It’s not like Exene Cervenka, and her bandmates in the Los Angeles proto-punk quartet X are just sitting around their respective houses, idly twiddling their thumbs this enforced-lockdown December. But they are coming to surreal grips with the fact that for this Yuletide season, at least, they will not be the hardest-working band on the road. Since, of course, no bands are on the road at all and may not be for quite some time. So their annual “X-mas Tour” has been summarily canceled, the singer says, just when they and fans needed it most.
In April, X released its first new studio album in 27 years, the guns-blazing, Rob Schnapf-produced “Alphabetland”, one of its strongest yet. And its eerily-prescient material, like the current raucous single “Goodbye Year, Goodbye” (complemented by a spartan animated stick-figure video conceived by Tiny Concert’s Keith Ross) was all written and recorded pre-COVID-19 — five songs in 2018 and another seven in a session that wrapped on March 10th, just before the quarantine. Otherwise, this would have been a banner year for the group, which also signed a special merchandising deal with designer John Varvatos. “But it’s very hectic playing shows during the holidays because, for everyone else, it’s just part of the seasonal fun,” she admits. “But we’re trying to have holiday fun with our friends while we’re working, and sometimes it isn’t easy. And then you come home in December and think, ‘You know, I really should have gotten a Christmas tree. Oh, well…’ But I do love playing those Christmas shows, and I’m really going to miss it this year. So it’s, er, a little odd.”
Happy New Year Everyone
