ain't love grand (1985) - x: elektra records, 60430

Despite whether you believe Punk originated in the garbage-strewn streets of New York or the garbage-strewn streets of London, it’s hard to argue (and I’ve made this point before) that punk was nurtured and allowed to fully mature in the garbage-strewn streets of LA.

In much the same way that British Invasion bands like the Stones, Cream, the Who, and the Beatles got their inspiration from American blues, R&B, and country music, American bands like Black Flag, The Germs, Fear, Circle Jerks, Black Randy, The Weirdos, The Angry Samoans, The Plugz, 45 Grave, and more had their creative juices primed by British music.

Except for X. They were 100% rooted in ‘Murrican music of Appalachia and the South East.

X was a band that was branded as punk out of convenience, because of where and when they emerged.  Pretty much any band starting in LA in the very late 70’s or early 80’s was thought of as a de facto punk band, unless it was very clear they weren’t.  Besides, when they started, there was very little about X to suggest they weren’t a punk band.  Exene had funny hair.  Their songs were short and very fast.  They lyrics involved cursing and were subversive.  The band members had sardonic pseudonyms.  And they were intentionally un-glamorous.

So, even though X was part of the explosion of SoCal punk, they were always somehow a bit different.  While they definitely had punk sensibilities, they never really fit the restrictions of that label.  For instance, where most U.S. punk bands emulated the snarling, violent, confrontationally belligerent sound of the Sex Pistols, X tended to find their muse within domestic borders.   Their music had the delicate twangy guitar of rockabilly rather than a full-volume chainsaw roar.  Their lyrics tended to be less superficially belligerent and more nuanced in their defiance and subversion. And their singing tended to actually harmonize John Doe’s baritone with Exene’s atonal whine, rather than the usual punk style of unmelodic screams.

Side 1: Burning House of Love Love Shack My Soul Cries Your Name My Goodness Around My Heart
Side 2: What's Wrong With Me All Or Nothing Watch The Sun Go Down I'll Stand Up For You Little Honey Supercharged

By the time they released Ain’t Love Grand! the chasm between rockabilly and punk had grown to the point where calling X punk was getting more and more difficult to justify.  Sure, there are some punk moments on the album with e What’s Wrong With Me and Burning House of Love, but then there are some decidedly un-punk moments too. For example. My Goodness recalls Big Mama Thornton, while Watch the Sun Go Down sounds like something leftover from Springsteen’s early years, complete with Clarence Clemons-like sax.

More than that, the album strikes a much more introspective stance rather than one of anger and frustration.  Around My Heart, Love Shack, and My Soul Cries Your Name tend to examine the emotional ringer of life, in the same way that Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn songs do.

And this shift into a more rockabilly/blues style actually resulted in even better musicianship, as truly American music was the perfect fit for X.  Billy Zoom and DJ Bonebreak are not simply punk musicians – these dudes have some serious chops. They’d be right in place ripping things in a honky tonk or on stage with the likes of Clapton. And John Doe could easily play with Johnny Cash, Roger McGuinn, or T Bone Burnett.

In the end, Ain’t Love Grand! is a good listen, but shows the beginning of an inevitable decline in ganas for X.  In the X canon it rates along Hey Zeus as their less substantial albums, but that would still rate it as extraordinary for many other bands.

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