In 1991, Matt Berninger and Scott Devendorf met while attending the University of Cincinnati where they also met Mike Brewer, Casey Reas and Jeff Salem,[1] to make the lo-fi garage band Nancy (which was named after Matt’s mother), aspiring to sound like Pavement.[2] The band was together for five years, but only released one album, titled Ruther 3429, on Wife Records.[3] The group slowly dissolved when Matt, Scott, Jeff and Casey moved to Brooklyn.
Bryan, Bryce and Aaron were childhood friends who played in several bands together over the years. When their last effort Project Nim broke up in 1998, they joined Matt and Scott in Brooklyn via the Devendorf relationship.
When the band was formed in 1999, it was called The National (although the domain name of the band’s website is americanmary.com because, according to Matt Berninger in an interview with Better Propaganda, “[i]t’s a song off our first record. We never thought of changing the (website) name, although we should have.”[4]) Several of the members continued to work day jobs, while performing free Sunday night shows regularly at the highly regarded NYC Lower East Side venue Luna Lounge throughout the early years, including being involved in New York’s dot-com boom in the late 1990s.
[edit] Read the rest of this entry »
Patti Smith and others gave a tremendous concert on April 30 in tribute of The Court Tavern, a legendary rock n’ roll bar in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Along with The Smithereens and other local musicians, the concert, held in the State Theater, harkened back to a time when rock was local. Tony and Lenny Kaye from The Patti Smith band are from New Brunswick and the show was a celebration of the scene they grew up in. Read the rest of this entry »
John and Exene put on an amazing show at the City Winery in New York City. Exemplifying the best in the music tradition, the duo get better as the years go on. Their act in the present encompasses a wide swath of styles and material from their halycon punk days in X to traditional country ballads they have picked along the way. Read the rest of this entry »
Exene Cervenka along with Cindy Wasserman played songs from her new cd in Brooklyn in the fall of 2009. While Williamsburg hipsters were in their diapers Exene was charting a course in music back in the late 70′s that hadn’t been seen before. What had been labeled punk really was an amalgamam of country, rockabilly, pop, and poetry delivered over Marshall stacks and a driving beat. They called it punk but that was really a simplification used to sell it to wayward teenagers back in the day. What the music really delivered was an emotional honesty that gave disaffected people identity and hope. The new selections that Exene has penned for us is no exception. Read the rest of this entry »
The Knitters are a Los Angeles-based band who play country, rockabilly and folk music. At the time of their formation they were pioneers[citation needed] of country punk, cowpunk or folk punk, the genre which gradually evolved[citation needed] into alternative country. The Knitters’ name is a play on the name of the folk group The Weavers.
The Knitters’ debut album Poor Little Critter on the Road was released in 1985. It included mainly traditional and cover songs, together with some X songs performed in an acoustic style. The album drew on blues, folk, country and rockabilly influences. In 1999, the label Bloodshot Records released a track-by-track tribute to the album entitled Poor Little Knitter on the Road.
After the debut album’s release, all the group members continued to work with their primary bands. Dave Alvin also later pursued a solo career.
Twenty years later, in 2005, the group released their second and ironically-titled album, The Modern Sounds of the Knitters. John Doe has been quoted [1] as saying “The Knitters, like their music, don’t do anything hasty. Since our last record’s been out for a while and it did pretty good, we figured it was just about time to put out another.” The Modern Sounds of the Knitters has been well-received by critics
X is an American punk band from the first wave of American punk rock, formed in Los Angeles in 1977.[1] While they achieved only limited mainstream success, they were widely considered one of the most influential, accessible and tuneful of Los Angeles’ many punk bands.[1][2] Their 1980 record Los Angeles resonated so loudly with the citizens of the city that it is named after, that the band received an Official Certificate of Recognition from the City of Los Angeles in acknowledgment of their important contributions to Los Angeles music and culture.[3] They were hugely influential on various genres of music, including punk, hardcore punk, and folk.[4]
Original members were Exene Cervenka (born Christine Cervenka, vocals), John Doe (born John Duchac, bass and vocals), Billy Zoom (born Tyson Kindell, guitar) and DJ Bonebrake (born Donald J. Bonebrake, drums). After Zoom retired from the band, Tony Gilkyson replaced him on guitar. Zoom reunited with X in 1998. The original line-up tours after having reunited in the early 2000s.[1]
Their first four albums had a hard-driving sound that occasionally flirted with rockabilly and blues; one critic suggests that X “were not just one of the greatest punk bands, but one of the greatest live rock acts of all time.”[5] By the time of their fifth album, Ain’t Love Grand!, the band had taken a more mainstream hard rock-oriented direction, and began to appear on shows such as American Bandstand. X, however, had previously appeared on television for a 1984 performance on Late Night with David Letterman.[6]
In many ways – from songwriting to performances – X’s first albums were distinctive when compared to many of their punk peers (except Cervenka, all band members had previous musical experience before forming X). One critic writes that X were “too self-conscious, artsy and ambitious to simply spew” in typical punk fashion.[2][7]
1977-1979: Formation and Dangerhouse era
X was founded by bassist/singer John Doe and guitarist Billy Zoom. Doe brought his poetry-writing girlfriend Exene Cervenka to band practices, and she eventually joined the band as a vocalist. Drummer DJ Bonebrake was the last of the original members to join.
