jon langford

MORE Mekons, Waco Brothers, Jon art...

POP OVER to Leeds later this month to see the band's show "OOOH! (Out Of Our Heads)", a Mekons multi-stuff show.

READ what Lester Bangs, the rock ranter and long-time editor of Cream Magazine, had to say about the Mekons.

Jon Langford first came to this country from his native Wales with his fiery punk rock band, the Mekons, in 1980. The Mekons were art students from the University of Leeds who counted the Ramones as an early inspiration.

Jon shuffled between the U.S. and Great Britian for a decade or so before finally deciding to stay in 1992, settling in Chicago. He may be best known for his work with The Mekons, but he’s also a vital part of Chicago’s alternative country scene, fronting several bands including The Waco Brothers, and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts. And there’s also his recent solo project, his album Skull Orchard. Jon has used his outsider status to dive deep into American culture and pull the best bits to the surface.

Ever the visual artist, Jon creates the art work for album covers, and shows his paintings and stone carvings around the country. In Nashville, one of his exhibitions called The Death of Country Music, rendered the forgotten heroes of Country Music (one of America’s truly original art forms) on canvas and in carvings on pink granite headstones. Jon’s simultaneous careers as a punk rocker and an alt.country crooner are not contradictory, a do-it-yourself, stay hungry, stay-true-to-your-convictions spirit informs both occupations. And Jon’s paintings and carvings, as literal as they are insightful, are this same spirit made manifest.

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