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25 Essential albums of the last 10 years (Illinois Entertainer Jan 2007)....
JON LANGFORD
Skull Orchard
(1998)
It’s a cruel fate that Jon Langford’s first and best solo album is out of print. While it’s hard to recommend anyone spend the $50 you’d need to acquire it on Amazon Marketplace, Ebay, or Gemm, we highly suggest you keep an eye out in case it shows up on iTunes, Emusic, or you happen upon Langford in the street. If you do, ask him if he still feels the same way about his native Wales. Skull Orchard weaves the Americanisms he has been rehearsing with the Mekons, Pine Valley Cosmonauts, and Waco Brothers, but lyrically (with the exception of Gertrude Stein’s “Butter Song”) he takes dead aim at Great Britain’s armpit. Decrying billboards, mock presidential polls, and the exodus of young people to London, Langford is at once mocking and defensive. It’s a personal album, and a personal best. (S.F.)
From The New York Times - Tuesday January 13th 1998
Critic's Choice/Pop CDs by Jon Pareles ------------------
After decades of singing with noisy, disheveled bands like the Mekons, the Waco Brothers and the Three Johns, Jon Langford leads a straightforward, streamlined rock band for his first solo album, "Skull Orchard" (Sugar Free). The songs push ahead confidently, like country-rock with an infusion of the Who, and Langford applies his gruff voice to full-fledged melodies. Within his clear-cut rockers and waltzes, Langford has a lot on his mind:
commercialization, unemployment, Wales' history, private insecurities and plastic surgery, a procedure he sums up as: "Strive for perfection/Do away with yourself." Smart, cynical and still impassioned about the state of humanity, Langford has recharged his music by stripping away any indulgences.
Influences
Mekons ringleader Jon Langford delivers an infectious set of heartfelt rock on his first-ever solo album (not counting 1995's one-shot Johnny Cash album, released as Jonnyboy); more straight-ahead than the current Mekons and largely eschewing the country twang of honky-tonkin' side band the Waco Brothers, Langford enlists backing from members of both groups (like Mekons drummer Steve Goulding) to forge his own, surprisingly accessible, solo sound.
In fact, the disc is the most listener-friendly thing that Langford's done since 1993's "I Kiss Your Wicked Midnite" from I (heart) Mekons. Were it not for Skull Orchard's small label pedigree and the singer-guitarist's burrlike voice--a little too abrasive for drive time--revved-up rockers like "Trapdoor" and "I Am the Law" could be hit-bound.
Lyrical allusions to Langford's hometown of Wales abound (and the cover sleeve, designed by the singer, features levitating Welshman Tom Jones), and in case you forgot that this is the cofounder of the highfalutin Mekons we're talking about, you also get a Gertrude Stein poem set to rock ("Butter Song") and a couple of gorgeous and enigmatic ballads as well as a larkish, drink-soaked coda. --Don Harrison ---------------
Entertainment Weekly
[Skull Orchard] is the same sort of punk rock honky-tonk [Jon Langford] perfected on great albums like 1989's The Mekons Rock 'n' Roll.... Langford performs his simple, direct tunes with amazing energy and passion.
Sounds Like
robert christgau's consumer picks in the january 22 edition of the village voice:--------
JON LANGFORD: SKULL ORCHARD (sugar free) ------
The difference is palpaple. The Mekons, Waco Brothers, 3 Johns, Killer Shrews, and I forget who are/were groups that couldn't do without Langford,whereas this is Langford deploying backup musicians,aides d'arte who happen to be Wacos as well. There's no band feel, no sense of music-in-process--the garrulous artiste is audibly up top, organizing structural support for a sheaf of good tunes, and while the best of these is courteously passed onto Gertrude Stein, who wrote the words to "Butter Song," all the rest belong to Jonboy. Anyone who's tried to keep up with his one-liners knows he's an articulate bastard, but he's better off when he doesn't have to get to the end in 75 words or less, which is why his country band has always thrived on covers. Here he runs on, confessing his antisocial tendencies like the singer-songwriter he temporarily is--without forgetting that capitalism is antisocial too. A MINUS
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"SKULL ORCHARD? Sounds vaguely Cambodian..." William Burroughs, Lawrence, Kansas, 1997. Actually it's an album of songs about South Wales by Jon Langford of the Mekons... -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SKULL ORCHARD, originally released in 1998, was Langford's first solo album after over 20 years touring Europe and The States with bands like The Mekons, The Three Johns and The Waco Brothers. Having relocated to Chicago in 1992 these melodic, bittersweet reflections on his hometown (Newport in old South Wales) are an exile's eye-view of the land of song, sheep, Tom Jones and rugby union. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Memorable melodic songs about Post Industrial decay, drinking, sex, mining disasters, betrayal, the failing fortunes and unquenchable spirit of the tiny country of his birth ---------------------------------------------------------------
His latest collaborators are the 30 piece Burlington Welsh Male Chorus from Toronto. Watch out for massive sightings...
We have rented extra speakers for this Friday for a completely mind-blowing sonic experience at Liars Club. This may be the last Smash&Crunch for the year!
Much thanks. Surely the vampires shall be informed of this most exciting event which I hope you'll enjoy as much as those who attend. Sinister side of midnight radio, Barb Wire WLUW
