X stood apart from and arguably surpassed their peers. The adolescent male rage that later conquered the L.A. punk community in the form of violent hardcore was an uneasy fit with X’s bohemian and, yes, desperate meditations on Hollywood’s decaying underbelly. Hailing from Baltimore and Florida respectively, primary songwriting couple John Doe and Exene Cervenka had the kind of detached perspective on their environment only true outsiders could attain. X’s acidic portait of their titular surroundings was the culmination of years languishing on the scene with The Germs, The Avengers and Fear. Ex-Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek managed to take a break from endlessly recounting “Jim” anecdotes to produce this nine cut classic mix of poetry, rockabilly and punk that yielded the chilling anti-rape narrative “Johny Hit and Run Paulene”, “Sex and Dying in High Society”, and the explosive closing number “The World’s A Mess (It’s In His Kiss)”. Underscoring the intelligent lyrics and arresting male-female vocals, Billy Zoom’s high octane Chuck Berry riffs and D.J. Bonebrake’s thunderous percussion lent a convincing urgency to their sound - giving listeners the impression the band was going to make a break for somewhere, anywhere other than L.A. once the album was completed.

Official X Website
Exene Cervenka
X on AllMusic.com
NPR Piece on John Doe
X: The Unheard Music on IMDB
Decline of Western Civilization, Part I on IMDB
We Got the Neutron Bomb : The Untold Story of L.A. Punk