What the world needs now is new X
LA punk legends drop a surprise release 40 years after debut album
LOS ANGELES — 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.
John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom and D.J. Bonebrake were taking a break from a 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. “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, bluejeans, 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 the couch, 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 April 22. 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 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 Manzarekproduced debut from start to finish for a 40th anniversary celebration at the Wiltern on April 25.
Instead, after teasing fans on its Facebook page with a photo of wrapped presents, 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 May 1. The band hopes to tour behind the album in the fall.
Featuring guitarist Zoom’s electric guitar riffs and solos, drummer Bonebrake’s wrist-snapping rhythms and Doe’s tugboat bass lines, songs including “Water & Wine,” “Strange Life,” “Delta 88” and “Angel on the Road” move with a focused fury. Gone is the country twang that accented X’s post-Zoom album “See How We Are” and the alt-rockish “Hey Zeus” from 1993. Back is Cervenka and Doe’s tagteam invective.
“It sounds like an X album,” added the oft stoic Zoom, 72.
Across a furious five-year period, X recorded five essential rock ’n’ roll albums: “Los Angeles,” “Wild Gift,” “Under the Big Black Sun,” “More Fun in the
New World” and “Ain’t Love Grand.” Through songs including “The World’s a Mess, It’s in My Kiss,” “White Girl,” “The
Once Over Twice,” “We’re Desperate,” “The Hungry Wolf” and “The New World,” the band was a crucible for the Hollywood scene of the late ’70s and helped draw the blueprint for West Coast punk.
A few shuffled lineups — Zoom left the band in 1985 and returned in 1998 — dozens of years and hundreds of shows later, X plays with a telepathic sense of momentum. Songs ignite, then burn for a few hot minutes until the energy’s spent.
Noting that she hadn’t made solo music in years, Cervenka said she’d been pushing for a new album for so long in part because she has a harder time writing without purpose. “You can write all day long,” she said, adding that her creative aim was simple: “I was hoping that we would be able to make a new record if I kept writing really good lyrics — so I just started sending stuff to John.” She also included her sung melodies. Doe, along with Zoom and Bonebrake, then added music.
In 2019, the band logged more concert dates than they had in decades. Touring remains the primary source of income for its members. Doe last issued a solo album, “The Westerner,” in 2016. In the interim, he published two books about the rise and fall of LA punk: “Under the Big Black Sun” and “More Fun in the New World.” Bonebrake has his own old-time combos. Zoom is all-in on X.
In late 2018, X converged at Sunset Sound in Hollywood with Schnapf to record five songs. Working on a combo of early ideas and, in the case of “Cyrano deBerger’s Back,” the reimagining an old one, the session marked the first time the four had been in a recording studio to make an album since “Ain’t Love Grand.”
“Alphabetland” was originally scheduled to come out in August. But in mid-March, as the coronavirus spread, Fat Possum and the band began discussing a surprise release. Speaking on the phone from Austin, Texas, Doe said the rationale for the early drop was twofold.
“Let’s give people — at least our audience and maybe beyond that — something that is upbeat. Something that’s new and vital.” Logistically, the early release made sense too: With record and CD manufacturing plants shuttered, Fat Possum couldn’t guarantee hitting the planned August release date. So X and the label opted to drop the album on the same date that “Los Angeles” was released 40 years ago.