More 80's of course

My friends are often pressuring me to profile their favorite female musicians from that era, and I'm sure I'll get around to them eventually. But I figure I'll post about Exene Cervenka, the lead singer of one of my all-time favorite bands X. In no small part because I got to meet her and John Doe for a whole 10 minutes last time X came through town on tour. Don't worry, I was cool, even though my internals were going, "Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod!"

They recently released a decent-ish overview called Beyond and Back, but you're better off picking up albums like Under the Big Black Sun and Los Angeles. I really admire them for taking the punk sound and reimagining it their own way, in no small part influenced by the old school country and rockabilly that I love. In fact, Exene and John Doe also have a country band called The Knitters that I like a lot as well.

Exene has a big, evocative voice and dips and swirls and screams. It's startling therefore to see her in person or on stage and realize that she's teeny-tiny, like 5 ft. tall. Her utter dedication to her music is evident upon seeing her perform, which was a relief because she sort of puts on some of the major attitude that's not uncommon amongst rock musicians. X was a smash in Austin, of course, since most of us have the ear to pick out their country and rock influences. But I'll bet talent like that packs them in all over the place.