Austin Sound

Even though X was pretty much the only band from the initial late-70’s L.A. punk explosion to actually sign and record for a major label, and even though they have been the subject of quite a few documentaries (their own The Unheard Music, plus a starring role in Penelope Spheeris’s The Decline Of Western Civilization), their music continues to be, largely, enjoyed by a core group of relatively few fanatics. Although I grew up with an obsessive interest in all things punk rock–from mid-60’s garage punk to The Velvets; from the Stooges to The Ramones; from the Sex Pistols to Sonic Youth–I have to admit that I had never heard of X until I moved from New York to San Francisco in the early 90’s, quite a few years after the band broke up. One of my housemates had a tendency to wake up (and to wake up everybody else) every morning with the opening percussion and bass intro to “The Hungry Wolf,” from X’s third album, Under The Big Black Sun.