X

It's recorded two years later than Ain't Love Grand, but, wow, "4th of July" is such a great song (it graced a "Sopranos" episode a couple of years ago too).

The demo version of 4th Of July from the 2cd Beyond and Back comp is even better. A little less slick and eighties-afied.

Ha! I was listening to "Los Angeles" the other day and was struck by how much it reminded me of the B-52s. Not sure if that's a good thing...

Still, I enjoy X in small doses, but have never loved them. I'd like to see what they are like in concert because I've heard nothing but good things. Maybe another reunion tour will happen.

When the fuck is ATP gonna invite them to do Los Angeles in its entirety, as I've been dreaming about for some reason

the B-52s were a big obnoxious convertible jalopy tootin down a dirty back road, and x were some kind of erratic used datsun swerving dangerously, going slow in the fast lane and fast in the slow

Exene's new solo material is great!

For some reason I always assumed I wouldn't like this band. Turns out I was wrong.

what album are you listening to?

They should have had a better career than they did. But Wild Gift is an alltime great record.

I wish they stayed together and did more roots rock like 4th of July.

"More Fun in the New World" right now, also recently dl'ed "Los Angeles." I guess I had kind of mixed them up in my head with the Cramps and so thought they were kitschier/jokier and more rockabilly than they actually are.

The movie "X: The Unheard Music" is great at capturing both the band and the early-mid 80s world that produced them. I knew Zoom had played with Gene Vincent, but I didn't know Bonebreak could tap out Lionel Hampton riffs on the vibes.

I watched this recently and enjoyed it a lot, although I wish there were more extensive live clips.

I like how committed they were (are?) to their personal brands - they were truly living the rockabilly life.

One thing I was wondering about when watching this: was the character of Izzy from the Love & Rockets comics inspired by Exene? Definitely some very strong resemblances both in looks and personality.

I'm in love with Exene's new record.

:-/:

Exene Cervenka, the high priestess of the Southern California punk and alternative music scene for three decades, has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the singer for X and the Knitters revealed in a statement issued today.

Cervenka said she underwent tests “after some months of not feeling 100% healthy” and was told she had the inflammatory disease of the central nervous system.

“Although this is obviously unfortunate news,” Cervenka’s statement said, “I am choosing to see the positive in it. I, and X as a band, have supported the Sweet Relief charity since the mid-1990’s; the irony of this is not lost on any of us. Sweet Relief was started as an aide to uninsured artists by musician Victoria Williams when she herself was diagnosed with MS in 1992.”

“While this diagnosis will most certainly mean some changes for me, personally, it will not affect my commitments to the current X U.S. tour, nor will it affect my solo album that is slated for release this fall,” she said.

People with MS can lose control of functions that pass through the brain or spinal cord, but how it affects each person varies widely.

“My focus will certainly be on maintaining my health,” Cervenka, 53, said. “Many people remain strong and continue to live their lives as productively as they had before an MS diagnosis, and I plan to be one of those people.”

In April at the Stagecoach country music festival in Indio, where she sang with the Knitters, Cervenka said backstage that she had been trying to reduce her travel time and time away from her home in Missouri by concentrating performances in short bursts. The Stagecoach set came on the same weekend of a duo performance she gave at the Getty Center in Malibu with her longtime partner in X and the Knitters, John Doe.

“I fly out, do a few shows, see everybody I want to see,” she said, “and then I go home again.”

goddamn I love this band. I know this isn't saying anything new but John Doe + Exene is like my favorite vocal harmony combo

I spent a whole summer listening to Wild Gift, wishing I had the sort of relationship that would have inspired these songs.

X!!!! Whatta band! One of the best live acts I ever saw, especially w/ Billy Zoom. The first three records were flawless, and they were all very good. Yeah - tons o' love.

Recently watched The Decline of Western Civilization for the first time: I had dug this band before (esp. "We're Desperate" and "Adult Books") but now I can't seem to get enough of them. Definitely one of the greatest bands of all time.

Def go an watch The Unheard Music. It's a doc on X and no one else. VERY GOOD!

