ARCHIVES
ARCHIVES .
August 17-23, 2006
Music : Reconsider Me
The Re-Heard MusicM.J. Fine does it again
X
Los Angeles
(Rhino/WEA)
Check out vintage porn. The crooked smiles. The chubby bellies. The stray hairs. It's hot, but there's something weirdly wholesome about it.
Old-school punk has similar age spots. What passed for loud, fast and snotty in the late '70s is quaint today. There might have been something dangerous and desperate about X in 1980, but Los Angeles — their first full-length — sort of seems like the once-hip uncle who's clinging to an outdated rep. Not quite desperate, but not as cool as his friends think.
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Guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer D.J. Bonebrake got by the old-fashioned way: They could really play. Bassist John Doe's slumming good looks and sturdy voice have a timeless appeal; just scratch the surface of his squalid lyrics to hear the beat of his singer-songwriter heart. Frumpy, intense Exene Cervenka is the odd woman out. She wouldn't have been allowed on the field in a pre-punk world, but she steals the ball and signs it in Sharpie.
The songs themselves are solid rock 'n' roll. "Your Phone's off the Hook, but You're Not" fairly boogies its way into your brain; nine songs and 27 minutes later, "The World's a Mess, It's in My Kiss" ends the record with more of a shimmy than a bang. In between, Doe makes serial rape ("Johny Hit and Run Paulene") and copping drugs ("Sugarlight") sound like grim facts of life, while Cervenka takes the lead on "Soul Kitchen," by L.A. elders The Doors, with a healthy combination of bravado and respect. (Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek produced Los Angeles and played on four of its tracks.) Twenty-six years on, the choruses are still memorable, the passion just as palpable. But it's not all gripping. "Nausea" grinds by on the dullest of choruses and wheezy keys; "The Unheard Music" has Doe and Cervenka synchronizing croons amid noodly organs and a go-nowhere-slow riff. No matter how worn they are, jagged riffs — like naked bodies — incite a primal response, and authenticity adds to the thrill. When cookie-cutter curves and ripped-off riffs are used to sell cars and monochromatic T-shirts, there's something pure about sex appeal and loud music for their own sake. But as easy as it is to romanticize the past, pretty soon you'll miss the good grooming habits and muscular arrangements you've grown used to. In its own time, the idiosyncratic Los Angeles was probably a more accurate indicator of good taste than the assembly-line aggression of X's nephews. But you might want to hold your nose while you're getting off on the experience. It smells a little musty down there.X plays the Electric Factory on Aug. 18.
