X
X is an American punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1977. Established among the first wave of American punk, the original members are vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist/bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer DJ Bonebrake. The band released seven studio albums from 1980 to 1993. After a period of inactivity during the mid to late 1990s, X reunited in the early 2000s, and currently tours. X achieved limited mainstream success but influenced various genres of music, including punk rock and folk rock. The band received an Official Certificate of Recognition from the City of Los Angeles in acknowledgment of its contribution to Los Angeles music and culture. (More from Wikipedia)
Drummer DJ Bonebrake also left the Eyes to become the last of the founding members of one of the biggest LA punk bands, X (having a rich sound that could almost be described as post-punk despite their 1977 founding date). Exene Cervenka was previously a member of the Blackettes; her name – a riff on her real name Christene, with "Ex" replacing "Christ" (a la X-mas) – probably inspired the band's name.
(July 2010)
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Bruce Joyner began hearing about the growing punk rock scene in Los Angeles – the Dils, X, the Blasters, the Weirdos and the Zeros are bands that he cites – and he quickly put together a band called the Unknowns.
Bruce Joyner connected with keyboardist Ray Manzarek (formerly of the Doors) and helped out on the recording sessions for the X album Under the Big Black Sun. Joyner left the Unknowns in 1983; when he began recording the full-length album Swimming with Friends (with his new band the Plantations in 1986, both Manzarek and X guitarist John Doe both lent a hand.
(June 2011)
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This is a first-wave punk rock band with an all-star line-up: Bass player and vocalist Charlotte Caffey later was lead guitarist for the Go-Go's, while DJ Bonebrake became the drummer for X. My earlier article on the Eyes mentioned that members of the Go-Go's had deep roots in the Los Angeles punk rock scene, but I didn't know the half of it. I recently picked up an LP called Germicide (oh, yes, they are still making new LP's – I get them all the time) of the first live concert in June 1977 by the Germs (I also mentioned that band in the article); their first single on What Records?, "Forming" b/w "Sex Boy" is regarded as the very first punk rock record that was released in LA. The woman introducing the band at the beginning of the concert was "Belinda"; and sure enough, I was able to pin that down as being Belinda Carlisle, the lead singer of the Go-Go's.
(July 2012)
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Most of the credits on unfamiliar albums are going to be unfamiliar names as well, but every now and then, you will spot a famous person. Look for the record producer for instance; depending upon your own personal tastes, if John Doe (of X) or Todd Rundgren or Dave Edmunds is involved, and you are a fan, that would increase the chances that you would like the album.
(November 2012)
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I have already mentioned the London Mod band called the Eyes in the discussion about the Klubs. There is also a lesser-known Liverpool band called the Eyes – they were active only from 1964 to early 1965 – and evidently, a heavy metal band called the Eyes has recently formed. The UARB is yet another band called the Eyes and is a first-wave LA punk band that includes future members of the Go-Go's and X.
(July 2013)
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Joan Jett then placed an ad in L.A. Weekly saying that she was "looking for three good men" (a play on the advertising campaign of the U. S. Marine Corps at the time). John Doe of X sat in on bass guitar during the audition sections; and he mentioned Gary Ryan, a bassist that he knew who was crashing on his couch at the time. Ryan was a long-time fan of the Runaways and was picked after Joan Jett recognized him. Gary Ryan in turn recommended guitarist Eric Ambel; they had both been playing with a local punk rock artist named Rik L. Rik. Rounding out the band was drummer Danny "Furious" O'Brien, who was in the San Francisco punk band the Avengers, whose frontwoman was Penelope Houston. Joan Jett's band was named the Blackhearts after the name of her record company Blackheart Records, and not the other way around.
(November 2013)
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Besides their own albums and popular concert appearances throughout Southern California, the Beat Farmers collaborated with numerous musicians; Allmusic lists Mojo Nixon, John Doe of X, Rosie Flores, the Bangles, Los Lobos, Katy Moffatt, blues singer/pianist Candye Kane, and guitarist Dave Alvin, formerly of the Blasters. For his part, Country Dick Montana had several side projects over this period, including the Incredible Hayseeds, Country Dick's Petting Zoo, Country Dick's Garage, and the Pleasure Barons.
(January 2015/2)
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I have written already of several of the first-wave punk rock bands that were formed in the wake of the proto-punk bands that I wrote about in my last post: the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, the Modern Lovers, MC5, and others. In fact, one of my early UARB’s was the Eyes; they were one of the first punk bands in Los Angeles and included in their line-up future stars Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go's and DJ Bonebrake of X.
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Tensions in the band led to their break-up by mid-1979, before they were able to release a proper album. Avengers, released in 1983 is a tough find these days; but Penelope Houston has it available as a CD-R on her website, and I managed to find a copy in an Atlanta-area record store this year. John Dougan writes in the Allmusic review: “Although it was released in 1983, this collection represents just about everything San Francisco's late, great Avengers recorded from 1977-1978. By contemporary standards, it's by-the-book punk thrash: Greg Ingraham's guitar spews up hairball after hairball of distortion, while Penelope Houston snarls in her best impression of Johnny Rotten. However, contemporary standards diminish what great music this was and what a great band they were. Dozens of bands came in their wake, but few could recapture the excitement and ferocity of their sound. Houston, who re-emerged years later as a folk-rocker, is in full fury on these 14 tracks, especially the youth culture solidarity anthem ‘We Are the One’ and the tale of desperation ‘Thin White Line’. A few spins of this and you'll hear how the Avengers influenced everyone from Black Flag to X. Yes, they were that good. A forgotten classic.”
(March 2017)
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Madeline Ridley of SS-20 has a short performance called “Monitoring Madeline for Two Decades and Other Scenes” on a double-LP compilation album of alternative rock, spoken word, and poetry called English as a Second Language (1983) that has an amazing 84 cuts. Others represented on the album include Charles Bukowski, Dave Alvin of the Blasters, John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X, Henry Rollins and Chuck Dukowski of Black Flag, Tito Larriva of the Plugz, Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles, Jeffrey Lee Pierce of the Gun Club, record producer Craig Leon, prominent DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, and Kim Fowley.
Her work is also on two other similar compilation albums, Voices of the Angels (Spoken Words) and Neighborhood Rhythms (Patter Traffic) that feature many of the same artists and were released in the same time period.
(December 2017)