X’s first record deal was with independent label Dangerhouse, for which the band produced two singles, “Adult Books” (1978) and “Los Angeles” (“We’re Desperate” was the b-side to “Adult Books”). The Dangerhouse session version of “Los Angeles” was also featured in a Dangerhouse compilation in 1979 called “Yes L.A.” (a play on the now-famous No Wave compilation No New York), a picture disc that featured other early-punk-era LA bands like the Weirdos and Black Randy.
[edit]1980-1981: Los Angeles and Wild Gift
As the band became the flag bearer for the local scene, a larger independent label, Slash Records, signed the band to issue its first LP.[6] The result was their first LP release, Los Angeles (1980) (produced by The Doors’ keyboard player, Ray Manzarek). It was a minor hit and was well received by the underground press and mainstream media.[8] Much of X’s early material had a rockabilly edge.[9] Doe and Cervenka co-wrote most of the group’s songs, and their slightly off-kilter harmony vocals remain perhaps the group’s most distinctive element. Their lyrics tended to be straight-out poetry, comparisons to Charles Bukowski and Raymond Chandler were made from the start.[10]
X The Unheard Music
Their follow-up effort, 1981′s Wild Gift, broadened the band’s profile when it was named “Record of the Year” by Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and the Village Voice.[11] Wild Gift, like their debut album, was released on Slash records, and was similar in musical style, although Wild Gift featured shorter, faster songs; arguably their most stereotypically punk-sounding record.[6]
[edit]1982-1984: Elektra era and The Knitters
X then signed to Elektra in 1982 to release Under the Big Black Sun, which marked a slight departure from their trademark sound. While still fast and loud, the album’s country leanings were evolving and its raw punk sound was channeling raw guitar power chords. The album was heavily influenced by the premature death of Exene Cervenka’s elder sister Mirielle (Mary) in an automobile accident in 1980. Three songs on the album, “Riding With Mary”, “Come Back To Me”, and the title track all directly relate to the tragedy. A fourth, a high-speed version of Leadbelly’s “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes”, was indirectly attributed to Exene Cervenka’s mournful state of mind years later. The stark black & white cover art and title were also a reflection of the somber mood of the band during this time. Nonetheless, this album remains Exene’s favorite X album
“You know, my favorite record is Under the Big Black Sun, so everything else is kind of . . . I’m saying if I had to sit down in a room and put on an X record—which I don’t generally do—I have recently listened to some X records but I generally don’t listen to myself—the record I would pick to listen to would be Under the Big Black Sun.[12]
1983 saw the release of the More Fun in the New World album. X slightly redefined their sound with this release, making it somewhat more polished, eclectic and radio-ready than in previous albums. Some of the band’s fan base[who?] from their earliest LA area gigging days were disappointed, feeling the band had taken a more commercial approach. With the sound moving away from punk rock, the band’s rockabilly influence became even more noticeable, along with some new elements like funk on the track “True Love pt. II” and Woody Guthrie-influenced folk protest songs like “The New World” and “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts.” The record received critical praise from Rolling Stone and Playboy, who had long been stalwart supporters and fans of X and their sound.[12]
A side project of some of the band members was Poor Little Critter on the Road in 1985, under the name The Knitters: X minus Zoom, plus Dave Alvin (of The Blasters) on guitar and Johnny Ray Bartel (of The Red Devils) on double bass. The Knitters were devoted to folk and country music; their take of Merle Haggard’s “Silver Wings” “may be the definitive version.”[13]
[edit]1985-1987: Commercial era and departure of Zoom
Exene Cervenka: Live! Chestnut Cabaret, Philadelphia, PA
Summer 1986, photo by Sam Cali
Despite the overwhelmingly positive critical reception for their first 4 albums, the band was frustrated by its lack of wider mainstream success. Billy Zoom had also stated that he would leave the band unless its next album was more successful. The band decided to change producers in search of a more accessible sound. Their 5th record, Ain’t Love Grand!, was produced by pop-metal producer Michael Wagener. It featured a drastic change in sound, especially in the polished and layered production, while the band’s punk roots were little in evidence, replaced by a countrified version of hard rock. The change in production was hoped to bring the band more chart success, but although it got somewhat more mainstream radio play than their earlier releases, it did not represent a commercial breakthrough. Zoom left the group shortly thereafter in 1986, the same year in which the feature-length documentary film, X The Unheard Music was released.
