Thursday, July 14, 2011

Mekons Announce Fall Acoustic and Electrified Dates + Album Ancient & Modern Out 9/27

Mekons Announce American Fall Acoustic and Electrified Dates(tour dates below - more to be announced soon)

New Album Ancient & Modern,
Out September 27th

on The Newly Reformed Sin Record Label!
Listen to First Single “Space In Your Face” HERE


“The Mekons are the most revolutionary group in the history of rock 'n' roll.” - Lester Bangs

“This is music that is effortlessly, spontaneously great…”- Pitchfork

"They teach you how to be graceful and amusing losers"- Jonathan Franzen

Earlier last month, Mekons announced their return with the band's 26th record, Ancient & Modern, which will be released on September 27th on the band’s own, newly reformed Sin Record Label. The band are taking their new (and old) songs on the road, and have divided up their shows, billing the performances as “A quiet night in with the acoustic MEKONS" or "A wild night out with the electrified MEKONS".

In honor of the album and tour, the Mekons are happy to release their first single from the album, “Space In Your Face,” for download HERE.

On Ancient & Modern, Mekons bring you an “album” just like albums used to be; cardboard things filled with cheeky, chunky 78rpm shellac. Just take a look at the cover of Ancient & Modern and you’ll know what we’re talking about! Let the band take you for a walk down memory lane, to the world as it was just before the First World War ... to the Edwardian Era, to the Naughty Naughties a hundred years ago, a cozy nostalgic world: cricket on the village green, punting down the river in a striped blazer and boater, off with the hounds, picnic hampers, community singing, mistresses and wives, mysticism, secret societies, dangerous poetry, radical modern art, Freud, national strikes, revolution, anarchists, bombers, British concentration camps ... oops, is that really a hundred years ago?!? Mekons travel back/forward to a world unaware that it’s waiting for the pistol to CRACK CRACK CRACK in Sarajevo, plotting their singular course through the digital tsunami of contemporary sounds that blare tinnily from your mobile phone or spin at 78rpm in His Master’s Voice from the horn of your exquisite Gramophone.

Mekons formed in Leeds, England 34 years ago in 1977 and Ancient & Modern is their 26th album. This current classic line-up has remained intact since the mid-1980's. Throughout their history, they have worked collaboratively and collectively with everything credited to the band, never to individuals. Their mind-boggling output consistently blurs the lines between high art and low and has included exhibitions in the UK and US, a deranged musical recorded and staged with Kathy Acker, an art performance with Vito Acconci and several books including the unique art catalog/unfinished novel "Mekons United."

Featuring for your delectation and delight...
On his wheezing chest piano, it's Bertie Bell!
Behind his traps...St John Goulding!
All the way from Bethnal Green, Seraphima Jocasta Honeyman and her amazing fiddle!
On the electrified bass, Sophia Corina!
Master of saz, cumbush and all things Oriental, it's Edward 'Lucky' Edmunds!
Chorister and Axe Meister extraordinaire, Algernon Langford!
Tiverton's Own Bearded Bard, Frederick Arthur Greenhalgh!
The little Nightingale, Gertrude Florence Timms!
And bringer of mayhem, 'Mad' Mortimer Mitchell!


Mekons Tour Dates:
(more to be announced soon)

09/30: San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall *
10/04: Evanston, IL @ Space #
10/05: Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall %
10/07: Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House %
10/08: New York, NY @ City Winery *

* = “A quiet night in with the acoustic MEKONS"
# = MEKONS "MEEKAKUCHA" An evening of Pechakucha and Mekons acoustic music hosted by Peter Exley
% = "A wild night out with the electrified MEKONS"

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