Friday, June 15, 2007

THE PROMISED X MASTERWORKS

In our fEEDTIME post a few weeks ago, some mention was made of three tracks from the incredible late 70s Australian punk band X. I said I’d post ‘em – here they are. Here’s what I wrote about the tracks in 2003:

If you ask me, the best pre-1980 Australian punk rock ever recorded was NOT necessarily by the SAINTS. nor the PSYCHO SURGEONS, nor the LEFTOVERS, nor RADIO BIRDMAN -- but by X. The Australian X, of course. The past decade has seen them garner some deserved attention, mostly for the low-profile Amphetamine Reptile reissue of their raw, spastic debut LP "X-Aspirations" (also known by some as simply "Aspirations"). I think they actually topped that monster with their amazing earliest recordings, though: the three tracks "Home Is Where The Floor Is", "Hate City" and "TV Cabaret Roll" that were posthumously cobbled together on the Aberrant Records' "Why March When You Can Riot?" compilation. If these tracks had been put out as a 45, you'd be seeing it on numerous "best punk records of all time" lists, certainly on mine (note: these were put out on a 45 a couple years ago on a US label, now out of print, I'm afraid). We're talking barreling, steamrolling punk rock, but minus the "snotty" vibe and the over-the-top antics that mark some other richly heralded Aussie punk of the era. Not particularly well recorded, mind, but you never cared about that much, right? About the closest equivalent I can think of would be a kindly US punk band like The CONTROLLERS -- not too aggro, not too "punk", but blazing nonetheless. Skip the recent "X - Live At The Civic" CD -- despite looking like it should be an out of control rock and roll juggernaut, it's -- uh -- a bit boring. One last thing: if you now desperately need those 3 aforementioned tracks, you're in luck -- there's a double-CD on Small Axe Records that collects three Aberrant Records comps into one package called "Go And Do It". You can find it here.

Or you can download them right here and put them on your own CD.

Play or Download X – “Hate City
Play or Download X – “Home Is Where The Floor Is”
Play or Download X – “TV Cabaret Roll”

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jay--your blog is the best. I was a huge fan of your zine and saw you had some back issues for sale. Do you have any extra copies of Superdope with the Jeff Evans/Don Howland stuff? I had that years ago, but it's been lost to the ashes of time. Just so you'll know I'm not crazy: I'm an old friend of Tom and Cristina Carter's, and they're actually playing here in Providence tonight as Charalambides...Uh, anyway, your blog is great, and thanks for posting all these killer tracks!--VAUGHAN BOONE

Jay H. said...

Hey Vaughan - thanks a lot. I don't have that particular issue anymore, I'm afraid. At one point I had so many I was leaving freebies in record stores, only to find that 10 years later some folks might actually want to BUY one. Whoa.

Eric O said...

i'm sure you mean WHOAH!

but, uh, HOME IS WHERE THE FLOOR IS
is a g'damn anthem, if not a blogspot of it's own dammmm self. yes?

luv it.

listened to the feedtime covers record for the first time in about a decade and was "wiped out" by the intensity... yow!

Anonymous said...

I just had to say...

Vaughan is love

Do not ride the manatee! said...

linked to that site but that 2CD is not listed...