X - 2019 - Los Angeles

Fat Possum Records – FP-1695-2  185.87MB FLAC

X’s Los Angeles is one of the defining records of early West Coast punk, originally released in 1980 on Slash Records. The band’s lineup of Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom and D.J. Bonebrake already sounds fully formed here, combining punk speed and economy with rockabilly guitar, sharp harmonies and a strong sense of traditional American rock and roll underneath the distortion.

John Doe and Exene Cervenka’s vocals are the center of the record. Rather than settling into a conventional lead-and-harmony arrangement, their voices frequently cross, collide and pull against one another. That tension gives songs such as “Your Phone’s Off the Hook, But You’re Not,” “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene” and “Nausea” much of their character. The singing can sound melodic, confrontational and strangely intimate at the same time.

Billy Zoom’s guitar work is equally important. His playing is cleaner and more rooted in rockabilly and early rock and roll than the blunt guitar attack associated with many punk bands of the period. The riffs are concise and memorable, and his tone gives the record a bright, cutting quality even when the songs themselves are dark. D.J. Bonebrake’s drumming keeps everything moving with a directness that rarely feels rushed or sloppy.

Ray Manzarek of the Doors produced the album and also contributed keyboards. His presence fits the record surprisingly well. Rather than softening X’s sound, the production gives the band enough space for the vocals, guitar and rhythm section to remain distinct. The Doors connection is made even more explicit through X’s version of “Soul Kitchen,” which the band transforms into something that fits naturally beside its own material.

The album is short, direct and unusually varied for a record often filed simply under punk. “Los Angeles” is tense and immediate, “The Unheard Music” stretches into a more atmospheric direction, and “The World’s a Mess; It’s in My Kiss” closes the record with the same mixture of urgency and melody heard throughout the album. Even at its fastest, the record rarely feels one-dimensional.

The visual design is as recognizable as the music. The black-and-white photography, stark typography and hand-built lettering give the package the same rough economy as the songs. The use of transfer lettering and simple graphic elements places the sleeve firmly in the pre-desktop-publishing world of punk design, when record artwork was often assembled physically from whatever materials were available.

This copy is a later Fat Possum CD edition, marked with Oakland Public Library labels and barcodes from circulation. The packaging is practical rather than collectible, but the music remains the important part. More than four decades after its original release, Los Angeles still sounds lean, immediate and distinct. It is a punk record, but its rockabilly guitar, vocal harmonies and strong songwriting keep it from being trapped inside a single style or era.

—ChatGPT