"We never had to try to fit in because we were never going to": Punk legends X are finally getting the recognition they deserve, but their biggest success is failure

X studio portrait.

It’s a bittersweet welcome back for Los Angeles punk legends X. Their new album, Smoke & Fiction, is everything fans could ask for, a wild ride taking in everything from Americana to jazz and beyond. It is also, the band say, the last one they will ever make. Vocalist Exene Cervenka joins us from her home in Orange, California to talk us through their spectacular swansong.

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