Freakons

Mekons + Freakwater = Freakons. Freakons, the eponymously-titled album on Fluff and Gravy Records, is the first fruit of this visionary musical union. The Mekons and Freakwater have been friends for decades, forged in the punk rock/art school crucibles of late '70s Leeds and mid '80s Louisville respectively. Both bands mined British folk and American classic country music for three-chord songs whose lyrics fit the nihilism or political rage or outlandish joy of the moment. Many of these songs were about coal mining. Traditional songs about heroic union organizers, deadly mine disasters, wailing orphans, or mining's grim history of economic and ecological devastation fit seamlessly alongside each band's original material. And so it is with Freakons. Deep pit mines, strip mines, mountaintop removal, collapsing slag heaps. Deadly work, poisoned water, and fantastic songs.