The 1982 Listening Post - X - Under the Big Black Sun

 Reviewed by Julia Talbot

Released: July 1 1982 X Under The Big Black Sun Genre: Punk (more specifically west coast punk) Allen’s Rating: 5 out of 5 Julia’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Highlights: The Hungry Wolf Come Back To Me Dancing Tears In My Eyes (I loved all of it) Since I loved, loved, loved X’s “More Fun in the New World” all through college and pretty much everything else of theirs I have ever heard, I was especially excited to tuck into this album. Back in the day, I was too poor to buy a lot of albums or go to any shows. I recall with some awe (and a tinge of melancholy) my college days when my weekly “allowance” was $10. Yeah, it was 1987 but even with inflation, that isn’t a ton of dough. X wasn’t being played on the radio much in Madison, WI and clearly no one made me an X mix tape, so there you go. X deficit. Gotta make up for lost time. Under the Big Black Sun is a great listen. It was X’s third album, and their first with Electra records. It was produced by Ray Manzarek (formerly of the Doors). Manzarek produced their first four albums. He did an excellent job. No surprise there. The album is universally regarded as one of X’s better albums (and lead singer Exene’s favorite). I don’t’ disagree. While there are many themes, it is worth listening more critically (in these COVID times, especially) to “Riding with Mary”, “Dancing with Tears in my Eyes” and “Come Back to Me” all of which address Exene’s grief over the death of her sister Mirielle who was killed in a car accident on her way to an X show at LA’s Whiskey a Go-Go in 1981. The band found out about her death just before they went on stage. Yuck. One of the things that I appreciate about X’s unique sound is how they are determinedly punk rock, and west coast punk at that, but successfully incorporate other musical influences and sounds into their music while still maintaining a lyrical commitment to the punk ethos. As I have discussed on these pages before, I love punk rock. My love is sparked in equal parts to the music itself and punk rock’s general willingness to write lyrics that are about life, politics, and passions beyond the love songs, romantical longings, and trials and tribulations of (usually but not always) white, heterosexual, men (and to be fair, occasionally women) that dominated the airwaves and Billboard charts. X in general, and Under the Big Black Sun specifically do not disappoint lyrically. The music itself is a harmonious blending of X’s country and rockabilly influences into the more dissonant (standard) punk chords and rhythmic tropes, creating something truly delicious. Their cover of “Breathless” which was included as a bonus track on the 2001 re-release, is almost as good as the original in my opinion. Breathless is also one of the tracks on “More Fun in the New World”. I am not following the thinking on why this was included as a bonus track to this album. (Obviously) a lot of this album’s success can be explained by the talent. The original X line-up played this album – John Doe on bass and vocals, Exene Cervenka, vocals, Billy Zoom, guitar, sax and clarinet, and DJ Bonebrake on drums. Manzarek played keyboards on “Riding with Mary”. Unlike so many albums I have reviewed, this one was reviewed extensively – all with better, more cogent things to say then I have said here. I found the following reviews to be particularly insightful. Reading them definitely enhanced my listening experience, moving it past just enjoying the energy that Doe and Cervenka bring to all of their songs and the music itself which I find to be most agreeable. Check them out! Or don’t. https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/4973/X-Under-The-Big-Black-Sun/ https://www.punknews.org/review/11277/x-under-the-big-black-sun https://soundblab.com/reviews/albums/classic-albums/20130-x-under-the-big-black-sun

The 1981 Listening Post - X - Wild Gift

 X - Wild Gift

#187

By Craig Fitzgerald

X

Wild Gift

Genre: LA Punk

Allen’s Rating: 5 out of 5

Craig’s Rating: 5 out of 5

Highlights:

The Once Over Twice

We’re Desperate

Universal Corner

In This House That I Call Home

Some Other Time

White Girl

Year 1

No band other than the Beatles churned out four records as perfect as X did in this short a span of time. 

Not U2. 

Not the Rolling Stones. 

Not The Who. 

Not the Ramones. 

Not The Clash. 

Maybe the Monkees, and I wouldn’t call those “perfect” records, because there were some forgettable loser tracks on every one of those albums. 

This is the second record in that unbroken chain of ideal rock and roll music, and depending on what day you ask, this one is my favorite, making it my favorite record of all 1981 in toto, and maybe my favorite record of the entire 1980s. It’s definitely the one that I play more than anything else. 

