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Revisit: X: 40 YEARS OF PUNK IN LOS ANGELES

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ABOUT THE EXHIBIT

On October 13, 2017, the GRAMMY Museum opened X: 40 Years of Punk in Los Angeles, an exhibit that celebrated four decades since the band X’s formation, and offered visitors a glimpse into how their four original members – Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake – quickly established the band as one of the best in the first wave of L.A.’s flourishing punk scene.

The exhibit featured original instruments and gear played by the band, John Doe and Exene Cervenka’s handwritten lyrics and notebooks, clothing and other personal items, original concert flyers and posters, rare photographs, and artwork. The exhibit traveled to the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, OK after its run at the GRAMMY Museum.

ABOUT X

Formed in 1977, X quickly established themselves as one of the best bands in the first wave of L.A.’s flourishing punk scene, becoming legendary leaders of a punk generation. Featuring vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist/bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer DJ Bonebrake, their debut 45 was released on the seminal Dangerhouse label in 1978, followed by seven studio albums released from 1980-1993. Over the years, the band has released several critically acclaimed albums, topped the musical charts with regularity and performed their iconic hits on top television shows such as “The Late Show With David Letterman” and Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand.” X’s first two studio albums, Los Angeles and Wild Gift, are ranked by Rolling Stone magazine among the top 500 greatest albums of all time. The band continues to tour with the original lineup fully-intact. Their 40th anniversary tour kicked off on May 1, 2017, and the band has toured extensively ever since. On April 26, 2020, the band will celebrate the 40th anniversary of their first studio album, Los Angeles. For more information, visit www.xtheband.com.

FROM THE EXHIBIT

It was by a twist of fate that vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist/bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer DJ Bonebrake came together in 1977. Zoom and Doe both posted want ads seeking musicians in the local paper The Recycler the same week in February. They met up and felt that they had potential. Cervenka entered the picture after Doe met her at a reading at Venice’s Beyond Baroque bookstore and poetry center. Doe took a liking to Cervenka’s poetry, and asked if he could perform her work. She recalled, “I said, ‘No way. I’m no dummy. If you want my songs, you’ve gotta teach me how to sing. I want something out of it.’” The band initially formed with drummer Mick Sullivan (aka Mick Basher), but DJ Bonebrake was recruited after Doe heard him playing with the Eyes at the Masque in Hollywood in January 1978. He joined X permanently the following month.

EXENE CERVENKA (VOCALIST)

Born Christene Cervenka in Chicago, Cervenka moved to L.A. from Florida in August 1976, and was working and living at Beyond Baroque when she met John Doe. Besides contributing vocals and lyrics to X, Cervenka was part of alt-country/folk group The Knitters (whose membership included Doe, DJ Bonebrake, and latter-day X member Dave Alvin), and the punk bands Auntie Christ and Original Sinners. She has also released solo studio and issued collaborative recordings with New York punk singer/poet Lydia Lunch and L.A. poet Wanda Coleman. Cervenka continues her work in poetry and art, and has issued several spoken word albums, books, articles, essays, and poems.

EXENE CERVENKA (VOCALIST)

Born Christene Cervenka in Chicago, Cervenka moved to L.A. from Florida in August 1976, and was working and living at Beyond Baroque when she met John Doe. Besides contributing vocals and lyrics to X, Cervenka was part of alt-country/folk group The Knitters (whose membership included Doe, DJ Bonebrake, and latter-day X member Dave Alvin), and the punk bands Auntie Christ and Original Sinners. She has also released solo studio and issued collaborative recordings with New York punk singer/poet Lydia Lunch and L.A. poet Wanda Coleman. Cervenka continues her work in poetry and art, and has issued several spoken word albums, books, articles, essays, and poems.

JOHN DOE (VOCALIST/BASSIST )

John Doe was described by American Songwriter as “one of the most distinctive and passionate voices to emerge from any American punk band.” Before Doe got involved with the L.A. punk scene, he resided in Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Baltimore, where he worked in construction, ran poetry readings, and played in cover bands. He graduated from Antioch College in 1975 and arrived in Los Angeles in November 1976. Aside from X, Doe has released nine solo records (the most recent of which is 2016’s The Westerner) and albums with Jill Sobule and The Sadies. He has been in more than 70 films and TV shows, and continues to write poetry and host workshops. He released a memoir, Under the Big Black Sun, in 2016; its audio book received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Spoken Word Album.

