Jimmy Broustis-Guitar, vocals (1988-92)
Mitzi Waltz-Bass, vocals (1988-90)
Sel Wahng-Bass, vocals (1987-88)
Barbara Manning-Guitar, bass, vocals (1987)
Alan Korn-Bass, vocals (1983-85)
On January 2006, Neo, Mick, Mark, Jimmy, and Alan played a reunion show as X-tal.
Influences
Velvet Underground, Fairport Convention, the Fall, Richard and Linda Thompson, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the Mekons, Sonic Youth, the Pogues, Bob Dylan circa 1966 or 1976, Boogie Down Productions, Pato Banton, the Mighty Ballistics Hi-Power, Flipper, the Pop-O-Pies, Nick Drake, the Subhumans (UK), Pavement, John Lennon, Stiff Little Fingers, Ed's Redeeming Qualities, all our peers at the time, and just generally coming of age in San Francisco in the '80s.
Sounds Like
The Mekons and Eleventh Dream Day getting drunk with Lou Reed in the Albion back room while Mick Freeman pours Jagermeister shots for everyone.
A clip from our 2006 reunion show, edited for local public access cable TV program Noodle Brain Productions.
To order WHO OWNS OUR DREAMS, the new X-tal collecton, click here. The album is also available at Amoeba Records on Haight and Stanyan in San Francisco.
San Francisco's X-tal were one of the great unsung bands of the 1990s. Combining the sly pointed lyrics of J Neo Marvin (and others) with a Velvet-y wall of guitars and the twangy crunch of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, X-tal forged a distinctively American sound while daring to shine a light on the flaws of both their country and themselves.
WHO OWNS OUR DREAMS? collects, for the first time domestically, some of the best songs from their final albums, which were previously only available on German labels.
Ranging from the rousing glam-rock anthem to workers' solidarity "Union Sunrise", to the melodic Fairport-influenced talk-radio critique "Windbags", to noise-improv freakouts like "Never Been Young" and a never-before-heard live version of "Long Dark Night", to bassist Allison Moseley's haunting Sandy Denny-like vocals on her song "Edge Of The World", to "Mark Time"'s scathing roast of faux-alternative rock, to ex-Housecoat Project leader Meri St. Mary's passionate guest vocal on the desperate, decadent yarn "Misadventure", WHO OWNS OUR DREAMS? shows a band at their creative peak, thriving from the attention of a loyal audience an ocean away. A decade later, these recordings are finally available in the US, and sound as up-to-the-minute as ever, if not downright prophetic in places.
"At a time when most bands are trying to fit their sound to increasingly narrow formats, X-tal draw inspiration from both reggae and thrash, folk-rock both British (Richard Thompson) and North American (Dylan, Neil Young), and the snarl and drone of the Fall and the Velvet Underground---quite often all within the same tune. But listing influences and resemblances would hardly do justice to X-tal's achievement in creating...songs soaked in strong emotions---passion and rage, grief and defiance---in which music and lyrics constantly spur one another on...The effect is anything but a bleak one. If the energy here often derives from rage and frustration, X-tal nonetheless succeed in giving their songs a very positive charge and tremendous dynamism. They're a joy to listen to."
My ears really appreciate your music and my soul is calmed by their existence. I'm so glad that you finally posted on MySpace because all my CDs have been in boxes for the past 5 years and have become unalphabetized. I can never find anything and have to rely on my foggy memory when a chord or verse gets stuck in my head and drives me crazy for days.
