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Save for a few years, X’s core four—from left to right, D.J. Bonebrake, Billy Zoom, Exene Cervenka, and John Doe—has remained the same for nearly five decades.

Photo by Kristy Benjamin

After 47 years together, the influential Los Angeles quartet is calling it quits with a final album and a long goodbye tour. What are they feeling in their last days—and what comes next?

Billy Zoom isn’t particularly sentimental about the impending final chapter of X. Along with day-one bandmates John Doe, Exene Cervenka, and D. J. Bonebrake, the 76-year-old guitarist for the legendary Los Angeles punk band is preparing for one last, long trip out with the group, celebrating their ninth and final album, Smoke and Fiction. And after 47 years in the band, Zoom has earned the right to speak plainly. “This is our retirement fund,” he says of X’s upcoming international tour, which will reach into 2025.

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Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard, EGC Chessie in hands, coaxing some nasty tones from his Hiwatt.

Photo by Mike White

After 26 years, the seminal noisy rockers return to the studio to create Rack, a master class of pummeling, machine-like grooves, raving vocals, and knotty, dissonant, and incisive guitar mayhem.

The last time the Jesus Lizard released an album, the world was different. The year was 1998: Most people counted themselves lucky to have a cell phone, Seinfeld finished its final season, Total Request Live was just hitting MTV, and among the year’s No. 1 albums were Dave Matthews Band’s Before These Crowded Streets, Beastie Boys’ Hello Nasty, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Korn’s Follow the Leader, and the Armageddonsoundtrack. These were the early days of mp3 culture—Napster didn’t come along until 1999—so if you wanted to hear those albums, you’d have to go to the store and buy a copy.

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English singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock is as recognizable by tone, lyrics, and his vibrantly hued clothing choices as the sound of Miles Davis’ horn.

Photo by Tim Bugbee/tinnitus photography

The English guitarist expands his extensive discography with 1967: Vacations in the Past, an album paired with a separate book release, both dedicated to the year 1967 and the 14-year-old version of himself that still lives in him today.

English singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock is one of those people who, in his art as well as in his every expression, presents himself fully, without scrim. I don’t know if that’s because he intends to, exactly, or if it’s just that he doesn’t know how to be anyone but himself. And it’s that genuine quality that privileges you or I, as the listener, to recognize him in tone or lyrics alone, the same way one knows the sound of Miles Davis’ horn within an instant of hearing it—or the same way one could tell Hitchcock apart in a crowd by his vibrantly hued, often loudly patterned fashion choices.

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Keith Urban’s first instrument was a ukulele at age 4. When he started learning guitar two years later, he complained that it made his fingers hurt. Eventually, he came around. As did the world.

Throughout his over-30-year career, Keith Urban has been known more as a songwriter than a guitarist. Here, he shares about his new release, High, and sheds light on all that went into the path that led him to becoming one of today’s most celebrated country artists.

There are superstars of country and rock, chart-toppers, and guitar heroes. Then there’s Keith Urban. His two dozen No. 1 singles and boatloads of awards may not eclipse George Strait or Garth Brooks, but he’s steadily transcending the notion of what it means to be a country star.

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Adrian Belew: Exclusive BEAT Tour Interview
- YouTube

Learn how Adrian Belew's BEAT Tour came together to include Tony Levin, Danny Carey, and Steve Vai—plus King Crimson, Bowie, Zappa, Talking Heads, and more.


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