X Marks Their Spot

The Dana Gould Hour

There have been, so far, only two positives from this pandemic that I can see. One, Zoom technology has finally lead to the long delayed question, “Wait, all this time I could have been doing your podcast from my house???” Turns out yes! I don’t see that going to the how we did it, “In The Before Times” anytime soon. The second cool thing has been the release of ALPHABETLAND by X.

John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom and DJ Bonebrake formed X in the heyday of the late '70’s LA punk scene. Their first album, Los Angeles, was released in 1980, and they quickly made an indelible mark on American music.

I love ‘em and I always have. Now I had heard, being a fan and all, that they were recording some stuff, and I naturally assumed it was a one-off for a soundtrack or somesuch. But them, on the 40th anniversary of the release of Los Angeles, Bandcamp announced that the album ALPHABETLAND was available for immediate download.

The huh the whaaaaa? So I bought it, sat down to listen. And I knew it would be good. But, you know, it’s their first album in 27 years. I was prepared to grade on a curve.

No need. It. Blew. My. Socks off. From the first cut to the last, it is a 27 minute punk rock fist to the solar plexus. tt starts out great, it never lets up and it ends with a flourish. Now many of you may recall that last year Mr. Doe and our mutual friend Tom De Savia were kind enough to invite me to moderate the panel for the book More Fun In The New World, which is the second installment of their two part oral history of LA Punk, the forst being Under The Big Black Sun, both available where fine books are sold. Tom was kind enough to make a call and I am very happy to say we have John Doe and DJ Bonebrake on the podcast today to talk about the album. So let’s get right to it.

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