It’s safe to say there is no band quite like the Mekons. Formed in Leeds, England, in 1977 in the art-school scene that birthed their friends Gang of Four, the Mekons had no idea what they were doing, and maybe still don’t—and that’s the best thing about them. Their earliest interest was punk, the then-new genre that welcomed their leftist ideas and notable lack of musical skill. While their peers were spitting and snarling out their anger onstage, the Mekons grinned about the same angry subjects with unpretentious intellectualism and egalitarian charm…
