LYCOS RETRIEVER 
The Mekons: Sally Timms
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The Mekons formed in Leeds, England, during the first blush of punk in 1977. The resolutely amateurish crew quickly signalled their ambivalence towards their inspiration by recording the single "Never Been In a Riot," a doubting response to the Clash's "White Riot." Over the next twenty years they've dabbled in country, rock, dance, reggae, and every potential combination of those genres, and documented with rare (if often sodden) wit the horrors wrought by Thatcherism and Reaganism upon individuals who are disadvantaged, creative, or Mekons. Since the early '90s two key members, Sally Timms and Jon Langford, have lived in the USA and pursued diverse recording projects here.
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The Mekons opened their account at the Bowery Ballroom with a rousing rendition of "I'm Not Here (1967)," the title of which proved oddly prescient as vocalist Sally Timms certainly wasn't quite all there last night. After the first song an ailing Timms described, in detail, how (and how much) she'd just vomited. She went on to inform the crowd that, since there was a real danger of her doing so again in the near future, she might have to leave the stage at any moment.
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Natural, out in August, marks the Mekons' first new project in five years. Begun in 2004 in a farmhouse in rural England and finished two years later in Sussex, down the road from A. A. Milne's home, the collection of acoustic country-folk reveries and chants suggests a postapocalyptic campfire sing-along. Chicago spoke to singer-guitarist Jon Langford and singer Sally Timms, who call Chicago home.
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As the Mekons' requiem for socialism, Curse runs the gamut of emotions. There's the blatant rage of "Funeral," in which Langford barks, "They're queuing up to dance on socialism's grave/This funeral is for the wrong corpse!" Other songs ("Blue Arse," "Brutal," "Authority") catalogue capitalism's horrors, but Curse reserves its most exquisite savagery for its tenderest moment. "Waltz" is the ultimate lullaby for the leftist politics swept away by the fall of the Wall and the twin triumphs of Thatcher and Blair, its lyrics sung by Sally Timms with a laconic ache:
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The Mekons are currently celebrating their 30th year of making shambolic, life-affirming, muckraking rock n’ roll. Co-founded by Jon Langford and Tom Greenhalgh at university in Leeds (the same class, coincidentally enough, from which sprung both Gang of Four and Delta 5 —must have been a good year indeed) and currently sporting a more-or-less stable lineup (Langford, Greenhalgh, spitfire chanteuse Sally Timms, Rico Bell, Lu Edmonds, Steve Goulding, and Sarah Corina —they’re a chameleonic lot, so I may have missed a few), the group have reached their 30th year sounding as fired up and vital as ever —no mean feat, considering how hotly they’ve burned, and so consistently.
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In this light, the rest of the songs, whether sung by individually by Langford, Timms or Greenhalgh, or by a collective Mekons-and-friends chorus, seem to be about the struggle against globalization's equivalent of "The Night of the Living Dead." Feel me dancing on that grave / A shiver through a cloudy pain" ("Take His Name in Vain"); "The friends you have found / It's like they've all gone to ground / The company you're keeping's / The same as when you're sleeping / The same as when you're dreaming" ("Only You and Your Ghost Will Know").
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Sally Timms