Lydia Lunch: Vim, Vigor, Venom

“Empowering” interviews with Lydia Lunch, plus filmo- biblio- disco- graphies and listings of selected performances and art exhibits. (History: Lydia Lunch was on the seminal NO WAVE LP (1978) with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. She has made numerous recordings (such as Queen of Siam) and has recently been playing with super-guitarist Weasel Walter.

“I finished the Lydia Lunch book in one sitting working last night at The Independent. Such interesting ideas expressed almost poetically, and I didn’t even know about her! I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do.” — G.K., San Francisco

“Lunch and Vale jump right into it: Lydia Lunch is a product of, or is, a series of, or a response to the riotous force that is revolution. You see that energy transpose onto Lunch’s eight-year-old face through the window behind which she watches the Rochester riots in 1967. From there, she lists off bands that became sources of that same force for change, “music” having become a scene to perpetuate the terrorization of the status-quo. Not that she lists them, but rather uses them in framework for the evolution of sound so that it is inextricable from the social plasma of our world. Lunch talks about transplanting herself in New York City at a young age, living in a shady apartment, playing a five-string guitar, and finding herself on stage. Defining “style” as an identification with a music scene is criticized and rejected. In fact, it becomes apparent that Lunch rejects as much as she takes in, and Vale urges on these very unfiltered, straight-up answers to the question that could be “how does one reject what inspires him or her?” From childhood to adolescence to moving the hell outta the US (Bush Administration), Lunch’s dialogue is of the contradictions that occur between bandmates, performers and audiences, individuals and society, and, of course, the individual and the self. I found the RE/search pocketbook to be a kind of Leaves of Grass that wants to go where you go and to be pulled out and read on the train for a moment’s liberation from the insanity, or in other words, for a healthy dose of rebellion.”—Helaine

Excerpt From “Lydia Lunch”:

In order for people to be attracted to music that’s so dissident–even within its own clique it has nothing to do with each other–[it has to] really draw on disparate elements. The only way to define No Wave is if it sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before, probably not even like the other groups within the movement. When you hear Punk Rock you know it’s Punk Rock. When you SEE Punk Rock it’s very obvious: you know who’s a Punker and who isn’t.

So, to me, I came out of a movement that was more defined by what it WASN’T… more defined by the fact that it was not melodic, it did not use chords, it was only connected by how disconnected it was, by how dissident it was, by how discordant it was. And that’s part of how negativity–positive negativity [!]– helped to really define what I would create, and how I have created. Taking a very negative situation which, for me, was the trauma of my birth, the trauma of being born, the trauma of religion and poverty in the nuclear family (which is a microcosm of fascism), in the inner-city ghetto, and using all that negativity positively, even if it doesn’t sound positive–because it’s a primal scream ridden with hatred, anger, and angst.

Well, I’m smiling now and I was always smiling underneath it all, you know?