Veteran punk band X may deliver new songs

DETROIT - The current reunion of L.A. punk rock icons X may yield some new music, according to singer/bassist John Doe.

“Exene (Cervenka) and I are talking about trying to write some X songs,” Doe tells Billboard.com. “We’re going to take it a step at a time, see how this (tour) goes, and if we’re all enjoying ourselves and feeling creative, then we’ll continue. We’ll just have to do it when we have the time.”

Doe says that even though the band — which also includes original guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer DJ Bonebrake — sounds hot these days, the notion of new material, X’s first since “Hey Zeus!” in 1993, is still intimidating.

“It is a little bit of a daunting adventure,” he acknowledges. “It’s like, ‘All right, you’ve got to write X songs like you did 20 years ago, 30 years ago.’ ‘Huh?’ ... But I think if you direct whatever creativity you have towards a certain project, you’ll come up with something. You just have to decide if it’s good enough.”

Doe says X decided to mount a 31st anniversary tour this year partly because “it’s the mirror reflection of 13, which is a number we’ve used over and over again,” and partly — or perhaps mostly — because “we couldn’t quite pull it off for the 30th anniversary. We wanted to have a little more planning.”

X is looking at a full year of touring both in North America and abroad. But Doe doesn’t expect a new anthology or other archival releases beyond what’s already available — including expanded editions of the group’s first six studio albums. “To have those around is great,” Doe says. “Everyone is at risk of being forgotten, so the fact we have those re-released individual records with bonus tracks and a couple anthologies, that’s enough.”

Doe says X has been recording some of the shows on the tour, and one of the group’s recent South by Southwest appearances in Texas was broadcast by DirectTV, but there are no plans for a live release from the tour yet, either.

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