Los Angeles is a really good record, and it would’ve been easy for this band to fall into a sophomore slump, but there is NO TIME between the release of Los Angeles and Wild Gift. Los Angeles came out in April of 1980 and Wild Gift is recorded in March of ’81, with Ray Manzerek still working away at the knobs in the control room. In Penelope Spheris’s Decline of Western Civilization, which was released in December of 1980, the band plays “We’re Desperate” three months before they ever committed to it acetate. 

All of this is to say that you almost need to look at Los Angeles and Wild Gift as a double album. Loads of these songs were in the live catalog before they ever stepped inside a studio. This entire record sounds like a well-rehearsed assault from the opening track to “Year 1,” that unabashedly fun, chorus- and bridge-less 1:18 gasser at the end. 

Everything is bigger and louder and fuller on the next album Under the Big Black Sun. That’s a great record, too, with some of my favorite X songs of all time, but it definitely sounds more produced. This one still sounds like it was made by accident, as if someone just happened to have a really good set of mics at a particularly good set at The Masque. 

Billy Zoom is as good as he was ever going to be on this album. If you’re a guitar player, try playing the riff on “We’re Desperate.” You’ll BE desperate. Yes, Billy is a great lead player, but his ultimate skills are as a human metronome, and one of the best rhythm players and riff-maker-uppers of all time. It’s all on display here. If there was any guitar player I could play like, it would be him. The way he palm mutes these killer riffs during the lyrics in “Some Other Time,” and then just opens them up to let them ring at full volume in between makes me dizzy.

This is why this band works:

Any of John Doe or Exene Cervenka’s songs could easily slip into singer-songwriter/poetry slam territory: 

Beautiful walls are closing in

Looking at you, you're having a nightmare

Stumble over tombstone shoes

I reach to surround you

But it's too soon

But with Billy and DJ Bonebrake at the helm, “In This House That I Call Home” rattles down the tracks like the Yankee Cannonball at Canobie Lake. Yeah, fun, but you might get shot out into the parking lot at any moment, too.

And look at Side 2 here:

In This House That I Call Home

Some Other Time

White Girl

Beyond and Back

Back 2 The Base

When Our Love Passed Out on the Couch

Year 1

That’s a full album for anyone else. Not this band. You have to FLIP THE RECORD OVER to hear those songs. It’s an embarrassment of riches. 

But alas, this band is the Freaks and Geeks of 1980s rock and roll. Critics loved it. Fans loved it. Nobody else did. It spent five weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at 165 on in June. You can see why, though when it’s up against classics like “Mistaken Identity” by Kim Carnes, and “Long Distance Voyager” by the Moody Blues. 

What the fuck.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2ECSVdWu5RCvYqIRGA0pyR?si=SdlLhBShT-KyYGm_1Zlh_g

The 1980 Listening Post - X - Los Angeles

X - Los Angeles

#159

by Rob Slater

X

Los Angeles

Genre: Genre: Wannabe The Ramones (and a bunch of other folks).

Allen’s Rating: 5 out of 5

Rob’s Rating: 3 out of 5.  (Fun, a few playlist worthy songs.)

Produced by Ray Manzarek keyboard player of the Doors.

Recorded '4/ records' (because I'm using voice recognition to be nice to my carpal tunnel syndrome.) for Slash Records, the label home to The Blasters, BoDeans, The Del Fuegos, Dream Syndicate, Faith No More, Grant Lee Buffalo, Harvey Danger, L7, Los Lobos, Misfits, Rammstein, Violent Femmes and others.

1. "Your Phone's Off the Hook, But You're Not" - Wow! Ramones with a girl singer. Fun. Garage. Could have sworn she said f*** Tuna instead of “You don't have to call me back.”

2. "Johny Hit and Run Paulene" - And Ramones with a guy singer. Plus Johnny B. Goode with Judas Priest rhythm guitar.

3. "Soul Kitchen" - Yeah. Requisite eighties cover. From the Doors, note the producer above. Manzerek plays on a few tracks. Weirdly enough, it works.

4. "Nausea" - And back to her. Nice. 

5. "Sugarlight"         - More of the same, but still nicely done. Energy as I sit here in my bed trying to get work done!

Essentially at this point, they all sound the same but I really did enjoy the 1st 3 songs. May try to listen to the 2nd half a 2nd time.

Second half is better when treated as if it was a new thing.

