MEKONS
There are very few rock bands who survive for a long period of time and maintain their creative vitality. When Neil Young sang about burning out and rusting away, he was probably looking at his contemporaries who had turned into cruel parodies of themselves.  For people of my generation, there is the sorry spectacle of bands who once sang derisively about turning revolution into money now allowing their political statements to be used in commercials. It's foolish to "believe in"  a rock band because they'll always let you down. Of course, how many of us were ready to accept that when we were 16?
The Mekons are one band that has earned my respect over time. Over a career that spans more than 20 years, the Mekons have played by their own rules and put out an consistently good records.  One of the things facilitating their long string of good records has been the inconsistency the band thrived on.  They got their start on the English punk scene in 1977. They mutated through an obsession with American roots music long before there was a No Depression. They tried to buy in to the rock and roll money machine, but the major labels didn't know what to do with songs that proclaimed; "when I was just 17, sex no longer held a mystery / It was just a commodity, bought and sold like rock and roll."
When dreams of rock and roll financial solvency died in the early 90's, the band got out of the van and called it a day. Sort of.  When the Mekons stopped being a full time touring rock act, they didn't stop being a band, they didn't stop putting out music and they didn't become irrelevant  Since they came off the road, the Mekons have collaborated with other artists on theater and literary works and pulled together the only collective art exhibition by a rock and roll band.
The Mekons released two collections of rare and archival material, I Have Been To Heaven And Back, and Where Were You?, in 1999. Both volumes are subtitled "Hen's Teeth and other lost fragments of unpopular culture." The compilations collect singles, compilation tracks, alternate takes and other ephemera from the bands long and varied career. Among the tracks presented here are the songs A&M excised from Mekons releases on that lable.
I Have Been to Heaven And Back is the better of the two discs and would make a reasonable introduction to the band. The material collected here is the closest thing to a Mekons "hits" package that you're likely to find.
When I praise the Mekons for their creativity and longevity, I don't do so uncritically.  When long time fans and critics argue that the band hasn't been producing works as epic as Fear and Whiskey, I have to agree.  The Mekons flame burned brightest in the mid-80's.  But then again, things have fundamentally changed.  When the Mekons were at their peak, they were living and breathing their music.  They were on the road constantly. They were working on Mekons music all the time, as a band. Since the band "got out of the van," they have come together on a fairly regular basis to work on projects. I like "Pussy, King of the Pirates" and "Me." I also recognize that it a different kind of Mekons that made those records.  They were made by a collective of friends who get together to make music, not a band who play together all the time.
That brings up a final thought about why I like the Mekons so much. When the Mekons aren't being Mekons, most of them are doing something else musical.  Jon Langford leads the pack with his groups Skull Orchard, The Pine Valley Cosmonauts and the Waco Brothers. Sally Timms puts out solid alt.country records and