X

Adult Books / We’re Desperate (Dangerhouse 1978)

Not the greatest fan of X but I couldn’t exactly leave them out. Their finest single and while Adult Books is good the b-side We’re Desperate takes the plaudits.

Almost immediately, X stood apart from the other bands who gravitated towards the Masque, the dingy Hollywood club-cum-rehearsal space that was the ground zero of the LA punk scene. With her vintage dresses and thrift-store-boho chic, Exene was a world away from the other women there. More importantly, they could actually play. Zoom’s rockabilly guitar and Bonebrake’s scattering percussion, together with Doe and Cervenka’s discordant vocal harmonies, separated X from the straight-ahead punk of such contemporaries as The Germs and The Avengers. 

“It didn’t make us better, it just made us different from some of the bands,” says Cervenka. “There were a lot of outstanding people in that scene. But I think because we had three musicians that were so talented, it set us apart.”

In 1978 the embryonic independent label Dangerhouse released X’s debut single, Adult Books. The following year the label included what would become the band’s signature song, Los Angeles, on the compilation album Yes L.A., which was a direct response to the Brian Eno-produced No New York album that showcased the Big Apple’s emerging No Wave movement. 

It was the buzz around these two releases that prompted Ray Manzarek to offer his services as producer on X’s first album when he met the band backstage at the Whisky. Despite punk’s year-zero philosophy, Doe had no reservations about working with a member of the old guard. “I didn’t care. Ray saw a lot of similarities between us and The Doors; that we were exposing a darker side of LA. It wasn’t the Beach Boys.” 

With a tight budget of $10,000 from the newly formed Slash label, X and Manzarek headed into the studio. The role of producer was a new one for Manzarek. “Technically I lost my virginity to X,” he jokes

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