Back in the mists of time, before Kat was even the drummer in THE EX and Jon Langford was dusting himself after the disastrous demise of Mekons mark 1, a band called ETON CROP invited him to a small damp studio on the outskirts of Amsterdam to record their first album. It was called Joke-rent-a-cow studio (or something like that) and was run by Dolf who also worked as soundman for Holland’s least compromising and most physically demanding punk rock collective The Ex. Langford met Terrie from the band and went on to produce several CDs for them throughout the 80s and 90s often guesting on drums or banjo when the mood took him. The Mekons toured Holland, The Ex let them stay in their squat, they toured the UK and elsewhere together, became fast friends and finally label-mates at Chicago’s Touch & Go Records.
When The Ex celebrated their 25th anniversary at the Paradiso in Amsterdam in November 2004 they invited Jon to MC the weekend’s events and offered to back him up for a set of his own. When he arrived in Amsterdam they had forgotten this offer and after brief panic it was decided that their drummer Kat would back Jon up as nobody else knew any of the songs he wanted to play. She’d played drums with Langford’s art-rock metal trio The Three Johns back on 1985 when their drum machine went on strike but this was going to be something different. Just the two of them! No-set-list, no rehearsal and a packed house! Kat drums like nobody else on the planet and while the gig was seat of the pants in extremis the crowd went mad and offers of gigs started trickling in, So the KatJonBand was born…
A brief tour of festivals in Austria and Germany in 2005 led to plans for recording in Chicago the following year. Songs were written on the spot at Chicago’s North Branch studio as found matches on guitar for the melodies in Kat’s poly-rhythmic improvisations. The songs were fleshed out across the internet and completed whenever Kat managed to get back to Chicago. KatJonBand played The Hideout Touch & Go Block Party in September 2006 and crammed in a day at the studio then and another when the Ex came back to play The Empty Bottle later that Fall.
Musically and lyrically this is a tough album; stripped down, basic and to the point. The Mekons and The Ex have always been explicitly political bands so it’s no surprise that the Iraq war, globalization, class, greed, patriotism and kinky sex all rear their ugly heads in these bone-bare, blood-boiling anthems. Kat drums, Jon plays guitar but they both sing and its amazing how these two distinct vocal styles (Langford’s gruff Welsh pirate howl and Kat’s clear-as-a-bell Swabian soaring) mesh so completely.
The Mekons and The Ex are also two of the few bands who’ve continued, undaunted and unfettered since the heady days of 70s punk rock. Neither band has ever split up so (obviously) they’ve never reformed for any pathetic punk rock nostalgia tours. Back in the 90s they made a single together; one side had The Ex playing The Mekons’ Keep On Hopping and on the other The Mekons covered The Ex’s Crap Rap. KatJonBand is only the most recent collaboration between these two legendary groups and stays true to the pioneering spirits of both.
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