SHOW SOME PUNK: Cervenka then, with her X bandmates— from left, Zoom, Bonebrake and Doe in 1980— and now.
GEORGE ROSE/GETTY
GARY MILLER/FILMMAGIC
IF X HAD formed in New York City rather than Los Angeles, would it have been as big as the Ramones? The band (co-songwriters Exene Cervenka and John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer D.J. Bonebrake) was every bit as influential. X’s country-inflected punk was the equivalent of an aural speedball— somehow manic and nuanced—with Cervenka and Doe trading hyper-literate lyrics like deranged noir lovers. Yet X still gets marginalized as merely “L.A.’s seminal punk band.” X was, in fact, among the greatest bands anywhere, as evidenced by the group’s first two studio albums, Los Angeles and Wild Gift, and an upcoming exhibition, “X: 40 Years of Punk in Los Angeles,” at L.A.’s Grammy Museum. (The opening, on October 13, will include a performance by the band.)