BLACK MEKON– ‘Stolen Bible 2’
The mysterious masked Zorro’s of garage rock Black Mekon have arrived on a Coach(whip) from Birmingham, England though it could easily have been from Birmingham, Alabama. The dastardly duo bring the noise with the first full length album on the best new punk rock label in town PNKSLM – home of some already incendiary releases by Sudakistan, White Howl and Al Lover.
With Jack & Coke puked from the guts of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion coarsing through their veins, the sass of Kid Congo sweating from their pores and the bile of GG Allin venting through their spleens, Black Mekon are so hard they proclaim they should die in the second song on this their umpteenth album that feels like their first all over again.
Scuzzy and blue both in tone and in song title, the overall sound is right down on the low end, while the distortion is whacked up high, to make this sound like Blues Explosion Crypt Style being played in a Heavy Trashbin behind Liam Watson’s Toe Rag studios. If you have a headache or had a tough day before you listen forget it. If you need to hype yourself up for the day “Eye of the Tiger” style and make everything you do have some shake appeal, turn it up and let that sucker blow.
Watch the video for ‘3 Ghosts’
Many of these songs have been recorded before – “Comeback Kitty”, “Mean Drunk”, “Bourbonese Girl” to name a few but not with such vim, vigour and vitriol. And no word of a lie, when my iPOD got to “Brown Lullaby” it literally had a massive brain fart, stuck on play on a huge superfuzzed up note that was unlistenable and required not so much a reboot as a jack boot.
Stolen Bible was launched on the day that Justin Bieber announced his retirement from music and surely it can be no coincidence, as how could he compete. Recently it even reached Christmas number one. Ok, it was in Jet Set Japan’s charts where it beat the latest one by Metronomy, but an honour nonetheless, and not a surprise given how reminiscent their shtick is of Japanese three chord favs Guitar Wolf.
If you like anything by Jon Spencer, John Dwyer, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Johnny Paycheck, John(ny) Cash or scuzzy rock by any Jon Doe, Dick or Harry, you need to get your dirty mits on that Black Mekon album. Resplendent with King Kong on the cover, long live the new Godzillas of garage rock! 8.8/10
Nick Hutchings
‘Stolen Bible 2’ (Teaser) video
https://www.facebook.com/blackmekon