2. X
They cast a wide net for a punk band. They’re influenced by rockabilly, they’re really influenced by folk music, they wrote lyrics that would stand up as poetry. They should have been an influence on early Throwing Muses and I hope they were but we always really sounded like ourselves and it couldn’t have been any other way. The X were an invention without even realising it. They were the quintessential American band. Their noise was textured and layered. There was dimension to it. A lot of bands were similar in a way but they didn’t have the same dimensions. They didn’t have the poetry for example and all the Americana influences underlying the punk sound. It was really Exene [Cervenka, vocalist], she presented this character in a lot of songs. (It was probably her but it’s not for me to say!) She presented the character of the street urchin – which is a phenomenon in America – it’s reflective of human trafficking so it can be very, very dark but it’s something that many of us have lived. She says that you should watch the parade, you don’t need to be a part of it, and that’s a beautiful lesson.
