Various Artists — Slash: The Early Sessions

Various Artists -- Slash: The Early Sessions

• Artist: Various Artists
• Title: Slash: The Early Sessions
• Year: 1983
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 8
• Owner: Mary
• Acquired: 1983 – Olsson’s in Georgetown, DC.
• Keeper: Yes

Good ol’ Slash Records. This is a compilation of music from some of the great bands on Slash from 1979-1983. The presence of The Blasters and X (two songs each) is what pushes this rating up to 8. Another tasty bit is Fear’s “New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones.” From the lyrics on that song, and others, it’s hard to tell if they’re homosexuals, homophobes, or just having fun making uptight people mad. Fear was always good for a little controversy.

Here’s a funny story about Fear’s appearance on Saturday Night Live, at Wikipedia.

Artists include:

• The Blasters
• Gun Club
• Rank and File
• Violent Femmes
• X
• Fear
• Germs
• The Dream Syndicate

X — See How We Are

X -- See How We Are

• Artist: X
• Title: See How We Are
• Year: 1987
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 7
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: 1987 – When I worked at Mother’s Records in Hampton, VA.
• Keeper: Yes

I need to listen to this one again. “See How We Are” was never my favorite X record, but I really wasn’t getting into it after a couple listens today. I do like the songs “4th of July” and the title-track “See How We Are”, but the rest of the album just sounds flat. And that’s despite that there are a number of high-energy fast-tempo songs. Overall it just sounds like they’re bummed out. Maybe they were.

I got to see them live, touring for this record, at the Ritz in New York. They were the opening act for Warren Zevon. To me, at the time that was a bill that didn’t make sense. The whole show was kind of a poignant downer. Guitarist Billy Zoom wasn’t there, replaced by Tony Gilkyson in concert and on the album too, and John Doe and Exene had broken up. The latter point was really driven home by Exene being visibly pregnant with someone else’s child. On top of all that, the biggest let down and surprise was that the most of the crowd was actually there to see Warren Zevon. Maybe I was the last guy to know it was the end for X.

Here’s an article about that show from the New York Times archives. Guess who gets 90% of the ink.

X — Ain’t Love Grand

X -- Ain't Love Grand

• Artist: X
• Title: Ain’t Love Grand
• Year: 1985
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 8
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: 1985 – Maybe Tracks Records in Norfolk, VA.
• Keeper: Yes

When this record came out I remember that I really loved the first (only?) single and video, “Burning House of Love.” This wasn’t quite the end for X, but in hindsight it seems that they had peaked earlier. There’s something flat about the production, or maybe it’s an overuse of keyboards that kinda takes the teeth out of some of the songs. There are also a couple songs I think they could’ve cut. Nowadays, my favorite song on “Ain’t Love Grand” is probably “My Goodness.” It’s a slow and slinky number sung by Exene that’s sounds more like classic lounge than classic punk, or roots rock.

I should’ve kept up with the band and its members over the last decade plus. I’m probably missing out on something special. So much music. So many artists. It can be hard to maintain hundreds of “relationships.” Which is the main reason I’m going through the entire record collection, one disk at a time.

Read all about X at “the official website.”

X — More Fun In The New World

X -- More Fun In The New World

• Artist: X
• Title: More Fun In The New World
• Year: 1983
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 9
• Owner: Tracy / Mary – both had copies
• Acquired: Too tired to remember

From another hotel room in Asheville, NC… I get my house inspected in the morning and today my brother Grayson put a contract on a house he and Kellie want only a couple miles away. I slept for about an hour last night. We left before 5 AM and have been on the move ever since. I’m so tired I feel nauseous, but I can’t sleep so here’s the next record, played, obviously, yesterday before we left home.

There aren’t many bands that can record an album as eclectic as “More Fun In The New World” and still have it hang together so well. I’m too beat to write anything really insightful. I will say I love X completely and this is probably the album of theirs that I’ve heard the most. In highschool my friends John Hurlock and Scott Belbin and I were always driving around with this one blasting from the tape deck. I wish saw, or at least talked to those guys more often.

X — Under The Big Black Sun

X -- Under The Big Black Sun

• Artist: X
• Title: Under The Big Black Sun
• Year: 1982
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 9
• Owner: Mary / Tracy – We both had copies.
• Acquired: 1982 ? – Unknown origin.
• Keeper: Yes

The only thing better than X is more X. For some reason their second record “Wild Gift” is mysteriously missing from our collection, but we do have the CD. So, here’s their third release, “Under The Big Black Sun.”

I remember they had a pretty funny video for the lead track “Hungry Wolf” with fake bats zooming aound, conspicuously hung on strings. I suppose that one would be considered the “hit” for this record, but I like everything here. My favorites are the tear-jerker “Come Back To Me” (about Exene’s sister that died) and the album closer “The Have Nots.” “Dawn comes soon enough for the working class…”

X — Los Angeles

X -- Los Angeles

• Artist: X
• Title: Los Angeles
• Year: 1980
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 10
• Owner: Tracy / Mary – We both had copies.
• Acquired: 1980 – ? We were barely in high school. Who knows where we got them?
• Keeper: Yes

“X” – Possibly, nay, probably the coolest band name ever. And the title of the first track on the album is also excellent — “You’re Phone’s Off The Hook, But You’re Not.”

I’ll keep it short and just say that this album is as good as it can be. It was only the beginning for a group that was/is as important as any band ever was.

Do yourself a favor and get all of their records. Also check out these movies:

• The Decline of Western Civilization
• X – The Unheard Music