BILLY ZOOM (GUITARIST)

Billy Zoom, born Ty Kindell, grew up in a musical household in Illinois. His father played the saxophone and clarinet in a jazz band and sparked Zoom’s love of music. From a young age, he began practicing instruments, and eventually could play nine. Zoom left home in the ’60s to pursue music. He travelled the U.S., playing in several soul/R&B groups; one backed artists such as Etta James and Bobby Day. Zoom made his way to Los Angeles, where he played traditional rock & roll at oldies DJ Art Laboe’s Hollywood club, and at one point backed rockabilly legend Gene Vincent. He first heard the Ramones in 1976, which inspired him to merge rockabilly and punk into his distinctive one-of-a-kind sound.

BILLY ZOOM (GUITARIST)

Billy Zoom, born Ty Kindell, grew up in a musical household in Illinois. His father played the saxophone and clarinet in a jazz band and sparked Zoom’s love of music. From a young age, he began practicing instruments, and eventually could play nine. Zoom left home in the ’60s to pursue music. He travelled the U.S., playing in several soul/R&B groups; one backed artists such as Etta James and Bobby Day. Zoom made his way to Los Angeles, where he played traditional rock & roll at oldies DJ Art Laboe’s Hollywood club, and at one point backed rockabilly legend Gene Vincent. He first heard the Ramones in 1976, which inspired him to merge rockabilly and punk into his distinctive one-of-a-kind sound.

DJ BONEBRAKE (DRUMMER)

Donald James (DJ) Bonebrake became involved in music at age 12, playing drums and studying classical and traditional music. Before X, he was in bands Rocktopus and the Eyes. Bonebrake also joined Exene Cervenka and John Doe in The Knitters. While X was on hiatus, Bonebrake continued to play with numerous bands and musicians in sessions and live performances. He added the marimbas and vibraphone to his repertoire. He can be heard on recordings by his side projects, the Latin jazz group Orchestra Superstring and the early era jazz-playing Bonebrake Syncopators.

JOHN DOE’S NOTEBOOK

Grounded in the poetry that first brought John Doe and Exene Cervenka together at Beyond Baroque, X’s lyrics draw on a host of literary traditions. One can hear stylistic elements drawn from the Beats of the ‘50s (Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg), the hard-edged, unflinching writing of such Los Angeles precursors as novelists Nathanael West, John Fante, Charles Bukowski, and Raymond Chandler, and musical antecedents like folk giant Woody Guthrie (a longtime L.A. resident) and Hank Williams, country music’s Shakespeare. Geoffrey Himes of No Depression said of their work, “Doe and Cervenka were both serious poets, so the songwriting tended to be more genuinely experimental and ambitious than almost anything else in the punk world.”   

JOHN DOE’S NOTEBOOK

Grounded in the poetry that first brought John Doe and Exene Cervenka together at Beyond Baroque, X’s lyrics draw on a host of literary traditions. One can hear stylistic elements drawn from the Beats of the ‘50s (Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg), the hard-edged, unflinching writing of such Los Angeles precursors as novelists Nathanael West, John Fante, Charles Bukowski, and Raymond Chandler, and musical antecedents like folk giant Woody Guthrie (a longtime L.A. resident) and Hank Williams, country music’s Shakespeare. Geoffrey Himes of No Depression said of their work, “Doe and Cervenka were both serious poets, so the songwriting tended to be more genuinely experimental and ambitious than almost anything else in the punk world.”   

EXENE CERVENKA’S NOTEBOOK

Whether lyrics inspired her art, or art inspired her lyrics, for Exene Cervenka, music and visual art are always intertwined. Cervenka’s journals and collages have been exhibited in art galleries in New York and Los Angeles. Curator and journalist Kristine McKenna wrote, “each piece she’s made is a valentine to a fragile America that’s disappearing before our very eyes, and an homage to the indomitable persistence of beauty.” In addition to poems and lyrics, Exene Cervenka’s notebooks include colorful collages made from bits and pieces of printed material that she collected.

DJ BONEBRAKE DRUMS INSTALLATION

DJ Bonebrake gravitated toward music at an early age. Banging on pots and pans or anything else he could get a hold of as a child, he eventually joined the marching band at his school. This is Bonebrake’s first drum kit from 1968. DJ Bonebrake visited the GRAMMY Museum prior to the opening of X: 40 Years of Punk in Los Angeles exhibit to assemble the drum kit the way he prefers it.

DJ BONEBRAKE DRUMS INSTALLATION

DJ Bonebrake gravitated toward music at an early age. Banging on pots and pans or anything else he could get a hold of as a child, he eventually joined the marching band at his school. This is Bonebrake’s first drum kit from 1968. DJ Bonebrake visited the GRAMMY Museum prior to the opening of X: 40 Years of Punk in Los Angeles exhibit to assemble the drum kit the way he prefers it.