Zoom was initially replaced by Alvin on guitar. The band then added a 5th member, guitarist Tony Gilkyson, formerly of the band Lone Justice. By the time the band released its 6th album, See How We Are, Alvin had already left the band, although he plays on the record along with Gilkyson. Like Ain’t Love Grand, the album’s sound was fairly far removed from the band’s punk origins, yet featured a punchy, energetic, hard-rocking roots rock sound that in many ways represented a more natural progression from their earlier sound than the previous record had. After touring for the album, X released a live record of the tour entitled Live at the Whisky a Go-Go, and then went on an extended hiatus. [6]
[edit]1993-1995: First reunion, Hey Zeus! and Unclogged
X regrouped in the early 1990s to record their 7th studio album, Hey Zeus!. The album marked somewhat of a retreat from the increasingly roots-rock direction that the band’s past few records had gone in, instead featuring an eclectic alternative-rock sound that fit in well with the then-current musical climate. Despite this, it failed to become a hit, although two of its songs, Country at War and New Life peaked at numbers 15 and 26 on the Billboard Modern Rock charts, respectively. The band followed it with an acoustic live album Unclogged in 1995.
[edit]1997-2004: Hiatus and second reunion
In 1997, X released a compilation called Beyond and Back: The X Anthology, which focused heavily on the early years with Billy Zoom, included a number of previously unreleased versions of songs that had appeared on their previous albums. At the same time, they also announced that they were disbanding. However, they did a farewell tour to promote the compilation in 1998, with Zoom returning on guitar. The original line-up also returned to the studio for the final time, with Ray Manzarek reprising his role as producer, to record a cover of The Doors’ The Crystal Ship for the soundtrack for the The X-Files: Fight The Future. Although the band has any new studio material material since then, they continue to perform live with Zoom on guitar.
X: The Unheard Music was released on DVD in 2005, as was the concert DVD X – Live in Los Angeles, which commemorates the 25th anniversary of the band’s landmark debut album, Los Angeles.[14]
[edit]2005-2007: Reunion of The Knitters
In 2005, Doe, Cervenka and Bonebrake reunited with Dave Alvin and Johnny Ray Bartel to release a second Knitters album, 20 years after the first, entitled The Modern Sound of the Knitters. In summer 2006, X toured North America on the “As The World Burns” Tour 2006 with the Rollins Band and Riverboat Gamblers. Starting in the Spring of 2008, X is touring on their “13X31 Tour”, with Skybombers and the Detroit Cobras, with all original members. “13X31″ is a reference to their 31st Anniversary.[4]
[edit]2008-present: Recent news
X announced in late 2008, via their Myspace.com blog, that John and Exene have been playing and writing new material together.[15] No release date for a new record has been scheduled as of yet.
X appeared at the 2008 SXSW Festival. Footage of their performance is viewable on Crackle. X appeared at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 19, 2009 and at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Minehead, England from the 15-17 May where they have been invited to perform by the festivals curators The Breeders.
