xbxrx September 11, 2005

xbxrx
BARR
Business Lady
Sex Affection

from thrasher mag:
" THE FACT THAT XBXRX was banned from entering the nation of Canada for a year ought to, in and of itself, be enough to at least spark a twinkle of interest in the mind of even the haughtiest musical aesthete. Even if bedlam and debauchery isn't your cup of tea, it's got to at least get the wheels of wonder turning: What does one have to do to deserve being booted from an entire country?

Listening to the band's records, the answer might not be so obvious. See them live, however, and the picture starts to come into focus. What XBXRX does onstage is art. Not the kind of art you'd hang in a gallery, mind you, but something a homeless man might scribble on a pizza box or scream at a pigeon just before taking a piss in the sheet. Both can be mesmerizing or repellent.

Originally formed in Mobile, Alabama in 1998, when several of the members of the band were still too young to smoke, drink or even drive a car, XBXRX quickly became known around the United States and beyond as a venerable force of manic, noisy madness. The band outgrew its southern surroundings almost immediately, getting banned at nearly every club in its hometown, and set nut to record some records, none of which truly harnessed the power of its live performances.

In person, the frenetic, incendiary and sometimes psychotic trail is known as much for its explosive force as the music it makes. XBXRX don't play, they go off like a Claymore, sometimes catching a little shrapnel themselves."