Photo: Sean Carnage

It’s official—XBXRX are back.

The band’s been a cult favorite for quite some time now. I’ve always liked them because I like to watch seemingly mild-mannered guys turn a boring indie rock concert into a confusing pile of exhausted, mangled bodies. Who knew guitar, bass, drums and a larynx could be so disruptive?

XBXRX have recorded some new songs. They sound like the best thrash—brutally direct and punishing.

The reinvented XBXRX make their Los Angeles debut this Monday. Prepare yourself.

Photos: Sean Carnage

XBXRX features brothers Vice Cooler and Steve Touchstone. They started the band in Mobile, Alabama, back in 1998.

Since then, the bros have played with an array of musicians in a series of increasingly fierce line-ups. (Free metallist Weasel Walter was a recent member; he mastered the band’s new recordings.)

The new members—bassist Josh Taylor and drummer Kyle Mabson—hooked up with XBXRX in L.A. where Cooler and Touchstone recently relocated.

Cooler, Touchstone, Mabson and Taylor initially experimented under the “xBoxRox” moniker.

But a recent appearance at Pehrspace in Echo Park convinced Cooler and Touchstone that the line-up was actually to be a re-imagined XBXRX.

For bassist Taylor—a longtime XBXRX fan from Denver, Colorado—it was “A dream come true.”

XBXRX makes their Los Angeles debut this Monday at Pehrspace.

Photo: Mikhai Tran

I shot some video of Vice Cooler and the other XBXRX guys tonight. Vice is so dedicated to music, yet wise enough to not take life too seriously. He wears some cool ass fashions too (check the leggings).

Watch the exclusive video

Play & download the new XBXRX song “I Can See”