I bloody love this LP, it is tuneful, wild, arty, uncaring and a little raggedy around the edges, just like life; listeners and listenhers I commend to you Los Angeles by X.
You don't have to answer me You don't have to call me back Your phone's off the hook But you're not
Away from the more concussive elements of L.A punk rock I have always enjoyed how sly and arty it all was, none more so than X who’s singer and lead guitarist met at a poetry workshop. Billy Zoom and Exene Cervenka teamed up with bassist John Doe and the wonderfully named drummer, DJ Bonebreak and lo, X was formed.
Los Angeles, the band’s debut, was released on Slash Records in April 1980, a touch after the initial punk explosion and offered more than the identikit one-duh-tree-furs outfits who were already clogging the subculture’s arteries by then. Whilst the band could beat on the brat with the best of them, they were darker with a slight gothic edge to them. Hell, they even hijacked a totem of a bygone age to produce them; take a bow Ray Manzarek.
There’s something lean and haughty about Los Angeles right out of the gate as they hit the ground running on the, brilliantly named, ‘Your Phone’s Off The Hook, But You’re Not’. Exene’s vocals are off-key in exactly the right way, she wheedles, expostulates and slaps the titular ‘you’ silly in just the right way, ‘Someone clean to chew on A wife that no one likes‘.
That we then hurtle into ‘Johnny Hit And Run Paulene’ the disturbingly catchy rockabilly-based tale of date rape* sung by John Doe, takes us to places darker than pitch, putting the sex in X. It is such a finger-popping tune too, it disturbs far more than any dissonant scree of noise could do.
THEN they play my absolute favourite cut here, a brilliant punky road race through the Doors’ ‘Soul Kitchen’, it’s just amazingly good – Exene hitting notes Jimbo could never have aspired to. It is one of those rare cover versions that’s so good you wonder how it isn’t the original version. Damnit, that ‘Learn to forget, learn to forget’ refrain was just born to punk out to.
The producer dusts down his keys for the heavy stomp of ‘Nausea’ to great effect before ‘Sugarlight’ flashes on past. Which leads us to the more problematic title track. a tale of an unpleasant, disaffected room mate of Exene’s who quit the city. The song calls out the ‘niggers’, homosexuals, Mexicans and Jews who, in her view, make her life in L.A untenable. A racial epithet dropped by an all-white band, even in an obviously character-based song, should (and has been) called out**.
Throughout the LP I really enjoy how Doe and Exene’s voices work so well together, ‘Sex And Dying In High Society’ being a real primo example; his voice carrying the tune, hers embellishing, harmonizing and discording by turns.
The longest tune on Los Angeles, ‘Unheard Music’ has a plodding bluesy car radio bent to it, which sounds a lot like a criticism, but very much isn’t intended that way. Mr Manzarek makes his presence felt again and yet again Billy Zoom adds some great guitar flourishes along the way.
It can only culminate in the end of the world as we know it and X do not disappoint with ‘The World’s A Mess, It’s In My Kiss’; as neat a we’re-all-fucked-so-we-might-as-well-fuck manifesto as you’ll find in my collection.
The world's a mess it's in my kiss Go to hell, see if you like it, then come home with me! The world's a mess it's in my kiss Tomorrow night may be too late
Amen to that X. Their next album was even better.
Los Angeles is an anti-matter firework of the highest order. I wish I could say I was cool enough to have been into X since I was 9, but sadly I only really discovered them in 2017. My loss. There’s plenty of bite and entertaining bark here, especially for those of us closeted arty types who can’t resist a surfeit of eyeliner with their nihilism.
1199 Down.
*and murder possibly?
**given Exene Cervenka’s sad descent into self-styled libertarian conspiracy theorizing on fringe media I find this even more jarring. I wonder if Aragorn knew?
Still listening to X and all the off shoots. John and Exene should be in the duo hall of fame.
I always find Manzarek’s presence on keyboards here a little incongruous. Great player but doesn’t quite fit.
The cover of Soul Kitchen really does it for me.
“Los Angeles” is the great promise, the first love, punk in all its strange beauty.
Not sure this is in my ambit, Joe. As I struggle with the bedrock misogyny of the blues these days, I think I might give X a wide berth. I do, however, love the scissor toting robot boy. Is he the censor, by any chance?
Hello mysterious Australian. I understood totally, X stance is very much that of reportage. There are times I can deal with that and others I cannot. I would definitely commend the rattling cover of Soul Kitchen to your ears though.
Never heard of them but it is good punk.
It is, I love that breakneck Doors cover.
I think I know this lot from the first Decline… film but I can’t remember anything about them. (I’ll let the band use that comment on a future hype sticker if they like)
They’ll leap at that dream endorsement. There was some crossover in personnel with The Germs.
What’s the film like? I’ve only ever seen the metal one.
The first one is the best I thought. Even though I don’t really like that music as much, it’s a better film.
The Germs dude, Darby Crash, died shortly after I think.
It’s worth seeing just for The Germs stuff.