X, "In This House that I Call Home"

5 Days to Find a Home



Like a punk "Wouldn't it Be Nice", X are one of the only rock bands (much less punk rock) to long for adulthood and maturity. They didn't always live up to those standards, and some of them still don't, but on record John Doe and Exene Cervenka wrote song-length novels about trying to grow up, thrive and work out relationship drama in early '80s Los Angeles.

"In This House that I Call Home" is one of the best, with John and Exene half-harmonizing about how nobody knows the party rules, and somehow manage to complain about noise and crowds without sounding like parents. In hindsight, maybe they were addressing LA gentrification or punk appropriation, but on Wild Gift it could be anybody's home.