On April 22nd, X released a new album online via their bandcamp page entitled Alphabetland. Originally intended to be released in August, the band and their label Fat Possum pushed up the release date due to the COVID pandemic. Coming as a surprise to fans of the band, this album originated from two main sessions that took place in 2018 and 2020 with producer Rob Schnapf. Alphabetland is also the first full-length album featuring the original members of X in 35 years. It is vital and refreshing. The drums, bass, unfiltered guitars and impassioned poetic vocals capture what people love most about X. Musically, the album sits somewhere near the first two X albums and 1982’s Under The Big Black Sun.
“Alphabetland” opens the album. With its driving bass, drums and unhinged guitar leads from guitarist Billy Zoom, this song features lyrics such as “Tearing up the sidewalks/Pouring wet cement/Erasing your initials/Alphabet wrecked” and “Blue you wear like martyr blue/Atom bomb bruises/Cold War flu”. With the lyrics on this title track, Exene Cervenka and John Doe sing in metaphors that tie the past and the present together, as they evoke a working class/cold war mindset and a sense of finding yourself. “Free” features more space and groove, in-between roots rock and a classic X punk sound. Lyrically, with words such as “Lemme go free/Don’t tell me I can’t”, the song resonates messages of longing and revolt. “Water & Wine” wades in themes of the poor vs. the rich and privilege and division. Musically, this propelling track features another intense 50s rock influenced solo by Billy Zoom and also saxophone also provided by Zoom. With words such as “The divine that defines us /The evil that divides us” and “There’s a heaven and there’s a never/There’s no tomorrow only forever”, the song also draws parallels to our current climate. “Strange Life”, reflects themes of band life, but also features isolation motifs, “I Gotta Fever” is a fast stop and start song that delves into a state of the craziness of love, “Delta 88 Nightmare” is the fastest track found on Alphabetland.
Clocking in at just over a minute and a half, “Delta 88 Nightmare” is a song that first appeared as a demo on the reissue of X’s debut album Los Angeles. The song itself was influenced by the John Steinbeck novel Cannery Row and a road trip that was taken to see “if there might be remnants of those romantic hobos and bohemians up in Monterey.” as X told Rolling Stone in 2019. "Delta 88 Nightmare" was released as a single in 2019. This song and its funky B-side “Cyrano deBerger’s Back”, a song originally found on the 1987 album See How We Are with a slightly different band line up, was recorded with three other tracks that served as the beginnings of Alphabetland. “Star Chambered” with drummer DJ Bonebrake's unshakeable rhythms, jagged guitar riffs and back forth verses between John Doe and Exene Cervenka, finds a social outlaw navigating judgment on themselves. “Angel On The Road” is a memoir of life on the road with lyrics such as “I wish I was someone else/Someone I don’t even know/I wish I was somewhere else/Making angels in the snow” that display an innocence and longing for something different or better.
“Goodbye Year, Goodbye” echoes the chaos of 1981’s Wild Gift. The song lyrically entails an emotionally disjointed New Year’s Eve party that brings forth an unpredictable poignancy. “All The Time In The World” ends Alphabetland. This Beat jazz piano track features a poem recited overtop by Exene Cervenka and guitar work from Doors guitarist Robby Krieger, tying in the band’s connection to the Doors on their first four albums (Ray Manzarek produced those albums). With lines such as “History is just one lost language after another/After another/And when they’re all taken together/We still can’t decipher the past/Or decode the future/We’re just lost without a map” this song changes up the fast paced momentum of Alphabetland as it carries a heavy lyrical weight. Alphabetland brings poetic lyrics and newfound energy to the fold in X’s catalog. It doesn’t try to be something that it’s not, and while it does have similarities to what we love about X’s early music, it doesn’t simply retread old ground here. Alphabetland engraves its own letters into the cement for the past, present and future times.
