X: Beyond and Back

John Doe on the 31st Anniversary Tour of L.A.'s Iconic Punk Band

The climate of the original punk rock movement in the late ‘70s was a whirlwind that shook the core of what the music industry had become.

With numerous bands in such a heavily guarded underground roots movement, only a few came to personify and symbolize the areas from which they came synonymously. London had the Sex Pistols and the Clash. The Ramones led the pack of bands that were harvested from the shadows of CBGB in New York. Out of Los Angeles came X, riding a sonic style that fused rockabilly street smarts with a literary sensibility.

Consistent musical growth that pushed the edge of any formulaic limitations put the band in a class by itself. Celebrating 31 years together, the classic lineup of John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom and D.J. Bonebrake have hit the road. As John Doe described to me, the more things have changed, the more they have stayed the same.

X is now going into the second leg of the anniversary tour. What’s the significance of the odd year 31?

It’s the opposite of 13, which is a number we have used. [The band] helped popularize the number 13. Not trying to take too much credit for it, but in the punk rock world, X and [the number 13] were sort of associated. Billy Zoom had a kid on the thirtieth anniversary, so we had to let him off the hook.

What has always set X apart from the other bands in the punk genre (as it was), at least to my ears, were two key factors: the poetic nature of the lyrical delivery, and the unique harmonies in your vocals with Exene Cervenka.

I went to school for writing, so I learned, not just from the beat poets, but from before and after [as well]. I learned as much from E.E. Cummings as I did from Allen Ginsburg. [As a writer], Exene is just a natural wordsmith, [playing] on how words sound together. She’s one of the greatest poets ever, and she didn’t have the advantage of standing on the shoulders of giants. She just is a giant. A lot of what X did was just reporting what we saw in front of us. Our harmonies are just what we came up with. I was always interested in harmonies that were not just the standard [form]. I think The Band was one of my biggest influences; [their harmonies] didn’t sound like Crosby, Stills, and Nash. 

You moved to Los Angeles from Baltimore, which John Waters had always portrayed as an East Coast hell hole. Did your experiences in Baltimore reflect that, as well?

There was a great art scene [in Baltimore], but [the city] was a total shithole. At the time John was making his films, I wasn’t really a part of his scene. He and I are friends, but I was never in the downtown scene until later on.  [Baltimore] is a backwater, east-coast town, so there was no way to make the art pay for itself; you had to go to New York for that. Because of that, nobody [in the art scene] was better than anybody else, and you were making art for art’s sake.

As punk evolved into the early '80's hardcore movement, your style leaned even heavier on country and roots music influences. What was the response from punk crowds at that time?

We all had that Americana influence, but we didn’t bring it out early on. You have to either widen or narrow your sound; we decided to widen it, especially after Billy left the band and Dave Alvin [of the Blasters] came in. I think that’s a good thing. Some people didn’t like it as well; some people liked it better. There are [younger musicians] that I have met that said the first X album they heard was ‘See How We Are’, then they went backwards and discovered, “Hey they did this punk rock stuff pretty well, too.” As far as the crowds getting more violent, I think it was inevitable, but it was unpleasant. It was a drag. I guess some people got off on it.

As one of the few remaining bands from the first wave of punk rock, is there a level of responsibility to continue carrying the flag?

I don’t feel any responsibility. We enjoy it; it’s great to see younger people coming out to experience what X does. Once we stop, so what? There’s no band that is like X, but there is a lot of incredible music being played [by other bands] now.

Do you ever fear that X being on the road would be written off as a nostalgia act?

If you play hard and it sounds good, you can sidestep that, because we have enough pride that if it sucked, we would quit. But it doesn’t, It actually sounds really great.

What is your opinion on punk rock’s rise into the mainstream over the past decade?

I think it is great. [The genre is] finally getting to the audience that it was intended for, which is 16 to 25 [year-olds], maybe. Some bands are good; some bands are bad. Green Day is great; Good Charlotte is not. There are hundreds of bands that will still show up on a four-to-six-band bill, and there will be five hundred kids there. That’s a subculture that, I think, is fantastic. The fact that power corrupts and leaders have agendas will never change.

Does 2008 being an election year factor into the tour for you at all?

I just encourage people to vote. I hope they vote for Obama; I hope they have a chance to. I do believe that he can affect some small changes, which may become bigger changes. Not every member of the band feels the way I do, which is important to note, but as long as everyone takes part in the democratic process, it’ll sort of keep working I suppose. I have, at least, that much faith, which is probably foolish. [laughs]

How would you sum up the legacy of X, looking onward past this tour?

I think our contribution to punk was, or is, rockabilly guitar playing, which Billy brought in, the harmonies that Exene and I made up, good songwriting, and poetic lyrics. We’ve stuck around this long. We haven’t died; we haven’t aired our dirty laundry too much. I’m proud of the fact that we made an investment, and it is paying us back. We’re esteemed artists now, which is nice.