#43: X - Los Angeles

How did I manage to remain completely oblivious to the fact that X's debut LP was produced by Ray Manzarek? I guess I assumed that he was busy spending the majority of his post-Jim Morrison life trying to convince John Densmore to license Doors songs for commercials. I had no idea he had a hand in the punk scene. How curious.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to me about Los Angeles is how, only four years after the Ramones' debut, how refined and mature X made punk rock sound. There's not much brattiness or snotty vocal delivery here, and the guitars are more Chuck Berry than chainsaw - not to mention Manzarek's keyboards scattered throughout the record.

I've already mentioned my idiotic bias against female vocalists (except for Beth Gibbons and Justine Frischmann), but I have no problems whatsoever with Exene's melody-rich but forceful delivery, and especially when she locks in harmony with John Doe, like on "Your Phone's Off the Hook, But You're Not," things get downright amazing.

The best-known track off the record, as well as from X's whole catalog, is the anti-rape tune "Johnny Hit and Run Pauline," which features more great unison vocals and some pretty harrowing imagery. The prize for weirdest lyrics probably goes to "Sex and Dying in High Society," with lines like "Every time you look at him, you could almost fall asleep/And there's a masterbating [sic] getting underneath the bed." What? I don't know.

There aren't many 'beat you over the head' tempos or full on thrashers on Los Angeles, but it really doesn't matter. It still has its substantial doses of melody and ugliness, and even if it sounds constructed at more of an undergraduate level than junior high, it's bold and punk as hell through and through.

"Your Phone's Off the Hook, But You're Not" live



"Nausea" live, taken from The Decline of Western Civilization