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| 0-9| A| B| C| D| E| F| G| H| I| J| K| L| M | | N| O| P| Q| R| S| T| U| V| W| X| Y| Z|  RSS Feed
X:
At Home With You: CD
Nice piece of work here. This is the second (?) album from the Australian band with claims to this name and not the Los Angeles band. While just as primal as their first album, this has somehow got a more refined feel to it, almost like what Birthday Party would’ve been had they been more rockin’.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Morphius)
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X:
Aspiations: LP
The 1980 debut album from these Aussie legends, who’re
apparently still slogging it out live. The sound is raw, primal and LOUD, as it
should be and is so often not anymore. Wanna freak out one of your “punk lite”
friends? Slip this bad boy in the sleeve of one of their Rancid or Blink 182
records and watch their mind melt down at the sudden overload. Rumor has it
that they still sound this crazed and rockin’, which is more than can be said
about the American band with the same name.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Rock ‘n’ Roll Blitzkrieg)
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X:
Home is Where the Floor Is: 7"EP
Not to be confused with the LA band, this is a collection of late‑'70s recordings by this long‑gone Aussie band. What it sounds like is raw, rude punk slop with virtually no discernable Ramones influence whatsoever. Classic, to say the least.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Rocknroll Blitzkrieg)
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X:
Home Is Where the Floor Is: 7”
Here is a re-release of the Australian band X’s 1978 debut single. Shredding early punk that immediately gets rocking in a Damned, U.K. Subs kind of way. Works for me. They re-pressed this and their first LP in time for their first American tour only thirty-two years later. The old geezers sound great live and it’s a real treat to have this record in my collection.
–Ty Stranglehold (Rocknroll Blitzkrieg)
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X:
Wild Gift: LP
A re-issue of Los Angeles’s X’s second full-length from 1981. The packaging’s gorgeous. The vinyl’s nice and thick. The mastering’s booming. If you’re new to X, here are the crib notes. The first four full lengths—Los Angeles, Wild Gift, Under the Big Black Sun, and More Fun in the New World—are well worth your time and are as good as any mid-paced punk during X’s early tenure. It gets pretty dicey after that. (Ain’t Love Grand was produced by a pop metal dude. Not a great idea. And Billy Zoom had one foot out the door, saying that he’d quit if the band didn’t get more popular. That didn’t happen. Billy left the band for many years in 1986.) In Wild Gift, X mastered the alchemy of twisting crooked country roots into the then-still-new punk blast, planting male and female vocals into that soil, fertilized it with poetry, and it bloomed like a rose garden. X’s early catalog is beautiful, it’s thorny, it was carefully cultivated, and since it’s been properly tended, has lasted decades and is set for a long preservation. As well it should. Highly recommended. (PS: On the back cover, Billy Zoom is sitting on an AllState scooter. Those were the American-sold Vespas that Sears had on their mailorder for only a couple of years. Stylish.)
–Todd Taylor (Porterhouse)
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X-GIRL:
Endangered Species: CD
Synth and guitar driven,
sometimes moody, Japanese pop from three girls dressed like they just walked
out of an episode of some animé show. It’s interesting, but that don’t mean
it’s particularly good.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Alternative Tentacles)
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X-IMPOSSIBLES:
White Knuckle Ride: CD
Boring rock’n’roll dressed up nice and dirty for all you big, tough, leather jacket-wearing punkers.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Headhunter/Cargo)
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X-OFFENDER:
Self-titled: 7” EP
Co-ed cinder block basement booty-stompin’ not unlike a post-larval Thee Fine Lines, although the guitars herein lack some of the boat-caulking wallop of said band’s stout axes. I enjoy records with television sets on the covers. That is all. BEST SONG: “Get It Right” BEST SONG TITLE: “Oh!” FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIA FACT: My house has been recently overrun with box elder bugs. I was in pursuit of one of these creatures while this record was on the turntable, and, as I moved in for the ((literal)) kill, the beetle in question took to the air—only to land smack dab in the middle of Side A, where he was unceremoniously rotated into my stylus, knocking him for a loop. The rest of the extermination process was carried out sans incident.
–Rev. Norb (Milk ‘n’ Herpes)
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X-POSSIBLES:
Blood Everywhere: CD
Solid female-fronted punk rock reminiscent of the old LA band Red Scare. Like that band, the poppier mid-tempo stuff here is good, but when they thrash things up, watch out, boyo. This is gonna garner much airplay come summertime.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.x-possibles.com)
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XBRAINIAX:
Deprogrammed: CD-R
This is a West Coast tour-only advance copy of a full length yet to be released. Being already familiar with this band, I kinda knew what to expect. Or at least I thought I knew. To help put things into perspective, let’s consider the fact that they recently released a collection CD of all their previously released material and it all adds up to ninety nine songs from an EP, several splits and compilations. There are only fourteen songs on this CD. The first of which is not the ten second beat down I was expecting. More like a two and a half minute jam with a steady drum beat (which is unusual given their track record.) After that song, forget it. The songs explode into a frenzy of blastcore and thrash that has not been this entertaining to listen to since Spazz. They love to keep you guessing. The second (and I do mean second) you wrap your brain around a blast part or guitar riff, it’s over and the song morphs into an entirely different being. Like an amoeba of powerviolence. Right after they’re done slapping you silly with their speed, they decide to slow down and drag your unconscious body through a dark, smelly hallway of an apartment building once inhabited by members of Grief and Noothgrush for a good ten minutes on the last track. They recently came through town and regrettably, I missed them. You, however, should not miss out on one of the best powerviolence releases in years.
