreamt it too x 2

Nobody

Nobody’s around to stroke your skin
The sky is black
Something prowls around the cabin

Fish in the sea will bite
I try and dream
Of the time we used to meet on the corner

Unbelievably
Your spirit is broken
You take no notice
And stay awake

Buried Treasure

Another field in the corner
of a featureless land
between any other and another
not so much marginal as liminal

Where time has come to a standstill
a single crow takes off
disappearing in to the grey sky
its the year 749 or its ten years ago

Boundaries and edge lands
footpaths going nowhere
where the canal stops
and Tesco’s car park begins

Between Angles and Britons
between different groups of Angles
between Northern and Southern Mercia
the aboriginals long gone

Close to the intersection
of the old Roman roads
Watling Street running east to west
Ryknild Street running north to south

That’s where the treasure was buried
That’s where the treasure was buried
Now its gone, now its gone

WHAT HAPPENED TO DELILAH?

Crushed by a falling tortoise
15 $50 bills strapped to her leg
It was by candlelight the coast of Bohemia was discovered
Waves slapping the bruised sand

The grand house was set alight by an angry mob
They thought it was a prison

Death supplies and demands
The price of black cloth goes up
vouchers pretend to be eagles
letters, fire, numbers, the art of yoking animals
faint sound of shoveling can be heard

The obedient iPod banker
sweating in the gym
with technical support to match
the dollar surged
all those red borrowed dollars flushed away

Investors panicked markets plunged
they sold everything they could sell
the gold was sold the sold were sold
You enter Babylon by candlelight
the asthma of uncertainty
a miasma clouding yellow brown sky
Wet debt bubble markets
Candles flare and gutter in mean streets

WHAT I BELIEVE AT NIGHT

Every day a slow crawl
To the next, Oh good lord
A King’s ransom, the price of ham
Sick and bored through the floor

What I believe at night is not what I believe in the morning

Goodnight ladies, the boat went down
All we worked for fucking gone
A lump of coal a jar of jam
Cancel that, here I am

What I believe at night is not what I believe in the morning

Each dawn threatens our very lives
One more day we survive

Time embalmed, Oh good lord
Useless fucker, shitty man
Best ignore as best you can

What I believe at night is not what I believe in the morning

CORN & GRAIN

A drop of rain flows to the ocean
Piss down a wall and the blood of saints
Bodies twist in repetitive motion
Well “Jesus Christ he certainly ain’t”

A spark of fire in the open sky
A bloody nose a slap in the face
From here to there and always eye to eye
Incredible days amazing grace

A ray of light on a wave of phase
There someone coming to visit us here
Creatures moving through their final days
Search for cigarettes and beer

There’s gonna be a party tonight
Up in the hills where the moon shines bright
Gonna get some wood
& build a fire in the rain

Those who die are corn and grain
They shall rise again

no comment

Jun

EXQUISITE

Posted by nobby Published in General

Current plague year 2020.

After an April rendezvous in Valencia was necessarily cancelled, mekons adopted the “exquisite corpse” method as a means of collectively assembling lyrics and tunes and recording their new album.

Locked down in various locations stretching from the West Coast of California to the East End of London, mekons sang and played into their cellphones, e-mailing, uploading and Whatsapping their wailings, beatings, scratchings and strummings across the globe through the billions of interconnected nodes of our networked panopticon.

Exquisite was recorded in splendid physical isolation on mobile phones, broken cassette recorders, clay tablets & other ancient technologies in Aptos, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York & Devon in April and May 2020.
Mike Hagler assembled the results in Chicago, which were mixed by The Baron (Dave Trumfio) in LA soon after.

Exquisite is only available as a digital download and only through Bandcamp, beginning on Juneteenth (June 19). On that day, Bandcamp is donating 100% of their share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, with the pledge to do so “for every Juneteenth hereafter”.