Unclogged

Produced by X

Infidelity Records
1995

Recorded At: Noe Valley Ministries Church, San Francisco
November 1994

All songs by John Doe & Exene Cervenka

Music by X

White Girl
Because I Do
Lying In The Road
Unheard Music
I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts
Burning House Of Love
The Stage
See How We Are
True Love
The Have Nots
The World's A Mess, It's In My Kiss
I See Red What's
Wrong With Me

Musical genres come in & out of fashion but acoustic music is one that never seems gone for long.
Back in '80 or '81 Phranc, the premiere L.A. pholksinger, organized acoustic-punk rock shows off nights at the Whiskey a go-go. All the players in punk bands respected Phranc so they figured out some way to adapt what they did electrically to this folk thing. The Circle Jerks became the Spanking Monkeys, Tito Lariva (the Plugz/Cruzados) sang mexican folk songs, Jeffrey Lee Pierce sang country blues, X did Johnny Cash/June Carter songs plus countless others (too hard to remember).
Of course Phranc glued it all together with topical pholk-punk pre-slacker ballads.

As punk rock from the mid/late 70's splintered into more & more factions, the community that sustained it also broke away/drifted away. At this point ('82), X became more interested in the origins of the American music which lead to punk rock through rock'n roll, rockabilly, etc. and since even whispering the "P-word" in association with our name would banish us to the outskirts of nowhere, we shifted with the times. Sometimes we led the pack, releasing "Ain't Love Grand" (the most metal of the X records) & "Poor Little Critter On The Road" by the Knitters (X's acoustic country alter ego) within a few months of each other ('85).

That's the short version of how we got here to this recording.

Along the way, Exene made two touching-twisted bluegrass very quiet and loud sometimes in the same song records. Tony Gilkyson, who was already a member of X ('88) produced and played on both.
I played a bunch of acoustic decidedly country influenced gigs in Ca. and released a roots-rock record (hmmmm) in '89. D.J. Bonebrake toured with Michael Penn, Syd Straw & played be-bop drums and classical marimba.

At the end of 1990, X regrouped full blown electric and released a record in '93. After a year fo blowing our ears out touring with X for the "hey Zeus!" record, John Chewlew, a friend from Mc'Cabes Gtr. shop said he wanted X to play a full-on electric show on our 150 seat sit-down back room gtr. shop stage. We said, not possible, how about an acoustic performance? He hated the idea but wanted X one way or another. So we played six shows in three nights.All of them were recorded direct to DAT more as a document than anything else & to our suprise, it didn't suck. It also didn't sound particularly great either & there was no way to change the mix.

So we thought we'd try it again.

Just after Halloween of '94, Darwin Holiday & Robert Pendergast of Slim's booked the Noe Valley Ministries Presbyterian Chgurch in S.F. for two nights. Mark Shomner, recording engineer & sound man for X, contracted Michael Rosen from S.F. & they planned how to record the shows. We rehearsed a few more times, loaded the van w/gear & crew (Tim Durfy & Paul Ackling) & got on our home away from home, Hwy 5. Tony G played elec. gtr. & the good acoustic one. D.J. drummed and played vibes & did handstands. Exene sang & strummed Tony's acoustic on some songs. I Played bass, the not so good acoustic & sang. We mixed the tapes w/ Don Gilmore at Travis Dickerson's recording Studio the week before Thanksgiving. John Roecker & Exene came up with the title & cover ideas which were realized by Kristan Hoffman (cover drawing), Craig Roose & John Roecker (X Construction), Rocky Schennck (photos), & Lindsay Brice (candle photos). Computer layout mixed & matched by Matt Angorn and it was mastered by Eddy Shryer at Future Disc, and finally released on Infidelity Records w/ the help of Skip Paige, Ron DeBlasio, Alan Melina & Ned Shankman at SDM Inc. (our mgmt. co.).

This isn't our first picnic at the acoustic county fair& though you may think its a few fries short of a Happy Meal,
we hope it brings you some enjoyment & thought.

acoustically yrs.

John Doe of X

X
John Doe: vocals / bass / guitar
Exene Cervenka: vocals / guitar
D.J. Bonebrake: drums / marimba
Tony Gilkyson: guitar