Customer Reviews

Fear and Whiskey

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Down in the deepest, darkest and ickiest parts of your belly there live little elves. There are good elves and bad elves. The bad elves represent all the bad things: your secret hidden desires, your sinful guilty pleasures, your slothful and idle inclinations towards pleasure and enjoyment (these elves play country music, are paunchy, and sport strange facial hairs).
The good elves represent all the things that attempt to keep you straight: your lingering regrets, your beleaguered conscience, your rose-colored pipe-dreams and aspirations (these elves, constantly anxious and fretful about they day everything ends, cannot sit still and so play every kind of music imaginable; they look like bald-headed straight edge/post-rock kids except they, you know, laugh once in a while).
The bad elves and the good elves in your belly hate each other. Every once in a while they get together (buy each other a few drinks) and then fight fight fight.
What happens when they do is exceptional, it sounds like a battle and it sounds like a dance. This (minus the goofy "elves" nonsense) is what "Fear and Whiskey", and Mekons in general, sounds like. Three cheers!

Buy this one, and then, with that big goofy grin on your face, get your hands on everything else the Mekons have ever done.
And stop reading music criticism.

One of the great records of its era or any era.
The 2 star review above can only be a product of that reviewers genre bias. That reviewers recommends the mekons' more straight-forward rock efforts. Fear and Whiskey is not such... What it is is tremendously fun and painful at the same time.
Think Hank Williams at 6 AM after too much whiskey filtered through punk aesthetic.
The mekons have many amazing records in a number of genres. Rock and Roll is a great album in, well I bet you can guess that one, and So good it hurts is a wonderful slanted synth album, but Fear and Whiskey and its partner The Edge of the World are beyond genre and beyond tremendous.

Robert Christgau in the early nineties wrote an aritcle in which he claimed that the Mekons were the greatest band in the world. Not greatest unknown band, just the best. I wouldn't go quite that far, but having seen them around 10 times (I live in their unofficial second hometown, Chicago, where leader Jon Langford now resides--Leeds, England is their official home) and owning nearly all their albums, I can attest that they are an unjustly neglected treasure. For a long time this album was only available as part of ORIGINAL SIN, which contained the entirety of FEAR AND WHISKY, as well as a couple of other EPs. The full album is absolutely essential for any serious rock and roll collection (though that is redundant, since if you have a serious rock and roll collection, you already own this album).

I must add that one of the great tragedies in music at the moment is that their greatest album, ROCK 'N' ROLL is available only as a hard-to-find German import. If my memory serves me correctly, Christgau named this his album of the year when it came out. And this time he was correct. ROCK 'N' ROLL and FEAR AND WHISKEY (or ORIGINAL SIN) are the two-must-own albums by the Mekons, though there are in addition many other ought-to-own albums.

I can't say enough about this album; Fear and Whiskey embodies every thing that is great about underground music: fierce, inventive, catchy, political, sloppy, passionate, thoughtful, idiosyncratic, cross-cutting... IMO, the Mekons' finest moment in a long and great career (although "Edge of the World," "Rock & Roll," and "Journey to the End of the Night" are all superb albums and worthy of any self-respecting music collection). While F&W is often compared to the music of the recent fad of alt-country groups, there is a big and important difference. The Mekons started out as punks and much of F&W sounds like old school country as drunkenly reinterpreted by a group of people who remain punks at heart (I think the same can be said of some of the early Meat Puppets' stuff, which holds a similar appeal for me). In contrast, the so-called No Depression stuff sounds like the music of a bunch of country lads that own a Minutemen album or two. The Mekons transcend the country and western genre on F&W, fusing it brilliantly with punk, folk, and new wave. Yes, a lot of F&W is country, but, at the same time, it is still very punk (which can't be said for most of the Mekons' later albums). In addition, the songwriting is superb. For example, "Chivalry" opens with the classic line: "I was out late the other night, Fear and Whiskey kept me going...", while "Hard to be Human" offers: "Looking for existence in my red, red wine..." Plus, you could not ask for a better or more poignant/melancholic pair of album closers: "Last Dance" and "Lost Highway." Beautiful stuff. My only complaint is the one offered by others: why not re-release "Original Sin," with the extra 9 tracks, including the amazing "Slightly South of the Border" EP?!?! The world needs the Mekons' cover of Gram Parsons' "$1,000 Wedding!"