Definitely one of the greatest bands of all time.

co-sign

man I was just thinkin about this band and I start seeing what they're up to an I guess Exene had to cancel a tour 'cause her MS got brutal on her. Feel so bad about the Knoxville show, what could be more terrifying than to have your body just quit on you onstage.

A Message from Exene - 4/8/11

as you probably know by now, i was diagnosed with ms. i have been doing relatively well. i thought i could handle sxsw in austin, and a short solo tour. however, i got sick in austin during sx, it is a hard event even under the best of circumstances. it didn't seem that hot to me, but heat is very bad for those of us with ms. i started feeling bad almost as soon as i started playing on wednesday and by sunday night, i had a terrible headache and couldn't get out of bed. i didn't feel any better by wednesday so i called my neurologist and got a prescription for steroids. i started to improve a little and thought i'd be okay to start my southwest southeast tour on the following friday. in retrospect, i should have called off the tour then and there. but i didn't want to cancel. kevin seconds, who was on the tour with me, met me in austin, and we played our first show. but i wasn't getting better.in knoxville tn, a week later, i was fatigued and having a hard time functioning. when i took the stage that night, i was surprised to discover that my right hand and arm were not responding to my commands, and i couldn't play guitar. i apologized to the audience, talked alot, and sang acapella. because i had driven ten hours from new orleans, i hoped it was just fatigue from gripping the steering wheel so long. but i knew the tour was over. the next morning, after i called my booking agent and gave her the news, i sat down with kevin seconds and explained to him that i was too sick to continue, and would only be going as far as memphis. i apologized. my friend flew into memphis and drove me home, where i am now. i wouldn't have made it as far as i did without the help of my friends and the kindness of fans strangers along the way. i am not an invincible road warrior anymore. the easiest part of touring is the hour on stage. the driving and staying with friends and finding hotels and advancing the shows and hauling around merch and guitars is the hard part. i've never cancelled a tour before but it is more important for me to regain my health than continue. i never know when my ms will strike, and this was certainly bad timing for an attack. my apologies to the clubs, the fans, my label, and mr. seconds for this unfortunate event. ~Exene~

I had heard about some health problems but man oh man that's awful news. Crossed fingers and best wishes.

^^^This. Been really obsessing over the X lately. Spending pretty pennies on the now OOP Elektra remasters.

Dig the dude crushing on Exene in this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwSuUV4kM8Q

Anyone else been catching them on this "play 'Los Angeles'" tour?? Saw 'em on Wednesday, and it was godlike. True childhood heroes of mine, onstage right in front of me, totally ripping it up. Exene looked and sounded great -- I know abt the health issues, and I truly hope she wasn't just hiding any pain in the interest of the performance, but she really did look ok. What a band

Wished I saw the local gig but had a conflict. Sounds great

I've seen them a couple times since their reunited in ... '96? '98? And they've always killed it. What a tight band.

"X"-tra "X"-tra: i'm listening to x for the first time right now. these guys rule.

you bet! what album?

los angeles. goin reverse chrono on the spotify

err regular chrono duh

this was fun. thanks e veryone for tuning in.

Wild Gift rulez!!!!

Spent most of last week listening to Under the Big Black Sun.

Live at the Whiskey is my favorite album of theirs...I dunno why but I've listened to that so many times that the regular studio album tracks feel kinda flat now.

but looooooooooooooove X.

Sometimes I feel bad but the song ”los angeles” is so great but it's racist

Spent most of last week listening to Under the Big Black Sun.

^^That was me a few weeks prior.

If any of you haven't already, check out that Bandstand interview I posted upthread.

I highly recommend the widely available Cat's Cradle 1982-07-23 live boot, they just kill it on track after track.

"Sometimes I feel bad but the song ”los angeles” is so great but it's racist"

If it makes you feel any better, the song is written from the point of view of real person (someone Exene knew from Florida) who is not John or Exene. The reporting is neutral, but I get the vibe that the song does not approve.

oops I meant the 1982-07-23 show from Clutch Cargo, Detroit.

goddamn I love this band. I know this isn't saying anything new but John Doe + Exene is like my favorite vocal harmony combo.

Oh god yes.

"Some people give me the creeps!"

