Rock Docs Podcast: X: The Unheard Music with guest Juliana Hatfield

This week on Rock Docs, a classic documentary about some punk legends. Your hosts, Andy Keatts and David Lizerbram, take a look back at the 1986 film X: The Unheard Music, directed by W.T. Morgan, which surveys L.A. punk group X in the prime of their career.

X: The Unheard Music showcases the group performing many of their classic songs, including a performance of The Doors’ “Soul Kitchen,” accompanied by a super-dadcore Ray Manzarek (who produced their debut). The film also includes interviews with each member of the band as they talk about their lives and the evolution of X from its origins to more widespread success. Among some of the highlights are DJ Bonebrake playing Benny Goodman tunes on vibraphone, John Doe and Exene Cervenka covering Hank Williams together, and a fairly clueless executive discussing why he signed Point Blank (who?) over X.

This week’s special guest is singer/songwriter Juliana Hatfield. She was a member of both Blake Babies and The Lemonheads and has released 20 solo albums. (And was a guest star on My So Called Life back in 1994!) Her latest is Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO, and it’s great. (Also: did you know that Hollywood has a dark underbelly?)

Listen to the full episode below and watch the trailer for X: The Unheard Music. The film is available to stream in its entirety for free via the band’s YouTube channel.