The original members are vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist-bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer D. J. Bonebrake.

Drummer Bonebrake was the last of the original members to join after leaving local group The Eyes; he also filled in on drums for Germs.

A Dangerhouse session version of "Los Angeles" was also featured on a 1979 Dangerhouse 12-inch EP compilation called Yes L.A. (a play on the no-wave compilation No New York), a six-song picture disc that also featured other early L.A. punk bands The Eyes, The Germs, The Bags, The Alley Cats, and Black Randy and the Metrosquad.

[citation needed] As the band became the flag bearer for the local scene, a larger independent label, Slash Records, signed them.

[10] During 1981, both Doe and Bonebrake (along with Dave Alvin, guitarist of The Blasters) served as members of The Flesh Eaters, performing on that band's second album, A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die.

[14] X signed with major label Elektra in 1982 and released Under the Big Black Sun, which marked a departure from their trademark sound.

A fourth, a high-speed version of Al Dubin and Joe Burke's "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes", was, years later, indirectly attributed to Cervenka's mournful state of mind.

With the sound moving away from punk rock, the band's rockabilly influence became even more noticeable, along with some new elements: funk on the track "True Love Pt.

[15] The Knitters, a side project, were composed of X minus Zoom, plus Alvin on guitar and Johnny Ray Bartel (of the Red Devils) on double bass, and released the Poor Little Critter on the Road album in 1985.

(Source; IMDB) Despite the overwhelmingly positive critical reception for their first four albums, the band was frustrated by its lack of wider mainstream success.

It featured a drastic change in sound, especially in the polished and layered production, while the band's punk roots were little in evidence, replaced by a countrified version of hard rock.

The change in production was intended to bring the band more chart success, but although it received more mainstream radio play than their earlier releases, it did not represent a commercial breakthrough.

"Burning House of Love", the album's first single, was a minor hit on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart, where it peaked at #26 in September 1985.

It later became a staple at sporting events, particularly baseball games, and was used by Japanese professional wrestler Atsushi Onita after he founded Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in 1989.

X regrouped in the early 1990s to record their seventh studio album, Hey Zeus!, released in 1993 on the Big Life label.

Despite this, it failed to become a hit, although two of its songs, "Country at War" and "New Life," peaked at numbers 15 and 26 on the Billboard Modern Rock charts, respectively.

The original lineup also returned to the studio for the final time, with Manzarek reprising his role as producer, to record a cover of the Doors' "The Crystal Ship" for the soundtrack for The X-Files: Fight the Future.

On October 13, 2017, the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live opened a new exhibit titled "X: 40 Years of Punk in Los Angeles", to run through February 25, 2018.

[24] In 2017, Cervenka announced that X had added Craig Packham of The Palominos to fill in on drums and rhythm guitar, because Bonebrake and Zoom were now playing vibes and saxophone, respectively.

[26] In early 2019 Fat Possum Records released two new X songs as a single, followed by the "genuinely good" (per BrooklynVegan) new album Alphabetland on April 22, 2020.

[27][28] In June 2024, John Doe announced on Facebook that a new X album Smoke & Fiction would be released on August 2, 2024, by Fat Possum Records.