Lester Bangs once wrote, "The Mekons are the most revolutionary group in the history of rock 'n' roll," and although he wrote it tongue in cheek, that doesn't mean he was wrong. Thoroughly uncompromising, creatively restless, at once witty and profoundly cynical, and seemingly incapable of repeating themselves, the Mekons are one of the few bands from the first wave of British punk who not only never turned their back on their guiding ideals, but clung to them with greater tenacity over time. (This helps explain why their audience, while relatively small, is unfailingly loyal.) The Mekons were (and remain) as strongly political as any band short of Crass , but their Marxism came from the perspective of the guy at the bar, not unintelligent but rarely academic. Since 1977, the Mekons have followed a musical path that has taken them through punk ("Never Been in a Riot"), noisy experimentalism (The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strnen), synthesizer-based avant-pop (Devils, Rats, and Piggies: A Special Message from Godzilla), fractured country (Fear and Whiskey), rock & roll (The Mekons Rock 'n' Roll), electronics (Me), and several brands of folk (Natural, Ancient and Modern, and Jura), and for all their sonic shapeshifting, they've always managed to sound like the Mekons, brave contrarians who've gone too far to stop, at every turn.