6. "Los Angeles" – Opens like Spinal Tap, then it kind of breaks like the wind...

7. "Sex and Dying in High Society” - Great lyrics. Decent tune

8. "The Unheard Music" – Poetic lyrics. Decent tune. Guitar from 70s rock, Circus carillon piano. [Nice bits of lots of different genres infusing the punk here.]

9. "The World's a Mess; It's in My Kiss" – Timely lyrics. Decent tune. 

Worth listening to, especially if you like the other bands I referenced here.  

'Spot a 5' (Spotify translated by voice recognition) played me as the next song another requisite eighties cover from X's 1985 release extras. “Wild Thing” by the Troggs. Best X song I heard today. The next “Bonus” track caused me to check and make sure it was on the album, because I hit the stop button. It was not a bonus.

Don't really get how this album is such a legend. But they have a new album out today, Shakespeare's birth/death day. Will have to listen to it.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2TIMl7RrWNQchOBVUC3u1W?si=SHvwuNJnT7KuJhpjn0I4cA

The 1985 Listening Post - X - Ain't Love Grand

X - Ain't Love Grand

#255/889

July 1 1985

X

Ain’t Love Grand

Genre: Rock

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Burning House of Love

My Goodness

What’s Wrong With Me

Wrong wrong wrong. 

Dammit. 

Look, I get it. At some point you wanna stop eating Ramen and you wanna cash some mailbox money. Especially after a half decade of being heralded as the best thing in rock. Or punk. Or both. 

And maybe, just maybe, hiring metal producer (Stryper, Motley Crue, etc) Michael Wagener would do that trick. It was 1985, after all. 

Instead, all the rawness that made them what they were (Billy Zoom SPECIFICALLY requested a drummer with a parade snare, man) is shoved to the side in favor of deep echo and a stadium sound. 

Tons of these tracks would fit on More Fun or Wild Gift or even Black Sun. But instead, Wagener turns them into a stadium…neo-country rock band. That’s the best I can come up with. Because dammit, “Burning House of Love”, “My Goodness” “What’s Wrong With Me?”…these are great X tracks. 

“Around My Heart” could’ve been a smash for Stevie Nicks or Emmylou Harris or someone. 

Dammit. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/aint-love-grand/690391804

The 1983 Listening Post - X - More Fun in the New World

X - More Fun in the New World

169
September 1983
X
More Fun in the New World
4.75 out of 5

Highlights:
We’re Having Much More Fun
True Love
Poor Girl
Make the Music Go Bang
Breathless
I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts
Devil Doll
True Love Pt. 2

It’s no secret that I love X. I bought Wild Gift in 1980 because it was listed as one of the best of the year and that name and cover just called out to me. I name checked that album in Throttle Back Sparky’s song “Joey Enough”. I have documented elsewhere seeing them at the House of Blues in 99 after volunteering to be in a stranger’s minion and coming home to discover that they were playing. My father loved Wild Gift, too and made me buy Under the Big Black Sun when it came out (he didn’t like it as much as WG). X is all over my life. I did a commercial with John Cervenka and was awestruck(he is Exene’s brother). I can pinpoint markers and memories with just about every X album of the era. Too much for this space.
The girl who lived in the dorm across the hall from me was also an X fan and she bought this the week it came out. I don’t recall her reaction. Mine was ecstasy.
This is the capper to the quadrilogy that was X’s Manzarek era, raw, stripped and vital.
It’s their most cohesive piece. While it’s not as immediate as Gift or even Los Angeles, it carries the assured maturity that can be found on Black Sun, an album shrouded in death as it was made in the shadow of Exene’s sister’s death. It’s almost unfair for me to try to analyze this album through unbiased eyes, I think it’s terrific.
Billy Zoom’s magic guitar work on “True Love” puts most of the glam metal rockers to shame.
For many it’s the one with “Breathless” on it. Sure. That’s here. But so is “Poor Girl”, perhaps the best example of the band at its most poetic and raw.
And, “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts”, with its band name-checking, is what inspired my song in the first place. In their case it’s a lamentation on the division in our country, Reaganism, war, and how the best music, the music of the people, the roots, the punk rock, the political voices and statements, will never get played on the radio in the shadow of bouncy synth-dance crap. It might be their best track.

https://itunes.apple.com/…/more-fun-in-the-new-w…/1416169077