Born again

Exene roars back with Auntie Christ

by Matt Ashare

Exene Cervenkova (formerly Cervenka) was at a party to celebrate the release of Live at the Masque, the last CD to feature her former band X, when she bumped into Rancid's Matt Freeman and asked him whether he knew any good bass players who been interested in joining her new group. He did: when Rancid finished their mainstage stint on Lollapalooza '96, Freeman and his bass joined Cervenkova and X drummer D.J. Bonebrake for what has turned out to be a stripped-down journey back to the kind of gutsy, rebellious punk terrain X helped map out back in the days when moshing was still called pogoing and mohawks were something you didn't usually see at the mall.

Christened Auntie Christ, the trio quickly cut an album featuring Cervenkova singing and, for the first time in her career, playing guitar. The disc, Life Could Be a Dream (Lookout!), is an unabashed and invigorating blast from the gritty past that inspired Rancid and the rest of today's platinum-punk offspring. On it Cervenkova casts a somewhat critical eye on what punk has become, particularly in the charged anti-anthem "Nothing Generation," where she observes that "the nothing generation lives where something used to be."

"There's a difference between revolution and a fashion trend," she says over the phone from LA, where she's gearing up for a tour that will bring Auntie Christ to the Met Cafe on Tuesday. "A fashion trend happens on a superficial level -- it's people with purple hair and nose rings working at Starbucks. When punk rock first happened, it seemed like a threatening revolution. It's not ugly and scary anymore, and it probably never will be again."

Nevertheless, Cervenkova believes that it's still possible to recapture some of punk's seminal spirit -- or, as she calls it, "purpose of being. It's the energy that comes from wanting to do something really bad. X had that, and I think Auntie Christ has it too. There's something inherent in punk rock that certain people will always find. There's a historical lineage that goes back to the Germs. Rancid may not be the founders of punk, but they understand it. And it's not their fault that it's been co-opted by corporations who are turning it into part of a fashion industry."

Earlier this year, Freeman joined Cervenkova and Bonebrake for an Auntie Christ European tour. His Rancid duties have prevented him from joining them on their upcoming US tour ; he'll be replaced by Janis Tanaka of Stone Fox, who will be opening for Auntie Christ at the Met. Cervenkova says she's planning on keeping Tanaka in the band even if Freeman returns. "Matt's a great guitar player -- he plays exactly like [former X guitarist] Billy Zoom. So if he comes back it will be as a second guitar player."

Which is just more good news for anyone who remembers -- and misses -- the X of the early '80s.

Auntie Christ, Stone Fox and the bill keough experience play at the Met Cafe on Tuesday, September 2.