In June 2009, the band publicly announced that Exene has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.[16]
[edit]Solo material
Over the years, both Doe and Cervenka have released solo albums, with Doe moved more toward roots music in his solo work. While Cervenka’s solo albums have also been in a more folk or country vein, she has also fronted punk bands like Auntie Christ and The Original Sinners. Since 1986, Doe has also maintained a busy second career as an actor, appearing in such films as Oliver Stone’s Salvador, Allison Anders’ Border Radio and Sugar Town, the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic Great Balls of Fire, Miguel Arteta’s The Good Girl, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, and the independent feature Roadside Prophets, in which he starred with Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz. He was a regular cast member of the television series Roswell on WB Television Network and UPN.[2][17]
[edit]
Independence
Disillusioned with both the ineffectual promotion and artistic meddling by her record label, an experience documented in songs such as “Calling It Quits” and “Nothing Is Good Enough”, she struck out on her own and founded SuperEgo Records in 1999. Mann self-released Bachelor No. 2 in 2000, having negotiated a contract release from David Geffen, and though initially only sold at concerts and via her website, the album became successful, allowing her to secure retail distribution through SuperEgo. The album, which included some songs from Magnolia and new material, was widely admired and Mann’s “more indie than indie” success was carefully noted by other musicians.
Mann, Penn, Brion, Fiona Apple, and other musicians had by this time developed a subculture around the Largo nightclub in L.A. Penn and Mann formed a concept called Acoustic Vaudeville to recreate it on tour in California and eventually on an irregular, ongoing national tour. The Acoustic Vaudeville shows intermix music and stand-up comedy; among the comedians joining them for individual shows were Janeane Garofalo, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross.
[edit]Lost In Space: 2002–2004
Mann continued her solo career with Lost in Space (2002), a somewhat more somber album in the same vein as Bachelor No. 2, featuring art by Seth. In 2003 her website released the Lost in Space Special Edition, which featured a second disc containing six live recordings, as well two B-sides and two previously unreleased songs. In November 2004, Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse, a live album and DVD recorded at a series of June 2004 shows in Brooklyn, came out; the two discs were sold packaged together in either a CD jewel case or a DVD case.
[edit]The Forgotten Arm and One More Drifter in the Snow: 2005–2006
Mann described her next album, The Forgotten Arm (2005), as a concept album set in the 1970s about two lovers who meet at the Virginia state fair and go on the run. The Joe Henry-produced album, which was recorded mostly live with few overdubs, was released May 3, 2005. The album’s illustrations and title reflect Mann’s interest in boxing, having trained with legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach[4]. In 2006, Mann received her one Grammy Award to date for “Best Recording Package” for The Forgotten Arm. The album title derives from a boxing move in which one arm is used to hit the opponent, causing him to “forget” about the other arm, which is then used to deliver a harsher blow. The album received weaker reviews overall, with critics impressed at the totality but unimpressed with any individual songs.
Mann also released an EP for Christmas in 2005 as a cover single of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” for sale through her website and iTunes. It also included “Christmastime”, the 1996 duet she recorded with Penn for the Hard Eight soundtrack, and a cover of “The Christmas Song”. The iTunes version replaced “Christmastime” with a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River” and “I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up for Christmas” from The Forgotten Arm.
Mann’s independence from the industry led to more overt political stances. She joined Artists Against Piracy, a group formed to act against the illegal downloading and file sharing of copyrighted music from the Internet. Mann, Penn and Hausman took their experience with SuperEgo to found the independent music collective United Musicians, which is based on the principle that every artist should be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created, in contrast to normal music industry contracts.
In July 2006, Mann announced that she would be releasing One More Drifter in the Snow, a full-length Christmas album. The album featured primarily covers of Christmas standards, as well as a new version of Christmastime and an original song, called “Calling On Mary”, written by Mann and bassist Paul Bryan, who produced the record. It was released on October 31 in the US, and late November 2006 in the UK. [5]
[edit]2007–Present
On July 31, 2007 the soundtrack for the motion picture Arctic Tale was released, featuring two new Mann songs, “The Great Beyond” and “At the Edge of the World”.
July 2007 also saw the premiere of the music video for a song entitled “31 Today” (which featured comedienne Morgan Murphy alongside Mann and Bobcat Goldthwait as director) was posted on YouTube.[6] The song appears on Mann’s seventh studio album, @#%&*! Smilers, released on June 3, 2008.[7]The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at Number 32 (one of Mann’s highest positions to date), and on the Top Independent Albums chart at Number 2.[8] @#%&*! Smilers was met with mostly praise, with Billboard stating that it “pops with color, something that gives it an immediacy that’s rare for an artist known for songs that subtly worm their way into the subconscious… Smilers grabs a listener, never making him or her work at learning the record, as there are both big pop hooks and a rich sonic sheen.” [9]
Mann also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians’ careers. [10] [11][12] She was also an inaugual member of the IMAs in 2002. [13]