Top 20 Greatest L.A. Punk Albums of All Time: The Complete List
 |
2. X
Los Angeles
Released in 1980, and produced by Ray Manzarek, X's Los Angeles is a searing critique of a city under economic siege and engaged in changing racial demographics. Simultaneously, its slice of life poetry about the angry new youth enlivened a burgeoning L.A. punk scene. Los Angeles plugged these first wave punk listeners into their city, gave them something that was their own and made them feel like members of a growing tribe. Exene Cervenka's voice carried an urgency that demanded attention. The album defined its moment and set the bar for other L.A. punk bands that followed. Like the striking image of the burning X effigy on its cover, 32 years later the music inside is hard to shake. --Nikki Darling
1. Black Flag

Damaged
"We. Are. Tired. Of. Your. Abuse!" The chorus of Damaged's opening song "Rise Above" immediately declares a vicious contempt for America's social and political environment, circa 1981. Reagan was in office, police brutality was seemingly unchecked, and people seemed to be coping with it by having a "TV Party." Following on the heels of excellent EPs like Nervous Breakdown, Hermosa Beach-based Black Flag's full-length debut manically articulated youthful aggression toward rampant commercialism, eager consumerism and a serious lack of autonomous thought. There is real, unbridled anger at work here, but also a sort of prophetic wisdom, as if they know that if we blow it all up we're going to have to rebuild it. In an odd way, it's a hopeful record; Henry Rollins himself has said, "Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated." That's the ethos that's at work here, though on Damaged, they don't yet know if they're going to win the battle. --Kai Flanders
*Top 20 Worst Bands Ever: The Complete List
*Top 20 Musicians of All Time, in Any Genre: The Complete List
*Top 20 Sexiest Female Musicians of All Time: The Complete List
*Top 20 Sexiest Male Musicians of All Time: The Complete List
Follow us on Twitter @LAWeeklyMusic, and like us at LAWeeklyMusic
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
