Lydia (, take me out to) Lunch
 

She was in the No Wave band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, who SY has cited as an influence and referenced in their videos. She was also hott as shit:



Post yr favorite Lydia Lunch pics! (Hint: she was in a bunch of grimy art-porns in the early 80s...) Go nuts!

Lydia Lunch hey? I like the look of her, tell me more.

Another low-hanging fruit for me:

Who iz sheee? She lookz gud though. Hmmmm....tasty gal.

This is what her music sounded like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTt2ScrvU-A

Also this:

Heavens to betsy she sounds feisty.

Dood dats TEH SHEEEET!! LUVIN IT!

I c u like Coachwhips and Nice Face 2! DOOOD MARRY ME!! SONIC LIFE!!!

NOISIEST MARRIAGE!! LESS GO!!

Daaaamn giirrrrlllll pullover and gimme summa dat.

What, some marriage? Or some Lydia Lunch? You're entitled to either

Lydia has a cooking book out in September.

More details here: http://www.rizzoliusa.com/book.php?isbn=9780789324382


''Underground legend Lydia Lunch presents witty and provocative recipes for feeding your friends and lovers nourishing, deeply satisfying food while maintaining a hedonistic downtown lifestyle. Lydia Lunch earned her name from cooking up banquet feasts out of whatever ingredients were on hand for fellow starving artists and musicians, including Sonic Youth, Suicide, Henry Rollins, the Dead Boys, and the Butthole Surfers. In this book, she draws on her experiences and the celebration of a healthy obsession for foods that not only satisfy our craven desires but are also nutritious, delicious, and exactly what a body hard at work and play needs. This book serves as a provocative guide to setting the mood as well as the table for a rousing three-course meal—whether a quick pick-me-up after a long night, a party for a gang of pranksters, or a much-needed weekend detox to replenish the body after being depleted by glorious overindulgence. Written with sass and dripping with sexy personal asides from the racy author, this volume is an irresistible addition to every hedonist’s library.''

Oh I see what you did there. As in "I'd like to take her up the aisle*".



*This is a double entendre. Take her up the aisle (as in a church aisle) sounds a bit like, "I'd like to have anal sex with her."

See also "I've got Brown Horrocks on my extension"

Rihanna is hotter, sry.

I've never had any great inclination to talk to "famous" people I see because other than "I really love what you do" what do you say that a thousand people haven't already said?

I stood next to Lydia Lunch at the bar prior to a show she was doing about 20 years ago and aside from thinking "She's so SMALL" I just ordered my drink and talked to my chum, all the while glancing over at LL thinking "she's so SMALL".

It's great that she's so small though, it makes it easier to look down her cleavage.

Surprisingly, it's quite realistic.

Aside from "Orphans," which is seriously awesome, severe musical overratement. Never resonated with me.

I'm a default fan but tend to agree. I suppose I think of her as being more like a mascot than anything else.

Her solo stuff is more listenable... Teenage Jesus was made cool by being super-different at the time. But we've heard it all before at this point, which is why it won't resonate the same.

Also, anal sex is funny :)

Dead Boys groupie turned awful musician turned aging bitchiness. Sonic Youth have quoted tons of people as an influence...never thought Lydia was anywhere near amongst the more interesting. Sure, her look (and her look alone) was, once upon a time, "sexy"...but sexy ain't rare and very seldom is it interesting.

Some of her photography is OK. But then again, it's easy to make anything look decent when most of it is black and white.

Her appeal was in shock value, as it was with most No Wave... Looks were everything and she had a good one. It's a superficial reason to be important but it's a valid one for her circumstances.

Looks/shock value definitely were not some of the more important aspects of No Wave, even though I'm not one ignorant enough to state they don't matter within the scheme of music...they do. It's 2012...I feel for anyone that currently still finds anything she did way back when "shocking". Not like she was doing stuff that hadn't been done already...even at that time. Iggy rolled around in glass, Stiv received head on stage...big deal. She was and is notorious for talking shit about anyone with any real artistic credibility (seriously, she was stupid enough to call Patti Smith a hippie).

Sure...if she wasn't physically attractive she likely never would have amounted to much, but why does that even matter? There are those with looks that still demonstrate talent...likewise, there are those without 'em that do too.

I always found Teenage Jesus to be the bottom of the barrel as far as no wave is concerned. James Chance + DNA for the win.

Everybody's weird for weird's sake... If it wasn't for weird we would never have found out what cool was! It was and is a band-eat-band world and anything musicians and artists could do to get noticed they would do. SY did it and every other band that's big today did it. Weird sells, and there's nothing wrong with that.

And Teenage Jesus still approached music in an almost unexplored way... I don't think Lydia Lunch knows a single guitar chord to this day, and the fact that people ate it up then is evidence enough that it worked. DNA and James Chance definitely hold up better today, but Teenage Jesus was still a crucial piece of the way the scene developed, even if it was just for lyric-spittin' and shit-talkin'.

