bethy's Full Review: Los Angeles [Bonus Tracks] [PA] [Remaster] by X
When I was a crazy little teenager, I used to correspond with some strangers I had met in AOL teen chatrooms. Typically, the people who appealed to me (because they were the most intelligent) were the, uh, older men. Now, of course, I wonder why certain 27 year-olds were hanging out in teen chatrooms; even though they never acted in an unsavory manner towards me, I can only hope they were similarly well-behaved before I entered the room.
So one of the older men I met had been a punk rocker in his own teenhood. When we first started corresponding, I was just starting to get into bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash. One of the bands Older Man told me about was X. "Oh yeah, X," I'd said - I'd seen a little bit about them on the History of Rock special on PBS one time. (Plus I had to pretend that I was cooler than I really was to impress Older Man.)
X had stricken me as somewhat unmelodic from the clips on the TV special, but the narrator had talked about their beatnik influences, so, being the underground movement-loving adolescent I was, I picked up a cheap used cassette of Los Angeles at my local used record store.
That copy of Los Angeles then proceeded to perhaps become my most-played out album ever, rivaling, perhaps, only The Clash's Combat Rock. Seriously, I think I listened to this album about once a day for almost a year. Now, I pop it in occasionally when I remember it. Because it's still great.
Los Angeles is a short album - at nine songs and just over half an hour long, it relays a sense of urgency. It's also got a dirty feel to it - the guitars are choppy and dirty, the voices of John Doe and Exene (a female) are dirty, the subject matter is dirty.
John Doe and Exene occasionally sing and occasionally just wail. Doe holds notes in a way that sometimes sounds like he's falling off a cliff - or falling back onto it from reverse. Exene often shouts the words to songs - she's shouting in key, but it's a monotone note being pounded over and over with each new word. It works, though, believe me - at least, it works if you're into punk.
If you don't like or don't understand punk, it's very unlikely you'll care for Los Angeles. As for the subject matter, the songs mostly deal with the repulsiveness of LA. "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene" is about rape (it's anti-rape; sadly, X stopped playing the song in concert because some punks were misinterpreting it), "Los Angeles" is about a girl who had to get away from the city, "Sex and Dying in High Society" is about what it sounds like - the vile rich set.
It all sounds so unlike something most people would want to listen to, doesn't it? But every song is tightly constructed and well-executed, while still allowing for the wailing antics mentioned earlier. Everything fits together to make beautifully dirty (I want to use another word, but nothing else fits so well) punk. The band is part of Los Angeles, they're part of what they seem to despise. And they convey this sentiment well.
I guess I like this album so much because I've always been a sucker for somewhat political punk rock, since otherwise, punk doesn't seem to have much of a point (to me) other than to release adolescent aggression. I need a reason to justify liking the sound.
Music today with a punky sound - I'm thinking specifically of Blink 182 - lacks the edge of good old US punk of the day. If you want a history lesson, or if you're bored with what's on the radio, or you're kind of angry at the world, check out Los Angeles.
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