Show 827 Playlist (Originally Aired On May 2nd, 2020)(X, Joel Plaskett, Damaged Bug):
1. X - Alphabetland
2. X - Sugarlight
3. Redd Kross - Clorox Girls
4. Joel Plaskett - Complicated Love
5. The Diodes - Eaton Square (1982 Outtake)
6. Deperuse - Jungle
7. Randy Newman - Have You Seen My Baby?
8. Andy Shauf - Things I Do
9. Born Ruffians - Breathe
10. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - The Deportees Club
11. The Afghan Whigs - What Jail Is Like
12. Tom Waits - Lie To Me
13. The Sadies & Gord Downie - Goodbye Johnny
14. Chris Knox - Light
15. The Sneaky Feelings - Billy Wild
16. Tall Dwarfs - Get Outta The Garage
17. Sleater-Kinney - All Hands On The Bad One
18. Gum Country - Somewhere
19. Daniel Romano - I'm Afraid of Elevators
20. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead - Baudelaire
21. Paul Jacobs - Animal Farm (Kinks Cover)
22. Dead Ghosts - Blackout
23. Flatworms - Antarctica
24. Damaged Bug - Microminature Love
25. The Strokes - Why Are Sunday's So Depressing
26. The Men - lease Don't Go
27. Port Juvee - Drugstore
28. Lie - LSD
29. Mannequin Pussy - Denial
30. X - Star Chambered
31. X - The Worl'ds A Mess (It's In My Kiss)
To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for May 2.
Show 826 Playlist (Originally Aired On April 25th, 2020)(Pottery, Bikini Kill, Bob Dylan, The Sadies & Iggy Pop):
1. Pottery - Take Your Time
2. Pottery - Texas Drums Pt. I & II
3. Bikini Kill - New Radio
4. Bratmobile - Cool Schmool
5. Fiona Apple - Shemeika
6. PJ Harvey - The Wheel
7. Angel Olsen - Forgiven/Forgotten
8. Dick Dale - Surf Beat
9. The Lyrics - So What!!
10. The Moving Sidewalks - 99th Floor
11. Actual Water - She's A Priest
12. Galore - Lemon Tea
13. The Gonks - I'm A Gonk
14. The Pack AD - Shake
15. The Sadies - Strange Birds
16. The Sadies - Wagon Wheel
17. Car Seat Headrest - Martin
18. Elliot Smith - Big Decision
19. Mountain Goats - January 31, 438
20. Bloodshot Bill - Don't Let Go
21. Amos the Kid - What Did You Do
22. Larry Wallis - Police Car
23. Jets of Airs - Telephone Operator
24. Vivian Girls - Most of All
25. Paul Jacobs - Show Me Something
26. Iggy Pop - Play It Safe
27. Iggy Pop - Family Affair
28. Hot Garbage - Easy Believer
29. ROY - Take Off Your Tin Hat
30. Double Date With Death - Copier-Coller
31. Queens of the Stone Age - Head Like A Haunted House
32. Bob Dylan - I Contain Multitudes
33. Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash - Matchbox
To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for April 25.
Show 825 Playlist (Originally Aired On April 18th, 2020)(Nap Eyes, The Chats & Pavement):
1. Double Winter - Cool City
2. Outrageous Cherry - A Bunch Of Lonesome Heroes
3. MC5 - Gold
4. The Gories - Drowning
5. Andre Williams - Pulling Time
6. The Greedy Echoes - Houdini
7. Ray Charles - In The Heat of the Night
8. Wilco - Citizens
9. Fiver - (It Won't Be Long) And I'll Be Hating You
10. Cowboy Junkies - (You Don't Get To) Do It Again
11. Courtney Barnett - Out of the Woodwork
12. Sonic Youth - Sunday (Live In Los Angeles 1998)
13. The Chats - Dine and Dash
14. The Chats - Smoko
15. The Thrill - Memory Wipe
16. Pavement - AT&T
17. Black Flag - Forever Time
18. The Cramps - Psychotic Reaction
19. Port Juvee - Hope To Lose
20. Elephant Stone - House On Fire
21. Calvin Johnson & The Sons of the Soil - Lies Goodbye
22. The Gruesomes - Someone Told A Lie
23. The Modern Lovers - Dignified & Old
24. Nap Eyes - Even Though I Can't Read Your Mind
25. Cindy Lee - Bondage of the Mind
26. Deerhunter - Agoraphobia
27. Nap Eyes - If You Were In Prison
28. Big Thief - Masterpiece
29. Pottery - Hot Like Jungle
To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for April 18.
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