Many years ago I posted a picture of X: X-Aspirations on Instagram with the caption “my favorite X.” Little did I know that this (100% totally accurate) joke would lead to Dirt Cult being asked by Green Noise to work with partner with them to rerelease one of my favorite punk records of all time as well as a little known gem from that very same band. But here we are!
I’ve got three “new” records up for preorder! The Hood Rats LP should ship in early April. The X releases should ship in early May. You can order via Bandcamp or Big Cartel. And you can read some info below.
X: X-Aspirations LP
X was formed in Sydney, Australia in 1977 by Ian Rilen (Rose Tattoo), Steve Lucas, Ian Krahe, and Steve Cafiero.
After the sudden death of Ian Krahe in 1978, the band pushed on with a few other guitar players but struggled to find their footing. Then in late 1979, just a few months after singer Steve Lucas first picked up a guitar, the band recorded what would become X-Aspirations as a three-piece in 5 hours. Legend has it that the band went into the studio expecting to record a single. Once they loaded in, they decided to record every song they knew how to play and then pick a single from there. Most of the songs were first takes and they figured that the end result was good enough to release as an LP. In true DIY fashion, the band released the record on their own in early 1980.
The album went on to be listed as one of the 200 Greatest Australian Records of All Time and called “one of the best punk records of all time” in Maximum Rock’n’roll. It’s not often that those two publications agree, but it’s hard to argue otherwise.
After 10 years of being out of press in the United States, Dirt Cult Records and Green Noise Records will be releasing X-Aspirations with new cover art sanctioned by the band’s only surviving member, SteveLucas.
A split with Green Noise Records
Some praise for the record:
“X are this old Aussie punk band from the late seventies. The bass lines are really good, the lyrics are really tight, the riffs are sick. (X-Aspirations) was an album I’d found after I heard The Ramones. Fell in love with it and it still gives me goosebumps”
– Eamon from The Chats in Classic Rock Magazine
“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.”
-Trouser Press
“If you venture into The Tote in Melbourne on any given night, you’re likely to hear a band that owes some semblance of influence to X – whether they know it or not. Such is the legacy of one of Australia’s most well-loved underground classics (X-Aspirations). There’s a certain irony in a band revered for their lack of rehearsal inadvertently recording a blueprint for the modern Aussie punk record. And yet, perhaps that’s the only way one could be recorded in the first place.
-Rolling Stone
“Fourteen vicious, out-for-blood punk tunes, all of which are steeped in some supremely heavy dark and daring shit. It’s a legit classic and one of the best punk rock albums ever made.”
-Maximum Rock N Roll
X: Hate City 7″
These four songs, recorded in 1977, are the only recordings of the original 4-piece line-up of the Australian band X featuring Ian Rilen (Rose Tatoo), Steve Lucas, Ian Krahe, and Steve Cafiero. Three of the songs (Home is Where the Floor Is, TV Cabaret Rules, and Hate City) were released on the 1985 compilation “Why March When You Can Riot” while Good On Ya Baby was later re-recorded for the X-Aspirations LP.
While their debut LP, X-Aspirations, is rightly lauded as an Australian punk classic, this batch of songs is often overlooked due to the fact that they never received a wide release. This is the band at their most snotty and rambunctious.
This is an authorized one time press of 500 copies on black vinyl by Dirt Cult and Green Noise Records.
Hood Rats: Crime, Hysteria & Useless Information LP
No frills, fast and furious as fuck punk rock from Montreal. Really, what more needs to be said?
Split release with Bachelor Records in EU.
dirtcultrecords.com 