X: The Unheard Music Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

X: The Unheard Music Blu-ray Movie Review

X marks the spot.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 3, 2012

It may be a popular misconception that rock ‘n’ roll musicians don’t know much (if anything) about music, given that their approach is often limited to three chords (if even that). It may come as something of a surprise, then, for those who watch X: The Unheard Music, a really fascinating 1986 documentary about Los Angeles’ proto-punk band X, when various members whip out a clarinet to riff of Hoagy Carmichael’s delectable (and deviously difficult) “Stardust” or take out some mallets and start playing Lionel Hampton’s “Flying Away” on the vibes. X never really grabbed the brass ring from a commercial standpoint, but their influence has long been felt and the band is fondly remembered as one of the most culturally significant ones to help define the nascent punk music that was in the mid- to late seventies just beginning to explode in the dark and dank confines of several Los Angeles clubs. X was fronted by Exene (née Christene) Cervenka, a raven haired beauty whose notebooks of scribbled poems provided fodder for the band’s first songs. The other members of the band included Exene’s co-lead John Doe (né John Duchac), Billy Zoom and DJ Bonebrake, and X: The Unheard Music finds the quartet at the height of their admittedly limited popularity. The documentary is quite distinctive from a number of standpoints. This is not a pure concert video, though there are several great songs included in the running time, nor is it solely a confessional interview sort of outing, though, again, there are copious sit down segments with all of the band members. Writer-director W.T. Morgan has an unbridled wit that informs much of the documentary, with some very smart dialectics set up between image and sound. Morgan also populates X: The Unheard Music with a vast array of truly weird archival footage, everything from a hilarious ad announcing the debut of the Edsel to footage of atom bombs decimating everything in their dusty wake.

X: The Unheard Music gets off to a typically out there start with a voice over reading a “fan letter” of sorts sent to Slash Magazine from a woman who laments the fact that Exene has evidently channeled her (the woman’s) inner psyche and is revealing this tormented soul’s “intellectual property” to the world via the music of X. It’s both hilarious and troubling, especially when the woman closes by saying she’s decided not to sue since Exene is reporting the woman’s inner world so accurately. Fans come in all shapes and sizes, not mention spectra of mental stability, but this sets X: The Unheard Music off on an extremely unconventional path that the rest of the documentary follows in lock step.

The piece alternates between some visceral concert footage and several nicely introspective interview segments, including with The Doors’ Ray Manzarek, who produced some of the band’s material. Some of the funniest, and most pointed, “commentary” comes from a couple of well-edited segments where the division manager of MCA talks about why he didn’t sign X when he had the chance, and a honcho at Slash Records, the label that did sign X. It’s absolutely hilarious to hear a corporate bigwig talk about having to support 900 people in his division, and thus not being able to take a chance on a band that won’t sell millions of units, versus the smaller independent “executive” who only talks about liking the sound of X. Things get really funny when the MCA guy then starts trumpeting their “big new find”, a band he expects to be the next Journey (a band he shepherded at Columbia/Sony): Point Blank. a tiny independent enterprise that recognized potential. Morgan follows the announcement of Point Blank with the aforementioned Edsel commercial, an obvious dig at Point Blank’s failure to set the charts on fire.

X: The Unheard Music is a rather insightful piece in terms of talking about the trials and tribulations an up and coming band goes through in trying to establish themselves and (as the previous paragraph got into) attracting label attention. X was rejected by any number of major labels, but instead of defeating them, it seemed to only make them stronger. Their music isn’t quite as confrontational as some seemed to think it was back in the eighties, and in fact a lot of their stuff included in the documentary just comes off as good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll, with maybe a hint of rockabilly thrown in now and then (as odd as that may seem for those who lived through the punk era). Exene and John have continued to work together (a wonderful contemporary interview is included as a supplement on this Blu-ray) and their chemistry is palpable throughout this piece. In fact the entire band comes off as uncommonly musical and intelligent, something that might be quite surprising for those who subscribe to the adage that it’s “only rock ‘n’ roll”.