When it comes to actual music...of course it shouldn't matter. I mean, David Thomas never had a "look", physically or in choice of garb, I found particularly interesting...however, that said, THAT FACT is one of the main reasons I always dug the guy...as a person. And of course, his music is absolutely amazing.

Another way of looking at it, however (for me personally...) is that I dig fashion. I like clothes and folks that know how to where them well. I enjoy looking at people I find attractive. When you can combine good music with a good look, this is never a bad thing. Also, I trust very few that claim to have no interest in fashion/etc. It's like the flannel clad grungy16 year old that says "I hate fashion". Or the leather jacket guy w/ the mohawk...clearly, they are victims to it as well. Likely they fall more victim to it than the guy that opts for just simple jeans and a tee shirt from whatever department store he enjoys shopping at. I don't know.

Not everyone is weird for weirds sake, unless you are looking at it from some philosophical angle that doesn't much apply to this discussion. Some people feel much more comfortable within the confines of "common", even if ya get into all that "yesterday's avant garde is tomorrow's pop" stuff. And weird will NEVER sell as much as common. Usually those that rip off the weird, polish it down to something bright and shiny most can swallow, go on to make more money than those that started whatever given approach. Think: Black Flag + Scratch Acid vs. Nirvana. Glenn Branca and Tom Verlaine vs. Sonic Youth. DNA vs. Blonde Redhead..etc/etc/etc.

And to say people "ate up" what Lydia was doing then is far fetched. Countless stories exist (by those that were there) that no wave wasn't this overly popular thing at the time it was going on. Clubs w/ maybe ten people, most of which would leave before the show was over kinda stuff. If anything, people dig that stuff more today than they did at the time it was going on. Those bands didn't last long...most went on to other at least semi formal approaches to music, many dropped off the face of the map. If they were doing well for themselves doing whatever it was they were doing, they would have stuck it out far longer than the few years it lasted. Also, minimal approached, weird approaches, to music existed LOOOOONG before Lydia hit the scene. No Wave, while interesting, was arguably a more adolescent approach to what say Terry Riley and Harry Partch and the like were already doing years prior. Of course, the adolescent vibes are what pulls a lot of younger people into it...many of which will eventually go on to bigger/better things. I honestly seldom listen to any of that stuff these days. I still Enjoy Glenn Branca at times...and all of James Chance's stuff has stuck near me. James really stuck out from the rest of those guys, however. So did Branca. It wasn't weird for weirds sake....it was honest art. It was folks w/ legitimate artistic ideas that wanted to explore them and felt sincere about what they were doing. I never felt Lydia was sincere about music...that said, I also always felt she was sincere about the way she hoped her audience would react toward her music. Esp. in those No Wave days. This was cool when I was a kid...however, as an adult, I find it boring. Nothing worse than a group of "pretty people" on stage trying to shock me via ageless antics.

It's important to remember "lyric spitting and shit talking" existed loooooong before Lydia Lunch. Check" The Deviants/Stooges/Electric Eels/PUNK ROCK (who Lydia was NOT a founder of) yadda yadda yadda.

I quite like what you said about people polishing down weird bands to make them successful... What I meant by saying that people ate Lydia up was that people into No Wave at the time elevated her to one of the big players. Not even James Chance, who as you said had the most listenable style, became as "successful" as the people who polished up his style and represented it as pop music. Lydia Lunch wasn't revolutionizing music, wasn't creating a successful band or one that's listenable today, but for her time and place she WAS important and influential. And that's enough for her to earn my respect.

I much prefer Teenage Jesus and the Jerks to James Chance myself, whose records I can't work out how they got this far into the game of being appreciated other than because of the time and place they first made an appearance in a particular time and place of music-making. In saying that, I agree with SC that Lydia Lunch and TJatJ are vastly overrated. I love me a band that throws atonal ''hooks'' all over the place but I never thought they were good at that. I still can't help myself respecting her though.

I was going to comment here but ann ashtray has said it all so well I won't bother.

i want her disneyland sweater.

I must have a seriously ambiguous sense of judgement when it comes to rating ''great'' bands because I feel that personalities and egos in music very rarely live up to what they promise. I was thinking about this regarding Michael Gira, recently, and how his antics kind of annoy me after all, even though I consider Swans to be a band I love without a doubt. Their earliest records tend to be patchy and sound mostly terrible. Maybe they got the reputation because of live performances? I can't say the same about SY, who seem to have shelved the whole notion that to be assertive you necessarily need to look the part.

WOAHwhat? picture?

I like it when a band is made good by its music as much as its style. Lots of musically talented bands have gimmicks that make them interesting to look at well as listen to. SY used their artistic background and stage presence and even Kim and Thurston's marriage very effectively to create drama and intrigue. But it was only because their music was so good that people cared enough to become opinionated about them and their image.

Spot on.

Ungrateful bitch!

whome? I didn't do nuffin:(

http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/sho...postcount=1760

oword? thank you SO MUCH, Genteel Death, for posting that picture! May a hoard of eager sexual partners find their way to your private parts by day's end! :D