XEX - group: xex

"For all the moaning Ive done over the years about growing up in a\r\nculturally detached small town in Pennsylvania though my formative years of\r\ndiscovering weird-ass punk and new/no wave music, the truth is simply that\r\nthe most mind-boggling ideas and warped musical aesthetics sprung from these\r\nplaces. Amidst the sea of coked-up Cinderella wannabes who played my high\r\nschool anti-drug rallies, the Kevin Cronin-of REO-produced\r\nbig-fish-in-a-small-pond rock gods that walked down our streets, and the\r\nsheer overload of crapola, there were mutants who had it up to here with all\r\nof that silliness. For example: HB was a one man Magic Band who would tell\r\nstories for hours while whacking away on drums in a pierogi parlor like a\r\ncosmic Sam Ulano, The Delusions were what the Velvets coulda been in a coal\r\nmining town, and Psychatrone Rhonedakk made hobbit-like basement synth\r\ngurgle for years and years and never stepped on a stage. 100 miles from New\r\nYork but not quite there, they never quite got recognized, and they sure\r\nconfused a lot of locals. I sure appreciated em for merely existing in an\r\noppressive musical locale where the towns one promoter was too busy hosting\r\ndance shows on TV where he got out of a Rolls flanked by hos and booking\r\nwheezy hair-metal reunions.\r\nxex must have been in a similar boat down in South River, New Jersey.\r\nSporting black garb, blurting arps, and bizarro names like Thumbalina\r\nGuglielmo" and "Waw Pierogi" (holy hell, more pierogis!) these guys\r\nrepresented a totally bonkers aesthetic that seems like it was taking its\r\ncues from what was being hyped in the NYC underground scene about that time:\r\nEno, Talking Heads, etc., but in fact this music is choking under something\r\nmore black, toxic, and totally Jersey. While they sang about mall rat\r\nzombies who ran around trying to catch up with fashion, they also addressed\r\nnuns and nerve gas. Musically, it sounds like it has more to do with German\r\nnuts like Grauzone and Californias zonked synth-gothers Factrix or Nervous\r\nGender than anything else remotely in xexs radius. What gives? \r\nTom Smith did radio shows for a while on WFMU, and was entrenched in the LP\r\nlibrary listening to odd finds in backwards order starting at Z when he\r\ncame across this lost gem. It totally blew our brains. Theres zilch about\r\nthem on the web, as well (apparently not even the hip New York papers gave\r\nem a mention), and he has been threatening to reissue this baby for some\r\ntime. Here tis at last. Turn up the minimal synth NJ underground!" -Brian Turner, Music/Program Director, Jersey City, WFMU.