X's John Doe, Exene Cervenka on L. A. Punk Band's History"Right now is my favorite time in the band," says Exene Cervenka, the L. A. den mother of punk poetry and singer for the band X. I have this feeling of awe like I did when we started. I remember going to [L.

A. punk club] the Masque and watching bands and feeling awe, bliss and gratitude at how amazing the scene was, even though there was pee on the floor and drunk people walking around. It was transcendent, and I feel that now. We are still alive. We're still playing music. People are still coming to see us – lots of young people – and they tell us our music got them through bad times or their kid turned them onto us or their parents turned them onto us.

Everybody that comes to see us has a story. This is exactly how punk was supposed to end up."But it almost didn't happen this way for X, whose members also include singer- bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer D. J. Bonebrake. Since 1. In recent years, Zoom has overcome two bouts of cancer, and Cervenka has learned to live with an undiagnosed neurological disorder. In addition to their health worries, they've endured the divorce of Cervenka and Doe, lived desperately in the name of art and weathered prickly personnel crises, only to return to the lineup they started with.

It's a story the L. A.- based quartet has told with aplomb on a series of records that presented punk through the lens of Americana, featuring country flourishes, journalistic lyrics spiked with sarcasm and jagged chord changes. Now they're celebrating their ruby anniversary with a tour, kicking off this week, and a Grammy Museum exhibit, which opens on October 1.

The reason they're working so hard to mark this anniversary is because they understand the significance of it. Ahead of the tour, Cervenka posted a message to the band's fans on its website: "We are still here! Just some friendly advice – you should probably come see us play while you still have the chance. Not that X is going away anytime soon! Aren't you glad X is still around? I am!" When she wrote it, she had been thinking about her son and how he'd seen many great bands but missed out on the Ramones because they'd retired by the time he was old enough.

I think I understand regret in life more than I ever did," she says. And I understand people have reasons not to do things, but you never know with people and with bands. There are so many people who didn't see the Cramps or the Gun Club. They break up or go away, and what's the excuse? None. We're still around.

It's a miracle." X in 1. George Rose/Getty. X formed in 1. 97.

Doe and Zoom both placed adsin the same issue of L. A. classifieds publication The Recycler saying they were looking to form punk bands and decided to meet up. Billy looked like he was from outer space," recalls Doe, now 6. He had bright blond hair and a silver leather jacket." Similarly, it was Doe's look that struck Zoom first: "He had these blue suede shoes that were real pointy and had brass caps on the toes and heels. He looked really sharp and he had really good song ideas."Zoom had moved to L. A. from Illinois in the late Sixties with hopes of doing session work and wound up playing sideman on gigs with the Drifters, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Big Joe Turner and Gene Vincent, who "wasn't very popular back then" but he says it was worth it for the fun of it.

Largely, he was turned off to the "all the bullshit that popped into the Seventies, all those over- produced, super- processed, over- sensitive, 'we're so arty' arena bands," so he was ready for something new. Doe moved to the City of Angels because "it's the place of dreams, my friend." He was attracted to it because it seemed like people could reinvent themselves. It was a visceral thing," he says. And I was a fan of the writers that came from L. A. and an old movie buff – the underside of Hollywood, and right after that, [Kenneth Anger's scandalous] Hollywood Babylon book came out and that was just the best."After settling, he enrolled in a writing workshop at a Venice bookstore, where he met Cervenka, another transplant who says she was just "trying to get out of Florida." "The [other] people looked like what you would expect poets to look like in 1. And what does that mean? Um .. frumpy or nerdy," he says with a laugh.

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Exene stood out 'cause she was really unique and beautiful and you could tell there was something deep in there.""I was just sitting there and he came down and sat next to me," she says. We were talking and he said, 'You wanna go next door to the jazz place and get a drink?' So we did that and he told me about punk." They started going to shows and before long they were dating and Doe was bringing her song "I'm Coming Over" (and her along with it to sing it) to X rehearsals. After playing with a few drummers who never fit their sound, they hooked up with Bonebrake – a Valley boy who'd impressed them by wielding a giant, loud parade snare onstage with the band the Eyes – and X's classic lineup was complete by early 1. Their first single, "Adult Books," tumbled along with a calypso- esque beat as Doe and Cervenka sang about boys and girls with love lives complicated enough to fill a Valley of the Dolls sequel. Eventually, they crossed paths with Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek. He came to the Whisky to hear another band we were opening for, and we started playing 'Soul Kitchen,' and his wife, Dorothy, had to elbow him like, 'Look at that,' and he's going, 'Huh?'" Bonebrake recalls. He didn't recognize it." He became enamored with X and tried to get them signed to Elektra but to no avail.

So they decided to do it on their own with Manzarek producing. Although they had enough unheard music for two LPs, they picked nine songs, including their raucous "Soul Kitchen" cover, for what would become their stunning 1. Los Angeles; the leftovers later became 1. Wild Gift. Both came out on the indie label Slash, after which Manzarek finally got Elektra to open its doors to X. The Manzarek- X collaboration would last another two albums – 1. Under the Big Black Sun and the following year's More Fun in the New World – and provide the majority of the songs the band would play live over the next three decades.

The songs X recorded for Los Angeles were the most typically punky they had in their repertoire – the Ramones- y opener "You're Phone's Off the Hook, but You're Not"; the ominous "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene" with its "Johnny B. Goode" intro; the pure sludge of "Nausea," offset by Manzarek's organ. Doe based the springy title track's sardonic lyrics on a friend who'd moved to London and subsequently had a nervous breakdown. She'd just gotten fed up with it," he says. She had lived there for a couple of years and she became more and more racist and stereotyping people. And to be honest there was a lot of shock value in tended in the lyrics. I wanted to show the dark side or underbelly of Los Angeles.

People like Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and Nathaniel West did – the Doors did it – so it was time for an update."X circa 1. Michael Hyatt. The songs they reserved for Wild Gift were generally a bit more melodic, including a cleaner- sounding version of "Adult Books." "I used to wake up writing," Cervenka says.

My eyes would open and I'd already be writing. I'd go to parties, we'd all be drinking and drunk, and I'd go lock myself in the bathroom and use the back of the toilet as a desk and sit there writing. Watch Online Watch Buddha`S Little Finger Full Movie Online Film.

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