–Juan Espinosa (Self-released, no contact info)
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XGIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, THE:
Crazymaker: CD
I picked up this album because of the title and its reference to the movie (non-porno) that Sasha Gray did. I was surprised to find out that women were behind such song titles as “Zombie Heart,” “Blood Bath,” and “Scream.” These songs seemed to be a move out of The Mapes’ playbook. It’s refreshing to know that women have a sense of humor dirtier than mine and just about as on par with The Mapes in terms of pushing the limits of decency. Take their tune “Pregnant Again” and its opening lyrics: “Oh no, I think I’m pregnant again. I really don’t want another abortion.” Musically, the best comparison I can make to a band other than The Mapes would be The Runaways. I don’t think the tunes on this album have the mass market, instant classic appeal that tunes like “Cherry Bomb” has, but not many songs do. These women are willing to take their sexuality where even Jett would fear to tread. The funniest song on the CD is “I’m a Slut.” It’s sort of like a Grease musical number, but replace the PG cast singing about an innocent high school fling with the women from The XGirlfriend Experience taking it to an X-rated sex-capade. I must lead a sheltered life because I don’t know women this brash, but, hey, at least I have the CD to prove they exist.
–N.L. Dewart (Unrepentant)
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XPOZEZ:
Democrazy: 7"
I got this release and was unsure who this band was. I saw on the back of the cover that it was a joint release of Ponk-111 (who sent this to me), BCT, Schizophrenic and Enterruption. Ponk-111 runs a cool little website and is a true lover of old school punk. My brother and I have taped a bunch of stuff for this guy. Schizophrenic is an underrated label from Canada that people need to check out. He’s been putting out great stuff for over ten years. Enterruption I have never heard of before. BCT – I do have a story. When I looked at the insert, I noticed that this came from the classic BCT tape, I Thrash Therefore I Am. I got that tape from one of my many trips to San Diego during the early '80s while staying at Chris BCT’s house. He was like the punk rock youth hostel. He was hospitable and would take you around to all the cool punk record stores and shows. I forgot about the tape and the band. The insert also informs me that the singer Andy Turner was a later singer for the once great UK band, the Instigators. I did not like his contribution to the band. The Instigators were great during the period of the Cleanse the Bacteria comp and the LP Nobody Listens Anymore. Back to this band. Since it was erased from my memory bank, I feel like I am listening to it for the first time. This was Andy Turner’s earlier band which was a faster UK sound that has that truly live feel to the recording. Like many bands of that period (1983 or 1984), the music is not fluffed up like many of the bands of today. No big production, just music. The music is there for how you want to interpret it. It still has that energy of something new like when I heard a new international band back then. They made music for themselves and it was made available to the world by BCT. If my aging brain remembers correctly, I think the original comp has been repressed on CD by Schizophrenic and I know for sure that BCT has made the original twenty-seven tapes available again. I think you can get them through Sound Idea mailorder. I commend M-8 at Ponk 111 for digging out a gem from the past to have attention put on it. I know the first press is sold out but a second press is available now. If you are dedicated and want to hear bands from the past, this is a worthy addition to your collection.
–Donofthedead (Ponk-111)
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XWALRUSX / IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS:
: 10"
Ten inches, thirty songs. That’s one and a half songs per inch of vinyl. There are soundbites on the record. One of the band members is wearing a luchador mask. Is power violence back? xWalrusx play blazing fast hardcore with scene-centric lyrics that balance hilarity and anger. Their side of the insert has photos of the cast of “Law and Order SVU” and a list of vegan eateries in Tucson. Important Documents mixed their side so that all you can hear are cymbals and vocals.
–CT Terry (Bonecutter, bonecutterrecords@hotmail.com)
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XYILE / BRAND BLAND / PATTERN OF ANALYSIS:
Split: 3” CD
Three-way-split noise CD on this little 3” disc. Xyile are industrial noise on their two songs. Brand Bland are pretty cool punky noise in a Screamers meets X Ray Spex kind of way. I definitely dug their four songs the most on this disc by far. Pattern Of Analysis are kinda grindcore and kinda noise with super guttural death metal vocals.
–Mike Frame (Frank Ross)
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