Not LA’s X nor the current Japanese X (heavy metal girls caught in an explosion at the makeup factory), this X operate(d) in Australia, inventing late-’80s NYC-style post-punk in the waning years of the ’70s. X-Aspirations couples deep riff repetitive rhythms with scattershot guitar and anguished vocals for a “punk” LP unlike any other, appropriate for a band as distant and isolated from the media focus as one could conceivably get without leaving the planet. In later years, Feedtime made a point of acknowledging their debt to early X; the band’s influence is still readily apparent in Australia’s Red Eye and Aberrant stables. (The reissue is remixed and adds a song.)
At Home with You is a more approachable album, transforming the debut’s belligerent punk into a sort of fringe rock, but still featuring the high-phlegm Killdozery vocals of Steve Lucus. And More, recorded following the ’88 death of first-LP drummer Steve Caferio and related fund-raising reunion shows with second-LP drummer Cathy Green, delivers a crowd-pleasing punch of punk aggro and attitude, including an updated but not-so-dissimilar skin-shredding blare culled from the first album. A milestone band, overlooked but hardly forgotten.