No Wave icon Lydia Lunch chats with Music 101's Emma Smith.
Lydia Lunch. Photo: Unknown
Introduced to the underground New York Music scene in the mid-70s by Alan Vega and Martin Rev of Suicide, young Lydia Koch was nicknamed Lydia Lunch for her skilful snatching of snacks for The Dead Boys.
She promptly started a band, Teenage Jesus and The Jerks with James Chance, (later of The Contortions), and became part of an art movement which came to be known as No Wave, captured for posterity on the Brian Eno produced album, No New York.
Provocative and utterly uncompromising, Lydia has continued to write and perform since the end of her short lived band, following a solo career, other bands including 8 Eyed Spy and Big Sexy Noise, and collaborations with Nick Cave and Rowland S Howard of the Birthday Party, Sonic Youth, Henry Rollins and Michael Gera of Swans.
In the country last week to tour with Retrovirus - a new band bringing her back catalogue back to life - Lydia Lunch and guitarist Weazel Walter visit Emma Smith in the Music 101 studio.
