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37 articles

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The Dils, X, the Alleycats, the Consumers, F-Word: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 1978

Five Punk Bands on Bill at Whisky ...

L.A. Bands: Rocking Or Reeling?

Report by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 21 January 1979

A YEAR AGO, Pasadena's Van Halen was just a promising band on the L.A. scene. Its most stellar dates were in Glendora, Redondo Beach and ...

L.A. Punk: Pogo-ing On The Fault Line

Overview by Mark Williams, Melody Maker, 20 September 1979

If Los Angeles is the future, how come its bands all sound so backdated? MARK WILLIAMS puts the case for the defence ...

X: Beyond the Valley of the Doors

Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 28 June 1980

HOLLYWOOD PUNK. Sounds about as real and desirable as cocktail-lounge muzak. If there's anything genuine or worthwhile in there it certainly isn't easy to find. ...

X in New York

Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, September 1980

EN ROUTE to London, X stopped over in New York in June for a round of interviews and two live performances, at the '80s and ...

X: Heart of the City

Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 12 September 1980

A Journey Into the Dark Underbelly of L.A. ...

X’s Exene

Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, Rag In Chains, April 1981

Shredder: Tell me what it’s like being the number one band around. ...

LA Punk

Report by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 11 April 1981

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA is always preceded by its own legend. There is no way you can avoid that legend if you grew up with the price ...

X: Wild Gift (Slash)

Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, July 1981

"Got a hole in my heart/Size of my heart/Is my fist" — 'The Once Over Twice' ...

X Marks a New Rock Spot at the Greek Theater

Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 8 August 1981

X AT THE Greek Theater? ...

X....Communication

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 29 August 1981

FIRST THINGS FIRST. When X get to England (sometime in September hopefully) see them. They're good. ...

The Decline of Western Civilization (Dir. Penelope Spheeris)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Don Waller, New York Rocker, September 1981

THE DECLINE of Western Civilization, Penelope Spheeris's documentary of the L.A. punk scene circa late '79/early '80, is by turns funny, provocative, pretentious, inspiring, boring, ...

X: Wild Gift (Slash SR-107); The Flesh Eaters: A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die (Ruby JRR-101)

Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, September 1981

THERE'S A BIG difference between playing crudely out of necessity and harnessing primitivism to say things that can't be said any other way. Rock thrives ...

X's Wild Los Angeles Gift: Sign On The Dotted Line, Please!

Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, June 1982

X ARE FINALLY getting some respect. Their first album, Los Angeles, released in 1980 on the independent Slash label, sold some 80,000 copies, not bad ...

X: Under The Big Black Sun (Elektra)

Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 3 July 1982

X ARE a southern Californian punk-style foursome who, since their debut album Los Angeles, have done everything within their power to show that they are ...

X: Under The Big Black Sun (Elektra)*****

Review by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, 3 July 1982

NO LESS a person than Slash magazine's very own Kickboy Face once told me that X were most popular among the inhabitants of LA's Mexican ...

X: The Maturing of a Punk Band

Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1982

SAN FRANCISCO — a few minutes before doing a live interview at the University of San Francisco radio station, John Doe of X picked up a ...

X: Under The Big Black Sun (Elektra)

Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, October 1982

X'S ALL-AMERICAN ANGST ...

Language: Thick Malt, Weird Cream

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 13 November 1983

NOTED SONGWRITERS Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen contribute liner notes to the album, but they don't sing on it. The two records feature members of ...

X: Leader Of The Pack

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 14 January 1984

IT'S ALMOST like standing with my stilettoes planted on the very threshold of Club Yes. ...

X Spots the Mark: Raw Chemicals With a Spoon

Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1984

AS I ENTER Billy Zoom's Cincinnati motel room, I glance at the usual rockband-on-tour pile of black leather jackets, but I also take note of ...

Slash: L.A.'s Maverick Label Meets the Majors

Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 10 February 1984

LOS ANGELES —"Music is a vehicle for ideas, and if the ideas suck and the music's good, it's still pretty bad music." The man at ...

X: Marquee, London

Live Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 17 March 1984

XXX ...

X: Guitars Against The Golden State

Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Face, April 1984

They've been called The Last American Rock Band. It's a tag they hate. ...

Various Artists: Radio Tokyo Tapes, Vol. 3 (PVC); Dave Van Ronk: Going Back To Brooklyn (Reckless)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1985

NOW THAT Bob Dylan is establishing himself as a born-again rocker, why shouldn't the new wave stage a folk revival? But listening to Radio Tokyo ...

X: The Misunderstood X

Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, Rock Scene, September 1986

"It's like if you're an artist and they say, 'I'm sorry but you can't have your paintings displayed in public anymore.' The radio's really awful, ...

Billy Zoom’s Out, But X Goes On

Report and Interview by Cynthia Rose, Dallas Observer, 28 November 1986

"THE ONE 'MESSAGE' X HAS AS A BAND," John Doe once told me, "is that whether you fit in or not, you can be ...

X, Jerry Lee Lewis, fIREHOSE: Universal Ampitheatre, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, April 1988

"WE GOT THE BULLS BY THE HORN..." ...

X: Live at the Whisky A Go Go on the Fabulous Sunset Strip

Review by Don Snowden, The Boston Phoenix, 27 May 1988

FOR ALL THE national accolades heaped on X throughout the '80s, the group never stopped viewing itself as an LA band stepped in the nitty-gritty ...

Rock Of Middle Ages

Comment by Tim Riley, The Boston Phoenix, 9 February 1990

The new traditionalism looks for its roots. ...

The List

Comment by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, 6 October 2001

Two decades on, 'The Unheard Music' is still the music you need to hear ...

X: Los Angeles *****; Wild Gift ****; Under The Big Black Sun **** (Rhino/Warners)

Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2001

REMASTERED, EXPANDED reissues from the dark heart of California. ...

The violence. The drugs. The death. From Black Flag and Social Distortion to Bad Religion and The Offspring, this is the story of 20 years of LA punk.

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 19 January 2002

On the long, straight drive from Los Angeles airport, down a curving freeway, past oil wells and gas stations, diners and office supply stores, onto ...

L.A. Punk: California Screamin'

Retrospective by Don Waller, MOJO, July 2004

Ignored by the major labels, hounded by cops, fuelled by booze and drugs, L.A. punk was born in a concrete basement in Hollywood known as ...

The Persistence of Punk: X, Nick Cave and New Order live in L.A.

Live Review by Roy Trakin, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 July 2014

IT WILL BE 40 years in December, 2015, since the release of Patti Smith's Horses, on Clive Davis' Arista label, arguably the beginning of the ...

X: Los Angeles' Wild Gift

Retrospective by Erik Himmelsbach, Journal of Alta California, 28 May 2018

LIKE ITS New York counterpart the Velvet Underground, whose props as a fundamental rock and roll influence came only after years in oblivion, Los Angeles's ...

John Doe: How Antioch Prepared The X Co-Founder To Make Punk Rock History

Retrospective and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Antioch Alumni Magazine, Fall 2020

WHEN THE California quartet X released its first album in 1980, it upended everyone's assumptions about punk rock. The twin lead vocals from a man ...

see also Exene Cervenka

see also Knitters, The

see also John Doe

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