It was better before, before they voted for whatshisname
This was supposed to be the new wooooooorld

listening to live at the Whiskey, falling in love with them all over again
so great

i have a renewed crush on DJ Bonebrake

For me those first couple X albums make virtually the only rock music as good (or almost as good) as salsa for driving around to.

when I first met Mr Veg we roadtripped from SF to LA listening to the Whisky album and it still sounds like the grapevine on I-5 to me

Seen this band so many times and in so many configurations I've lost count.

Anyway, you know what's a lot better than the Live At The Whisky album (which I basically disown on the basis that Billy Zoom isn't involved) is that FM broadcast of them playing in Boston with a two guitar lineup (Dave Alvin lead, Tony rhythm I think). Highlights include Exene dominating the meanest cover of Positively 4th Street you'll ever hear - forget the studio version happened - and a brilliant medley of Devil Doll and Long White Cadillac. And they take away all that hair metal sheen from the Ain't Love Grand songs.

As a complete X junkie, here's a few recommendations/preferences:
-Don't have the lineage, but an FM broadcast of a NY show from 83. My Father's Place maybe? Features a version of True Love Pt. 2 that is just beyond demented. The mix on that bootleg is perfect. Giant guitar and bass, and unlike some of the other FM stuff circulating from the era, Exene's very lucid and pissed off.

-Wild Gift has a horrid mix that makes everything sound like it's coming out of my grandpa's radio. Find bootlegs and live albums instead. Particularly Live In Los Angeles, from the reunion tour. Definitive versions of the Wild Gift-era songs.

-Go to dime or whatever and find the Winters 2009 bootleg of The Knitters. That band is its own thing live. Dave Alvin's way louder than on record and he's given a lot of leeway to take some mean solos. Very fond of how he's given about two minutes at the end of New World to turn it into the Battle Hymn of the Republic. And Walkin' Cane live is just something else. Highlight is their fantastic cover of "Wreck On The Highway," as yet unreleased.

-Also, seek out their medley of Wild Side of Life/Honky Tonk Angels and the fiddle demo of Someone Like You. Classic, straight-faced Bakersfield country that sound like lost 45s. No proof they were recorded in 85 at all.

-Solo stuff. Exene: Alone In Arizona, Already In Love, Dirty Snow, Lonesome War. John: Hwy 5, Golden State, Lean Out Yr Window, Pressing On, Cottage In The Dale. (He also does a killer version of Ballad of a Thin Man if you can find that.)

I clearly remember this being the coolest thing I had ever seen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu2DPFBcHBA

Yup. Was a regular on MTV.

pretty cool show this past saturday in santa ana, at a benefit for phil alvin: x and the knitters both on the bill, along with the blasters and los lobos. it was very very 1982, and i'm guessing a good number of people in the room were in fact there in 1982 if not earlier. lots of flannel shirts and white t-shirts. bummed that dave alvin didn't play with x. but he played with the blasters, which was much more important, obviously, and oh so great. knitters were endearingly sloppy (i've seen them a lot tighter) and jovial (and a bit too electric for my taste, which is to say dave alvin was really loud relative to everyone else). x stuck to the first four albums and avoided anything the knitters had just played. the knitters' "the new world" was about halfway between the knitters and x versions anyway. john and exene were hamming it up big-time. billy stood stage right, about 500 yards from the rest of the band. old people moshed. i thought exene sounded particuarly good, except when she joined the blasters for a duet of "jackson" and the soundman forgot to turn up her mic for the first half of the song. oops.

Also, seek out their medley of Wild Side of Life/Honky Tonk Angels

yes! it's on the excellent "radio tokyo tapes vol. 3" comp if you can find it.

haha, yes. and now look what i've gotten myself into

I mean it could be “in character” (there’s a pretty famous example of the same band doing that, but the distancing is made somewhat clear in that case), but then it’s the character’s rockism making folks wince…

one of many possible readings, but yeah -- i guess at the end of the day, if that's what you and others here, i won't argue about it.

hear*

Possible hot take: I was let down when I heard the studio version of "Nausea" the first time because I was introduced to the track through Decline of Western Civilization and that live crunch - but more importantly, the lack of Ray Manzarek's insufferable key bleats - was way more potent to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2xehSjrzVs