Category: Digital Music Album
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MP3 Download
Product Details
| Publisher | Quarterstick Records |
| Creator | The Mekons |
| Format | MP3 Download |
| Label | Quarterstick Records |
| Running Time | 0: 0 |
| Title | I Have Been to Heaven and Back: Hen's Teeth and Other Lost Fragments of Un-Popular Culture Vol. 1 |
| Studio | Quarterstick Records |
| Genre | pop-music |
| Release Date | 1999-04-20 |
| Manufacturer | Quarterstick Records |
Customer Reviews
an embarrassment of richesReview by Arise Therefore, 2006-10-07
I have been to heaven and back serves two excellent functions.
It serves up to you a wealth of recordings previously available only on various artist compilations and a few alternate takes of tracks that have appeared on albums. Some of which I actually prefer; notably a full-length version of Funeral with an additional verse in the last refrain.
The other function it performs well is as an introduction to the Mekons. I'd recommend it to anyone I thought might be curious.
I disagree with the Bitchfork review that says it runs out of steam half way through. I say buy it, spread it out on the bed and roll around in it. All of it!
The Fall and Rise of Mekons
Review by Keith Keller, 2000-11-20
The Mekons staggered their way out of the Manchester UK punk scene some years ago. The best simple descriptive terms for their music is, "cynical, revolutionary folk-punk". Imagine a crazed scenario where The Clash meets Fairport Convention....revolutionary sentiments, drunken reggae beats and bits of quirky folk music coalescing into a new and grand coalition. This band is intelligent and darkly funny, mixing bits of Marxist rhetoric, gay politics, ruminations on the British Empire and stabs at historical figures ranging from Churchill to Nixon to Freud with evident glee. "I've Been to Heaven and Back" is essentially a collection of out-takes. Many of these are culled from "The Mekon's Rock and Roll" sessions, a hard to find album that qualifies as the Mekon's desert island CD, or, "Exile on Main Street" in terms of tattered glory. "Heaven and Back" is notable for the cover version of Rod Stewart's, "You wear it well". The Mekons seem to be a thriving, underground cottage industry these days. Various members are active in the American alt-folk scene. "To Heaven and Back Again" is a fine introduction to one of Britain's great unknown bands.
