Jon Langford+Kat Ex=Katjonband (Free MP3!)

Katjonband’s the name, kicking the ass of musical complacency is the game.

By Fred Mills

Now here’s something guaranteed to kick up some dust (and maybe stir up some shit): Jon Langford from the mighty Mekons and the wailin’ Waco Brothers is teaming with Kat Ex of the EX as Katjonband, with a self-titled debut due from Carrot Top on Sept. 23.

Here’s what we know, courtesy the label: “Musically and lyrically, Katjonband is a tough album; stripped down, basic and to the point. With Kat on drums and Jon on guitar, the duo shares the microphone, summoning Jon’s gruff Welsh pirate howl and Kat’s clear-as-a-bell Swabian soar.”

We at BLURT are all about Swabian soars!

Never fear: neither the Mekons nor the Ex are up on blocks; this is only the latest in Langford’s long history of side projects, and both bands have intersected in various capacities numerous times over the years.

“The Mekons and The Ex have always been explicitly political bands,” continue the Langford/Ex handlers, “so it’s no surprise that the Iraq war, globalization, class, greed, patriotism and kinky sex all rear their ugly heads in the album’s bone-bare, blood-boiling anthems.”

We at BLURT are all about kinky sex and bone-bar, blood boiling anthems!

Here’s yet more info:

Back in the mists of time, before Kat drummed her way into The Ex and Jon dusted himself off after the disastrous demise of The Mekons mark one, Jon stumbled upon a small, damp studio known as Joke-rent-a-cow studio (or something like that) on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Dolf Planteydt, who ran the studio also worked as the soundman for Holland’s least compromising and most physically demanding punk- rock collective, The Ex. Jon then met Terrie Ex 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 struck him. While The Mekons toured Holland, The Ex let them stay in their squat, leading the two bands to tour together and eventually become label-mates at Chicago’s Touch & Go Records.

Celebrating their 25th anniversary at Amsterdam’s Paradiso in November 2004, The Ex invited Jon to MC the weekend’s events, offering to back him up for a set of his own. When he arrived in Amsterdam they forgot their offer and since nobody else knew any of the songs he wanted to play, they decided that their drummer Kat would back up Jon. She played drums with Jon’s art-rock metal trio, The Three Johns, back in 1985 when their drum machine went on strike, but this promised to be something different: just the two of them with 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. 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. Writing songs on the spot at Chicago’s North Branch studio, Jon found matches on guitar for the melodies in Kat’s poly-rhythmic improvisations. Fleshing the songs out across the Internet, Kat completed them whenever she could manage to get back to Chicago. KatJonBand played The Hideout Touch & Go Block Party in September 2006, cramming in a day at the studio and another when the Ex came back to play The Empty Bottle later that fall.

You can check out the Katjonband page at Carrot Top. Meanwhile, give a listen to this MP3 of their song “Bad Apples”:

Bad Apples