Songs included in the documentary are:

Los Angeles

Year One

We’re Desperate

Because I Do

Beyond & Back

Come Back to Me

Soul Kitchen

White Girl

The Once Over Twice

Motel Room in My Bed

The Unheard Music

Real Child of Hell

Johnny Hit & Run Paulene

I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts

The World's a Mess; It's in My Kiss

The Have Nots

X: The Unheard Music Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

X: The Unheard Music is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD/VSC with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This was obviously shot on 16mm, and some of the live concert footage actually looks like it may have even been sourced from 8mm, so expectations must be set accordingly (meaning, pretty darned low). Add in the older archival material sourced from old kinescopes and the like and the result is a pretty ragged looking video presentation, grainy, soft, and at times quite badly damaged. Somehow, it only adds to the "punk" allure of the documentary. Some of the then- contemporary interview footage looks noticeably sharper, with more fine detail and better, more boldly saturated, color, but even that footage never really rises to anything that screams "high definition". X: The Unheard Music is better approached as an historical document rather than a high-def wonderland. With that in mind, while no one is going to be anything close to blown away by the video here, they at least shouldn't be too horribly disappointed.

X: The Unheard Music Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

X: The Unheard Music has two audio options, an uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0 mix and a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Get ready for a major surprise, perhaps the first time I personally have ever recommended this: audiophiles may in fact want to opt for the lossy Dolby option over the lossless LPCM track simply because there is so much more presence in the low end on the Dolby track. In fact the LPCM track, while fine, seems rather oddly mixed at times, with the lows much further back in the mix than in the Dolby surround track. Both of these tracks offer very good to excellent fidelity, with both the interview segments and the many song performances sounding great. The 5.1 track, despite being lossy, offers a nice spaciousness and reproduces the band's blistering music extremely well, with nicely discrete channelization allowing all the instruments and voices to be clearly heard.

X: The Unheard Music Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Silver Tongues: John and Exene Dialogue (HD; 18:37) is a circa 2011 interview with John and Exene thinking about the band and the making of X: The Unheard Music. They both still have incredible senses of humor about it all and they both seem somewhat bemused by what they've been through. Exene also recounts the story of her sister dying in a horrible hit and run accident the same night that X played Whisky-A-Go-Go.


• Interview with Angel City (The Unmaking Of) (HD; 15:03) has some archival footage with several people on the production crew, including producer Christopher Blakely, writer-director W.T. Morgan and co-producer Everett Greaton talking about why they wanted to feature X in a documentary.


• Some Other Time (Live Outtake) (HD; 2:35). Audio doesn't start up right away on this clip, and when it does there's a low frequency buzz running through it, which is probably why this wasn't included in the final cut of the film.


• Original Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:46)


• The Unheard Music Songbook (HD; 3:04) features artwork from original songbooks by Exene and John, circa 1980 – 1983. There's also a PDF version accessible via computer according to the notes included, though I didn't try out that version.

X: The Unheard Music Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even if you couldn't care less about X or punk music in general (and frankly, I wouldn't even categorize X as strictly punk), X: The Unheard Music is an unusually well done documentary that is brilliantly edited, wonderfully outré, and just flat out enjoyable. While X may not have had scores of Top 10 singles to their name, they still have a rabid fan base and their impact continues to be felt despite their lack of overwhelming commercial success. X: The Unheard Music proves that this is no mere fluke: these are intelligent, articulate people, at least a couple of whom are outstandingly versatile musicians, and the documentary captures the band both in performance and offstage in a compellingly visceral fashion. Add in the just plain weird and wonderful archival video that Morgan inserts with aplomb, and this becomes one of the most enjoyable band documentaries ever. The video here is pretty ragged, but sound is excellent and their some very appealing supplements. Recommended.