Song of the Day: 'Alphabetland' by X

Wow, talk about a fun surprise! It's unclear to me how this came to be, but X has reunited to record its first album since 1993's "Hey Zeus" -- and first album with the original Billy Zoom lineup since 1985’s "Ain’t Love Grand!" Despite chronic health problems and personality disorders -- Zoom is in remission from bladder cancer and vocalist Exene Cervenka has both multiple sclerosis and an incurable case of Alex Jones disease -- the legendary L.A. punks sound like they haven't lost a beat on the rollicking 30-minute blast from the past. The album is on the indie label Fat Possum available via Bandcamp HERE. It's coming to other platforms soon. Enjoy!

Album notes:

(Via Bandcamp)

The Los Angeles Times reports:

In early March, the four original members of X sat in the mixing room of an Eagle Rock recording studio recounting the how and why of “Alphabetland,” their first studio album as a quartet in 35 years.

Arranged in a semicircle on a couch and in a few chairs, John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom and D.J. Bonebrake were taking a break from a long day of mixing and overdubbing the 11 hard, fast and distorted new rock ’n' roll songs — the kind that first ignited the city on X’s 1980 debut album, “Los Angeles.”

“Exene and I talked about writing some songs five to seven years ago together, but we weren't sure where it would go,” Doe, 67, said of collaborating with his ex-wife and longtime writing partner. (The two were married from 1980 to 1985.) “We were doing other creative stuff, and whatever creative force you have goes into whatever's in place, right? Whether it’s building a car, making a garden or writing a song.”

Now an Austinite, Doe was wearing cowboy boots, blue jeans, a Western-style button-up shirt and a bolo tie. “So Exene and I just kind of got busy and said, 'OK, we've got a place to put it.'”

When Doe finished speaking, Cervenka, 64, who was lounging on her side of the couch with her eyes half-shut, lifted her head: “Actually, I've been writing X songs for 10 years, and finally everybody decided to make a record. That's the real story.”

"Alphabetland” arrived out of the blue on Wednesday. Landing months sooner than the band had originally planned, it was recorded with producer Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck, Joyce Manor) during two sessions in the fall of 2018 and January 2020.

Doe's and Cervenka’s competing narratives on X's creative return mirror the call-and-response tension that has powered their work since “Los Angeles” came out. X was scheduled to play that Ray Manzarek-produced debut from start to finish for a 40th-anniversary celebration at the Wiltern on Saturday.

Instead, after teasing fans on their Facebook page with a photo of wrapped presents (wild gifts?), X surprise-released “Alphabetland” to Bandcamp through the indie label Fat Possum.

At just over 30 minutes long, its 11 hit-and-run songs are as driving, poetic and accomplished as anything X has ever done. The album will land on the other major music streaming platforms on May 1. The band hopes to tour behind the album in the fall.

Keep reading HERE.

Punk Turns the Big 4-0

The Go-Go's in 1978

A lot of places are celebrating the 40th birthday of punk, a movement that definitely had an influence on my youth, albeit mostly by way of its more accessible cousin New Wave. New York magazine goes inside the less-covered Los Angeles scene of the Dead Boys, the Bags, X, the Go-Go's, the Germs et al. HERE.

Debbie Harry in 1977

A friend just asked me if Blondie was punk. I responded that the Ramones are considered the quintessential New York punks, and when you listen to their music they're awfully pop (like Blondie), too, so I think it's fair to say Blondie came out of the punk scene.

Exene Cervenka and John Doe of X in 1977

Meanwhile ...

The Wall Street Journal reports that a series of exhibitions and events in London will mark the 40th anniversary of the short-lived, take-no-prisoners genre that exploded onto the music scene in the 1970s / Read HERE.

The Clash

And The Guardian goes inside the British Library exhibit HERE.

 "Slash: A Punk Magazine From Los Angeles, 1977–80" is available HERE.

Song of the Day: 'Los Angeles' by X

It's a shame I hate Exene Cervenka's guts now, for being a Victoria Jackson wannabe. (Yeah, those families in Santa Barbara are faking their grief over having their loved ones slaughtered to try to curtail your Second Amendment rights, girl.) But since I'm in the City of Angels and this is the title track of one of the greatest albums ever, I won't hold it against her bandmates, whom I can only hope aren't as sick as she is.

Time to Boycott (E)X(ene)?

X to play first four albums in full in July shows at the Roxy

THIS would be the greatest thing ever, but now that Exene Cervenka's right-wing bullshit has taken a particularly ugly turn -- she's claming the Santa Barabra massacre is a hoax arranged by gun-control advocates -- I suggest no one go to these shows at all. And speaking of hoaxes: I'm starting to think the idea that Viggo Mortensen fucked this crazy bitch is hoax, too.

She Had to Leave Los Angeles Orange County

Exene Cervenka is having a garage an estate sale this weekend in Santa Ana(!). The singer, most famous for her work in the seminal L.A. punk band X, says she is moving to Austin, Texas, and doesn't want to drag all her stuff along with her. Rolling Stone has all the crazy details HERE.

UPDATE: Oh, I somehow missed this part. I follow her on Twitter and she's one of those people like my mom who won't come out and say they're a Republican, but then they make these vague-but-crazy statements that make you say ... wait a minute here. Well, now she's coming out with it!

"The other reason I'm moving, if the creek don't rise, is that when I moved to California in 1976, Jerry Brown was governor. It was barefoot hippie girls, Hell's Angels on the Sunset Strip, East L.A. lowriders, the ocean and nature. It was this fabulous incredible place about freedom. Now when I think about California, I think of a liberal oppressive police state and regulations and taxes and fees. I'd rather go someplace and have my own little place out on the edge of town. I'm a country girl at heart. It makes me happy when I see people in Texas open-carrying. It makes me feel safe. I'm not even a gun owner, but I'd like to see a gun rack in every pickup truck, like my boyfriend had when I was fifteen years old in Florida. An armed society is a polite society."

Sounds like she'd fit in in any city in Texas EXCEPT Austin.

Blondie: X Marks the Spot

If you had told me back at Rhodes Junior High in 1980 that I would be a position to start skipping events with Debbie Harry and Blondie involved, I'd have ripped you to shreds. But their touring machine is obviously a well-oiled -- read: money-making -- one, so you can understand why I don't need to go see them every other day. Hitting the road with the New Cars didn't smell good either, so when I heard yet another U.S. tour had been announced, I was prepared to take a(nother) pass. (Once you've seen the "Parallel Lines" 30th anniversary show -- and another since it -- you're kind of set for five years or so.) 

But with news that X -- my favorite punk band of all time, who I've only seen in '83 and '09  -- will be on the bill with the Blondies, I suddenly started to howl like a hungry wolf again. Blondie is reportedly trying out a bunch of new material, while X is drumming up excitement for their deluxe vinyl box set due out this fall, which features the band’s first four classic albums, plus a special booklet featuring a forward their former producer, the late Ray Manzarek of the Doors. The complete list of tour dates is HERE.

And speaking of the past, came across this 1977 photo of Deb with Patti Smith. I had always heard there was no love lost between the two -- Patti is rumored to have told Debbie that "CBGB's wasn't big enough for the both of us" -- but then Patti's book about the era didn't even mention Deb in passing. Perhaps this was a dig unto itself, or maybe this photo means they really got along just fine ...