The end for legendary Los Angeles punk band X comes not with a whimper, but with a bang.
That bang comes in the form of Smoke & Fiction, X's ninth and reportedly final studio album that arrived this month a mere 44 years after the group's debut. Remarkably, this set comes from the same original quartet that formed X and helped create West Coast punk all those years ago. Even more remarkably, the album stands up to anything in the band's catalog, blending Billy Zoom's insistent rockabilly guitar riffs, the powerful swing of drummer DJ Bonebrake (coolest drummer name ever?) and the vocal interplay of Exene Cervenka and bassist John Doe, as they explore dark lyrical subject matter through effervescent, even danceable, tunes.
X didn't exactly hide the news of its impending demise. Posters for their tour, stopping at the Knitting Factory Friday, included a message stating "The End Is Near." When X's label Fat Possum announced Smoke & Fiction would come out this summer, it also announced these would be the band's final batch of new songs and final tour.
Doe says all the "final" this and "final" that talk is a bit "reductive" when it comes to the band's plans.
"After this year, we're going to stop doing 60 or 70 dates a year in clubs," Doe says. "We'll do fewer shows. I'm not going to tell you anything new when I tell you that touring is hard."
With the band members all between 68 and 76 years old, knocking out high-energy concerts of about two dozen songs night after night takes a toll, as does the travel. Smoke & Fiction will indeed be the last full-length X album, Doe says, because the work that goes into creating a new album is tough, too, and he doesn't believe the band would have the stamina to tackle another album project in two or three years.
"It just seemed like a good stopping point," Doe says "Midway through writing and recording, looking at the lyrics, there was a lot of looking back, and reflection.
"This was also a really difficult record. We did a lot of rehearsing, there was so much rewriting that went into this. Exene and I worked our asses off. Songs like 'Face in the Moon' and 'Smoke & Fiction,' there was a lot of rewriting, learning, relearning, rehearsing."
There's also a more simple reason to call it quits — ending things on a high note.
"I think we all want to go out kicking ass," Doe says. "I've seen and heard of people that are out there and the wheels are falling off. That doesn't interest me."
Even if X never made 2020's excellent Alphabetland or Smoke & Fiction, the band would be going out kicking ass. X is simply one of the best, most consistent rock bands America has produced. And even though the quartet didn't release a new record for 27 years before Alphabetland, the group toured consistently for many of those years. Zoom left the band in 1986, replaced temporarily by ace guitarists Dave Alvin of The Blasters and then Tony Gilkyson, but Zoom's return in 1999 seemed to give X renewed passion for the road.
Together, the original members make a sound that always stood out from their early SoCal punk peers. X's brand of "punk" was always more of a common spiritual approach rather than a sonic overlap with the likes of Black Flag, the Minutemen and the Germs.
With the benefit of a half-century of hindsight, that punk label is almost quaint. X, after all, got Ray Manzarek from classic-rock mainstays The Doors to produce the 1980 debut album, Los Angeles, and moved to major label Elektra just two years later. Through the first five albums released between 1980 and 1985, X did all the things a band needed to do to Make It Big: The band filmed videos (that were largely ignored by MTV); used "hot" producers (who sanded off some of the band's edge in search of mainstream success); and landed songs on major movie soundtracks (the cover of "Wild Thing" from Major League might be the most recognizable X performance for non-fans).
Through the ups and downs, hiatuses and side projects, X always came back together and proved capable of capturing the magic that first erupted from their amps when they originally got together. With Doe and Cervenka sketching out lyrics about life on the fringes of Reagan-era Los Angeles, X delivered a ton of upbeat hooks to match the often desolate tales.
"That's one of our signatures. There's a conflict between the lyrics and music when we're talking about some emotional and philosophical subjects," Doe says. "It paints some pretty desperate and dark pictures, with music that you could dance to, if you wanted to."
That's a gift the band had right from the beginning on early songs like "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene," "Sex and Dying in High Society" and "The World's a Mess, It's In My Kiss." And new songs like "Sweet Til the Bitter End" and "Flipside" show X still has that trick in their bag.
"Big Black X" stands out among the new songs as the most autobiographical, painting scenes of days partying at Errol Flynn's old mansion, taking acid at the Los Angeles riverbed and experiencing the grime and glitter of the Sunset Strip.
While Doe doesn't consider himself a nostalgic person, he admits to missing that era of Los Angeles and has fond memories of the band's early days.
"We were pretty self-destructive at the beginning, but it was for the sake of seeing the other side," Doe says. "It was for the sake of just trying to see what's out there."
Doe credits Zoom and Cervenka for being the primary reasons X was able to make themselves into a great band.
"DJ and I are more adaptable, being a bass player and drummer. And me being a songwriter, I can write different styles," Doe says. "But I think Billy bringing rockabilly guitar into punk rock was a game changer, because nobody else did that. Nobody had the chops or experience to do that. And Exene was a unique thing because she hadn't come up in bands or done traditional harmonies. But she eventually made her own way."
X's tour runs through October — including an Aug. 23 stop at the Knitting Factory — and then Doe, Cervenka, Zoom and Bonebrake will likely get back to other artistic pursuits. Doe does folk-inflected solo albums. Bonebrake has a couple of jazz ensembles. Cervenka works in poetry and visual art. And Zoom? Well, he's kind of a man of mystery, albeit one who plays guitar, saxophone, violin, accordion, flute, piano and banjo.
If this is indeed the end, then Doe expresses no regrets and much pride in what X accomplished on Smoke & Fiction.
"The last thing I would wish for is to be 35 or 25 now," Doe says. "I can't speak for everyone in the band, but I feel really fortunate, incredibly fortunate, to have lived through and seen all the things that we have. And we want to set an example of still being creative at this age, and still having a fire, still having passion and desire to create and to be a band." ♦
X, James Intvled • Fri, Aug. 23 at 8 pm • $35 • All ages • Knitting Factory • 919 W. Sprague Ave. • sp.knittingfactory.com
