X

X Smoke & Fiction (Fat Possum Records)Smoke & Fiction was one of the most important records of 2024. How? Let me count the ways. For one it was, just plainly on the surface, a record that did many things and did them well. Compared to both rock and punk music it sounded fresh, yet undeniably familiar. It also managed to be both fun and urgent, and musically it was catchy as hell. Blame that on guitarist Billy Zoom’s rockabilly tendencies...

Did you see those other “best of” lists? Cringe-worthy, right? They either missed the mark entirely, or picked obvious boring choices, or just simply have shit taste. Not here, though. We might not have listened to EVERYTHING this year, but we listened to a lot, and as always we have the cream of the crop here for your enjoyment. So, do yourself a favor, uninstall your Spotify, un-favorite your mainstream music website and check out some true highlights of the...

WHO: X WHAT: Smoke & Fiction WHY: Let’s round up the week with more X, shall we? It’s easy to point at bands that are still going and overstaying their welcome, but X certainly isn’t that. On Smoke & Fiction, the band shows they can still create inspiring and relevant music even at the end of their career. This album not only sounds like X, strutting and shimmying past rockabilly and punk rock, but it also sounds great: crisp and...

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In Penelope Spheeris’ Decline of Western Civilization Part I, X are depicted as the gatekeepers or elder statesmen of LA 70s punk rock. It’s hard to say whether that label really stuck, but whatever the case, they never asked for it. One thing is for sure, X have been a machine always on the move for the past 40 years, and the creative juices of “leaders” John Doe and Exene Cervenka’s never stopped flowing. X’s influence in music over the...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Fat Possum’s vinyl reissue of Wild Gift by X. As good as Los Angeles was and as important as that album would ultimately prove to be in the presentation of X, the band’s debut album will ultimately always play a supporting role to the band’s sophomore long-player, Wild Gift. Now, it’s important to note that Wild Gift would not, could not have happened had the groundwork not been laid by Los Angeles,...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Fat Possum reissued pressing of the Los Angeles LP by X. It might not be the first thing that fans think of when they’re looking at punk rock and trying to decode how the genre has evolved, but the fact is that the breed which was borne of Los Angeles in the late Seventies and early Eighties drew from a very deep well of inspiration – arguably a deeper one than...