Lydia Lunch

Bio

Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch on June 2, 1959 in Rochester, New York) is a controversial American post-punk singer, spoken word artist, poet, writer, photographer, and actress. Her extensive, 30-year-plus body of multimedia work is characterized by its extreme obsessiveness with the darkness of the human psyche, often focusing on nihilism, rage, violence, eroticism, surrealism, and pornographic art as key points of topic. After arriving in New York City at the age of 16, she worked as a bar maid and go-go dancer at the Baby Doll Lounge on White street in Tribeca. Lydia met Alan Vega (who became her first friend in NYC) and Willy DeVille (who gave her the name 'Lunch' because she'd often been stealing lunch for The Dead Boys). Then she moved in for about a year with then-boyfriend James Chance (born James Siegfried) who had come to New York (from Milwaukee) in the last week of 1975. They lived at a funky two-room fifth-floor walk-up apartment on East 2nd street (between Avenue A and B) and at a tiny storefront on Twelfth street. Lunch moved into a large communal household of artists and musicians in NYC, including Kitty Bruce, daughter of Lenny Bruce. After befriending the 'godfathers of punk' Suicide at Max's Kansas City, she founded the short-lived but influential No Wave band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks in 1976 with her artistic partner, James Chance. Both appeared on the seminal No Wave compilation No New York. Lunch later appeared on two songs on Chance's album Off White (credited to James White and the Blacks; Lunch used the pseudonym "Stella Rico") in 1978. She appeared in two films directed by the husband and wife film-making team of Scott B and Beth B; In the short film Black Box (1978) she played an unnamed torturer, and in the feature length, neo-noir thriller Vortex (1982) she played a private detective named "Angel Powers". During this time, she also appeared in a number of films by Vivienne Dick, including She Had her Gun All Ready (1978) and Beauty Becomes The Beast (1979), co starring with Pat Place. In the mid-'80s she formed her own recording and publishing company called "Widowspeak" on which she continued to release a slew of her own material, including songs and spoken word. A self-avowed "confrontationalist", identified by the Boston Phoenix as "one of the 10 most influential performers of the '90s", Lunch's solo career featured collaborations with musicians such as J. G. Thirlwell, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Nick Cave, Billy Ver Plank, Steven Severin, Robert Quine, Sadie Mae, Rowland S. Howard, Michael Gira, The Birthday Party, Einstürzende Neubauten, Sonic Youth, Die Haut and Black Sun Productions. She also acted in, wrote, and directed underground films, sometimes collaborating with underground filmmaker and musician Richard Kern (including several films, such as Fingered, in which she performed unsimulated sex acts), and more recently has recorded and performed as a spoken word artist, collaborating with such artists as Exene Cervenka, Henry Rollins, Don Bajema, Hubert Selby Jr., and Emilio Cubeiro, as well as authoring both traditional books and comix (with award-winning graphic novel artist Ted McKeever). Simon Reynolds (author of Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984) wrote: "And although 'affection' is possibly an odd word to use in reference to a bunch of nihilists, I do feel fond of the No Wave people. ... there are great moments throughout Lydia Lunch's long discography." Selected quotations: I'm nihilistic, antagonistic, violent, horrible - but not obliterated, yet. I would be humiliated if I found out that anything I did actually became a commercial success. There’re enough happy assholes out there, why should I be another one in the line... It seems to me, that for over two thousand years now; mad-men, maniacs, and would be messiahs have been pilfering, have been pillaging, have been plundering, and have been raping the entire planet; and the way I see it, Mother Nature is getting pretty pissed off. No pornography exploits women. It exploits men. It’s the men that are made to look stupid, silly and ridiculous, chasing after the golden elixir. Women look beautiful, do what they wanna do and get paid for it. The only way to define the art of Lydia Lunch is simply not to. . User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Similar artists

Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, The Birthday Party, Rowland S. Howard, Mars, Jarboe

Genres

no wave,post-punk,experimental,female vocalists,alternative,experimental rock,industrial,noise rock,spoken word,deathrock,4ad,punk blues,gothic rock,alternative rock,actress,

Likes

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Infos

On Tour: No

country: US

City: Rochester

Begin Date: 1959-06-02

Last Update:

Artist next concerts

by

Song Kick

Lydia Lunch with Tex Perkins at Brisbane Powerhouse (June 20, 2026)

Brisbane - Brisbane Powerhouse

20/Jun

2026

Lydia Lunch at The Ed Castle Hotel (June 24, 2026)

Adelaide - The Ed Castle Hotel

24/Jun

2026

Lydia Lunch, Marc Hurtado, and Suicide at Hyde Park Book Club (HPBC) (July 10, 2026)

Leeds - Hyde Park Book Club (HPBC)

10/Jul

2026

Lydia Lunch at Quarry (July 14, 2026)

Liverpool - Quarry

14/Jul

2026

Lydia Lunch and Marc Hurtado at MOTH Club (July 16, 2026)

London - MOTH Club

16/Jul

2026

Videography

No biography registered

Artist discography

by

Last FM

Marchesa

Oct/2018

13.13

Nov/2017

Under the Covers

Under the Covers

Jun/2017

My Lover the Killer

My Lover the Killer

Jun/2016

A Fistful of Desert Blues

A Fistful of Desert Blues

Jun/2014

Taste Our Voodoo

Taste Our Voodoo

Jan/2014

Medusa's Bed

Nov/2013

Retrovirus

Mar/2013

Big Sexy Noise

Jun/2009

Master Alchemist

Master Alchemist

Jan/2009

Amnesia

Jan/2009

Frankie Teardrop - Single

Frankie Teardrop - Single

Dec/2008

Ghosts Of Spain

Ghosts Of Spain

Jan/2007

Deviations On A Theme

Deviations On A Theme

Jan/2006

Teenage Jesus & The Jerks

Teenage Jesus & The Jerks

Jul/2005

Shotgun Wedding

Shotgun Wedding

Apr/2005

Willing Victim

Jan/2005

Smoke in the Shadows

Smoke in the Shadows

Nov/2004

Memory and Madness

Memory and Madness

Jan/2003

The War Is Never Over

The War Is Never Over

Nov/2021

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