The Sex Pistols were pissed, The Clash socially conscious, but X took the punk jawn and fashioned stories of heroin, rape, and the
abnormalities that took place in subterranean L.A. This is not the Los
Angeles the media brought to the masses. X was how we grew up to find there was more to be angry about
than mom and dad.
Los Angeles (AM7) was released in 1980 and produced by
Ray Manzarek of The Doors. Unlike most of their contemporaries (who were raw style over substance), X consisted of real musicians, fusing the power and
frenzied emotion of punk with rockabilly and a country twang. The quartet of
Exene Cervenka on vocals, John Doe on bass, Billy Zoom on guitar and DJ
Bonebrake on drums were supplemented by Manzarek on keyboards. The nine songs
are quick bursts of power and precision. The stories are timely and timeless: misfit
lovers on "The Phone's Off The Hook, But Your Not," date rape victims
on "Johnny Hit & Run Pauline," and the banality of the rich in
"Sex & Dying In High Society."
They even tackle The Doors’ "Soul Kitchen." But it's the title track that is the album's finest
moment. X was a band hardly destined for mainstream success, but nearly a
quarter of a century later, Los Angeles remains
fresh and vital.
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