Lydia Lunch

Lydia Lunch, born Lydia Koch and recognized as poet, actress, and vocalist, exited the pioneering New York no wave group Teenage Jesus and the Jerks to launch independent work defined by repeated partnerships, shifting lineups, and a stance of confrontational nihilism that shaped both her sonic approach and lyrics often centered on violence or sexuality. Immediately after that departure she assembled Beirut Slump, only to leave following a single release. Her first solo album, Queen of Siam from 1980, emerged as one of her strongest received projects, matching the reception later given the funk-leaning band 8 Eyed Spy. The latter dissolved after bassist George Scott died, returning Lunch to solo activity.

Following 1982’s 13.13, which included former Weirdos members, she entered an intense period of joint projects that encompassed the Birthday Party on the EP The Agony Is the Ecstasy, Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Haut, Sort Sol, Swans’ Michael Gira, and Sonic Youth associates. In 1985 she started her Widowspeak label and promptly issued the spoken-word EP The Uncensored Lydia Lunch while re-releasing earlier material, among them the 1986 two-CD overview Hysterie. Her next partnership, the first of several with Jim “Foetus” Thirlwell, reworked an unreleased 1982–1983 project involving Birthday Party players and appeared as Honeymoon in Red in 1987. The pair also put out the Stinkfist EP under Thirlwell’s Clint Ruin name in 1989. That year Lunch joined Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon in the one-time all-female noise-rock outfit Harry Crews, which recorded the album Naked in Garden Hills. Apart from the 1991 EP Shotgun Wedding recorded with ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard and her roles in underground films, she focused on spoken word through the 1990s; the three-CD retrospective Crimes Against Nature arrived in 1993, and her output continued across the decade.

Throughout the 2000s she alternated chiefly between spoken word and music while still issuing writings and taking occasional acting roles, remaining as prolific as in her earliest years. Despite numerous anthologies and reissues, she maintained a steady flow of fresh recordings, among them The Devil’s Racetrack in 2000, Memory and Madness in 2003 co-credited to Gallon Drunk’s Terry Edwards, Willing Victim in 2005, and Touch My Evil with Anubian Lights in 2006.

In 2007 Lunch and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez issued a self-titled mini-album on the Netherlands imprint Willie Anderson Recordings physically and on the guitarist’s label digitally. Contemporanea followed with the limited-edition Amnesia in 2009. That same year she formed the trio Big Sexy Noise with Gallon Drunk’s James Johnston and Ian White; Cherry Red released the album, after which the group toured Europe and Australia. The 2010 live collaboration Twist of Fate with sound artist Philippe Petit, drawn from a Berlin concert and accompanied by a film of the performance, appeared next. Lunch kept presenting work at museums and theaters worldwide and continued exhibiting her photography internationally.

The year 2013 brought several releases. Her live band project Retro Virus, featuring guitarist Weasel Walter, drummer Bob Bert, and bassist Algis Kyzis, came out on Interbang, followed by the double album Taste Our Voodoo with Petit and the experimental trio recording Medusa’s Bed alongside Zahra Mani and Mia Zabelka. In November she premiered the new piece Dust & Shadows with videographer Elise Passavant at the Louisville Museum’s exhibition Aftermath: Witnessing War, Countenancing Compassion.

June 2014 saw Lunch and guitarist Cypress Grove issue the gothic Americana love-song collection A Fistful of Desert Blues. The pair reconvened for the split album Twin Horses with doomy European folk outfit Spiritual Front, released in early 2015. Two further albums appeared in 2016: My Lover the Killer, a collaboration with French musician Marc Hurtado on the Spanish indie label Munster Records, and Brutal Measures, a live-in-the-studio recording with Weasel Walter on drums and electronics, issued on Lunch’s own Widowspeak imprint. In 2017 she reunited with Grove for the eclectic covers album Under the Covers.