I think a true test of truly transcendent art in any medium is does it seem dated now? For instance, some of these recent "from the archives" Dylan releases sound like they could have been recorded yesterday. I used to LOVE Roxy Music in their day but I was recently listening to AVALON and - though I still like it - it sounds a little "of its time" to me. It doesn't mean I can't still appreciate it. FEAR AND WHISKEY. I am not even too sure it was appreciated by many back in 1985 but who cares. It sounds wonderful now. It's sloppy and drunken and all over the place. It's inspired music. It's a feast. It makes me renew my vows to great alternative music and so-called indie rock, to rock n roll in general. I love how the Mekons never cared about sticking to a genre. I see all of these bands that Pitchfork and hipster blogs and zines support and the Mekons so hold their own as a shining example of paving their own path. I hear all of that stuff about this record "inventing" alt-country. Maybe. Still sounds like the Mekons to me. And it probably did invent that genre...in a Mekons way. I am not even too sure if I hear that many bands today that sound like the Mekons (as I do with, say, the Replacements or, obviously, Gang of Four and a bunch of brooding eighties Brit bands. You know which bands I mean). But does it matter? I could wish...but I know for sure that the Mekons will never get elected in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They will probably never really come back (Come back? Were they here?) into vogue. But this record is so brilliant and fresh. I have to think that some future Jeff Tweedy or Jack White or Stephen Malkmus or Neutral Milk Hotel....is going to say that Mekons were (are...they will probably still be around. Give us another thirty!!) a seminal band. I think they are. Listen to this record. It was from Mars then. And it is still is. That is part of the greatness.

It's excellent to see Fear & Whiskey finally available again. Like the Amazon review says, this is a timeless album. "Last Dance" is one of the best Mekons songs ever. BUT, why didn't they just re-release "Original Sin" with the extra tracks..

Rock 'n' Roll has its partisans, but this one edges it out for me, on the strength of what might be the strongest opening track ever, "Chivalry." Don't pay any mind to talk of filler--this album is tight. The first half does have two (semi-)spoken pieces, which can take getting used to. But they open up after a while. And side B may be the strongest side on any album ever, the cover song included.

Imagine stomping and fiddling at the darkness, as it swells up around and inside you, with fear and whiskey your only weapons. Stare into the abyss long enough and it stares back into you. But hurl yourself into the abyss and it just might vomit you back out.

The Original Sin configuration was to be preferred, only because you got all the extra goodies (track them down if you can). But this way you at least get the key bits and the original cover art.

Buy now, before Quarterstick gets bought up by Rupert Murdoch or shutdown by Homeland Security and this one vanishes like Rock 'n' Roll has....

Five stars for the music, as people more eloquent than I have already described. I discovered The Mekons just a couple of years ago and love the music but have been disappointed by the poor sound quality on the CDs. They're desperately in need of some good remastering. Anyone know if these imports provide that?

Are you thinking that your Clash records sound a bit dated? Are you picking up your old Stones, Band, and Beatles albums, thinking that punk was, after all, just a fad? Are you turning away from the Pistols, to your Dad's Hank Williams LPs for some music with grit?

Fear and Whiskey will cure you of your post modern malaise. Not only is this wonderful ragged punk music, this is also wonderful ragged country and rock and roll music. Lost Highway and Darkness and Doubt are worth the price of admission.

Enjoy!

i was less than a year old when this came out but that doesn't stop me from liking it. it's a lott better than later stuff i think, like rock 'n roll etc.