#twisted bride

[bitter69uk]

“People turn their heads / She scares little kids / Eyes narrow; jaw is set / She'll fix you with a stare / She keeps her body hidden / Let's her eyes make her bid / I'd wrap her up in a bullet / And shoot her ‘round the world …”

/ John Doe’s lyrics to the X song “Devil Doll” from More Fun in the New World (1983) album, inspired by Exene Cervenka /

“Exene’s personality mixes the bored brattiness of a gum-snapping high school smart ass with a poet’s funereal profundity. Early on she did a definitive rock version of Morticia Addams, with black hair and lipstick and eye shadow, sometimes painted all around her eyes like a raccoon. She was queen of the Visigoths, something imagined by Anne Rice.”

/ From a profile of Los Angeles punk band X by John Homans in Details magazine, August 1993 /

Happy birthday to high priestess of punk, the fierce and uncompromising Exene Cervenka (née Christene Lee Cervenka, 1 February 1956)! The spooky poetess / twisted bride / voodoo dolly / intense frontwoman of definitive Los Angeles punk band X turns 70 today. Alongside Darby Crash of the Germs, Exene is THE iconic face (and snarling voice) of first-generation LA punk. And on X’s latest (and probably final) album Smoke & Fiction (2024), Exene still wails like her life depends on it. (To pre-empt the handwringing concern trolls: yes, watching Exene’s slide into conspiracy-addled lunacy in recent years has been painful and mortifying, but I’m celebrating about her artistry here). Pictured: portrait of Exene Cervenka by Jim Jocoy, 1979.

[bitter69uk]

“Centre stage was Exene. You’ve heard the phrase “I’m every woman”? Exene could say it and be telling the truth. Snaky-haired Medusa, Little Match Girl, baddest chick at school, homeless woman on the corner cursing to herself, vamp, wizened crone, wistful runaway – Exene changed from one to the next in an instant. She had the narrow hips of a child, the full bosom of a femme fatale and a fabulous fashion sense: scuffed up granny shoes, the exaggerated makeup of a silent film star, thrift store party dresses, bracelets and tattoos – she was a feast for the eye. Ultimately, though, Exene’s beauty was rooted in her ability to be herself without a trace of apology or shame. Her wicked sense of humour, her need, her sorrow, her lust, her regret, her tenderness – she got out there and flaunted it all, and that’s what made her such a spectacular performer.” 

/ From Kristine McKenna’s liner notes to the reissue of the 1980 X album Los Angeles / 

Happy birthday to spooky poetess and high priestess of punk, the fierce and uncompromising Exene Cervenka (née Christene Lee Cervenka on 1 February 1956)! The twisted bride / voodoo dolly / intense frontwoman of Los Angeles punk band X turns 67 today. Pictured: portrait of a young Cervenka by Rick Nyburg.

[bitter69uk]

Contemptuous and sullen death kittens extraordinaire Lydia Lunch and Exene Cervenka give a masterclass in cranking-up the punk anti-charm in this remarkably hostile interview from 1982. I’m assuming they would have been promoting their 1982 collaborative volume of confessional poetry, Adulterers Anonymous. (It’s long out of print. I spotted a copy of it in City Lights Book Store in San Francisco many years ago – and stupidly, I didn’t snap it up!)