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How many teenage girls does it take to prefigure riot grrrl and krishnacore? I dunno, ask X-RAY SPEX.
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 09-Dec-05 @ 05:37 PM
FILE UNDER: Self-Aware, Socially Sharp, Mixed-Gender Punk Rock Incredibly Not
Ruined By The Presence Of A Sax Player YEARS OF EXISTENCE: 1976-1978 RECORD
TO START WITH: Germ Free Adolescents Expanded (1978; 1991; 2005, SANCTUARY) AFTER
THAT, CHECK OUT: The Anthology (2002, CASTLE) GO DOWNLOAD: "Oh Bondage!
Up Yours!" "I Am A Cliché," "I Am A Poseur," "The
Day The World Turned Dayglo," "Obsessed With You"
THE MUSIC, THE MESSAGE: Analytical hindsight has cast X-Ray Spex as early punk-rock feminists; but that sort of thinking mostly just reinforces the dude-oriented mindset (if not gender) of most rock critics. ("If it has breasts and sings loudly, it must be a feminist!") Started through a 1976 newspaper ad by then-teenage shopkeeper and fashion iconoclast Poly Styrene (Marion Elliot), X-Ray Spex didn't even intend to be a female-driven group; it's just that saxophonist Lora Logic (Susan Whitby) was among the first to answer Styrene's ad. Six rehearsals and two gigs later, the newly formed quintet—rounded out by bassist Paul Dean, guitarist Jak Airport and drummer BP Hurding—made their recorded debut with the absolutely riveting single "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" Though Styrene couldn't have paid for this sort of publicity, the British tabloids (who read the lyrics as sexual) and the band's defenders (who thought it a feminist manifesto) were both wrong about the song's message. As Logic, who recorded just one other song ("I Am A Cliché") with X-Ray Spex before forming her own, more out-there group, Essential Logic, puts it in the excellent women-in-punk anthology Cinderella's Big Score, "I think [Styrene] felt that everyone was in a type of bondage—restricted, crushed and alienated by modern materialistic society." PUNK-ROCK RELEVANCE: X-Ray Spex may've recorded just one album before breaking up (1978's Germ Free Adolescents), but the sucker casts a long shadow. And while it's impossible to say the band's two-year existence didn't influence female-driven scenes like the riot-grrrl movement of the '90s, it's shortsighted to see that as their sole contribution. Logic's (and, later, Rudi Thompson's or Glyn Johns') jagged sax licks, combined with Styrene's piercing, self-assured delivery, ensured there was no other punk band on Earth that sounded quite like X-Ray Spex; and Styrene's DIY fashion sense, which simultaneously embraced and parodied the plastic, Dayglo façade of the era's popular culture, might've been even more influential than the band's music. From Kelly Osbourne to Kathleen Hanna, all the way to Brittany Murphy's character in Clueless (rent it again before you laugh), Poly Styrene's teen-iconoclast image—complete with braces, baby fat and awkward hair—has become a fixture in rebel anti-fashion. CURRENT WHEREABOUTS: Though they've threatened a comeback for years (and inexplicably reunited for a spell without Styrene) and recorded a not entirely horrible 1995 album titled Conscious Consumer, X-Ray Spex have never officially resurfaced, and the recent Sanctuary Records reissue of Germ Free Adolescents reminds us why that's commendable. Teenage rebellion just doesn't carry the same punch when you're a middle-aged Hare Krishna devotee, as both Styrene and Logic are today. Speaking of which, the official Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex website (x-rayspex.com) is a great place to stay up on the key member's doings—even if it never really explains why the whole thing originally caved in beneath her personality. —Aaron Burgess |
