X Alphabetland

First New Album from Original Line-Up Since 1985's Ain't Love Grand!

On the 40th Anniversary of the landmark, Los Angeles, and 35 years since the original line-up have released an album – X, one of the greatest punk rock bands in music history, delivers Alphabetland! It finds Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake embodying the same spirit they did when they began in 1977. "When your heart is broken you think every song is about that. These songs were written in the last 18 months and it blows my mind how timely they are," says Doe.

X originally entered the studio in November 2018 when they joined together to record fresh material for the first time since 1985's Ain't Love Grand. Five songs were recorded over the course of two days with producer Rob Schnapf. The first of these new songs is the recorded version of an older X song, "Delta 88 Nightmare," which previously was only included as a bonus track on the 2001 reissue of Los Angeles in demo form – never as a fully recorded and mixed track. The song was released as a 7″ with the flip side being the newly recorded "Cyrano de Berger's Back," one of the earliest songs John wrote for the band that became X. In January 2020 the band re-entered the studio to finish recording the album, again with Schnapf and seven more original tracks were laid down. 

The album cover art is an original painting by Wayne White, the Emmy-award winning artist who was the set designer on Pee-Wee's playhouse for many years. The painting was commissioned through the friendship Wayne has with the band members.