Food Co-ops in the 70's were nuts. Some folks made this documentary about the co-op wars that happened in the Twin Cities, where folks were taking over co-ops by force. Just found out today that you can stream it for free through Twin Cities PBS. Worth a watch.

I saw Bonnie Prince Billy play a couple weeks ago and he mentioned in between songs that the Mekons were one of his favorite artists.

This surprised me. I like the Mekons, but have always considered them to be a band that was ok, but not great. Made some good punk songs, kept playing for decades even though it seemed like nobody was paying much attention. They started as a punk band in the late 70's in Leeds - same artsy social circle as Gang of Four and the Delta 5. Somewhere along the line they branched out and some of them moved to the US and started the Waco Brothers - a countryish band, and also a crapload of side projects of some blend of country/folk and punk rock. In general I've always thought the side projects were just fine. Like good background music but not something I'd seek out.

Then I found out that Horses from Bonnie Prince Billy's first band - Palace music was one of these side project songs. [The original](https://www.

Old man from Canada came up with this song 40 years into his career and holy shit.

Harsh truth, I don't think his new album is as good as his old ones. Still nice to have fresh material out though!