MX-80 Sound - Out of the Tunnel (1980, Ralph Records)

When I was growing up, for reasons that are still unclear to me, I had and almost instinctive hatred for the saxophone in rock music. Maybe radio and MTV were to blame, shoving the sax saturated tunes of the Boss and Bob Seger down everybody's throats, or maybe it was that dude from the Lost Boys. It was probably a bit of both. Surly I would have gotten over my disdain for this instrument much more quickly had I heard this record at a younger age.

Blomington, Indiana's MX-80 Sound (later shortened to MX-80) utilizes the sax to near perfection throughout Out of the Tunnel, their second album and their first to be released on the Residents' Ralph Records. It's refreshing to hear a punk/metal/art/noise group from this era use the instrument to complement the rest of the group's playing as opposed to the obnoxious, up front squall that was prevalent in some of their comtemporaries like the Contortions and 8 Eyed Spy.