Monday, March 31, 2008

The Unheard Music


So, grandpa decided to go see his favorite olde timey punk band, X - perhaps the greatest American band ever (*with the exception of Johnny Cash and the whole Carter clan)... When I told friends I was going, I got "Who?".... Sigh, People!! X were the band formed in Los Angles in the late 70's with the whole advent of socal punk... they combined punk with a dash of country soul, and quite alot of poetic imagery and American Gothic to boot. They were the soundtrack of my teen years, ironically enough, country purists in the sense of the word (forming side projects the knitters)... Soooo, in any case, they rocked. I was worried that this would be billed a reunion tour (Billy Zoom joining them), and thus it'd be a badly attended affair... Full of a few die-hards like me and my friend Cheryl, but it wasn't... The place was sold out, with a huge diverse crowd (from Punk dad's to rockabilly Betty's to kids)... And the band was tight and awesome... Probably b/c they were sober and had more focus than ever. They played like they had never left off from playing at the Whiskey in 1980, Exene and John Doe's June Carter/Johnny Cash delivery over punk power chords coming from Billy Zoom (looking like Jerry Lee Lewis) and DJ's driving drum beat still sounded incredibly fresh... And finally, the spirit of protest was still inherent in their songs... After over 20 years, the lyrics for "New World" still rings true of the situation today in Amerika:
"....honest to goodness the bars werent open this morning they must have been voting for a new president of something do you have a quarter?" i said yes because i did honest to goodness the tears have been falling all over the countrys face it was better before before they voted for whats his name this is suppose to be the new world"

2 comments:

Vivian said...

Yeah I'm a little behind your news, being a first time reader of your blog and all, but as I sit here I hear the beloved sound of X filtering out of my husband's office...my 52-year-old-old-fart husband who still listens to good old (and new) music...what a coinkidink!

Otterpop! said...

Oh gosh! I have a reader... Quick, clean the place up! (LOL!!) Yeah, i'm a little behind my own news at the moment (last article was published in March). Fell off the blogging bandwagon, but have wanted to pick it up ever since.

I love your blog - Vivian is adorable!!