It’s been almost forty-five years since X stormed forward with Los Angeles, a debut album of staggering confidence. In the long span since, the group has experienced ups and downs, professionally and personally. Yet, it always came across that all of them, individually and collectively, were uniquely committed to just making raw, free rock ‘n’ roll music.

All the original band members — John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake — are in the current iteration of X, and they recently announced they’re releasing one more album and going out on a farewell tour. “Big Black X,” the new single from that final album, is appropriately a celebration of everything they’ve built and experienced together: “Afterhours blues escape/ AM radio dedications/ Madison, Lincoln, any old city/ A tiny little X on a white marquee.” As always, the music blisters.

The new album from X, titled Smoke & Fiction, is scheduled for release in August.