Teenage Jesus & The Jerks – Orphans

The anti-everything of No Wave was a collective caterwaul that defied categorization, defiled the audience, despised convention, shit in the face of history, and then split — Lydia Lunch

Lydia Lunch is fucking badass. It’s hard not to be inspired by someone with such a fuck you, anti-commercial, DIY attitude. An angry — and intelligent woman, she is predictably hated by many but in my opinion Lunch was, and is one of the realest people in music, straight up legit.

I came across Lydia Lunch by chance, I first heard the name after seeing her in the film clip to Porn.Darsteller’s Brigitte, in which a scene of a nude Lydia writing lustfully on the floor from Richard Kern’s film Submit To Me Now loops hypnotically on a TV screen. Sometime after I saw an LP of her first solo album Queen of Siam at a record fair and though I hadn’t heard her music took a chance and bought it. I’ll post something from Queen of Siam later but as you can guess ever since then I have been a huge fan of her work.

Orphans is the opening track of the pink EP from Lydia’s first musical venture Teenage Jesus & The Jerks. One of the most important names in New York’s short lived but influential no wave scene, Teenage Jesus’ sound is an abrasive, all-out assault on the senses. Though they are probably not too familiar a name outside underground circles, and despite leaving only 18 short recorded tracks they were a huge influence on later post-punk bands including The Birthday Party and Sonic Youth as well as the burgeoning noise scene.

I think the film clip posted at the top was made by a fan but unfortunately I don’t have any more details.

Teenage Jesus & The Jerks – Orphans

The next film clip by my girl Jackie Ransom, from her upcoming album Cell Death. The song is about a giant fish that eats children, be afraid. No MP3 with this one, you will have to wait for the album to drop later in the year. Another sweet homemade video from Miss Ransom: she certainly has a way of making what was probably at one stage pretty innocent imagery look completely menacing. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

Stay tuned too for more news on my split 7″ with Jackie Ransom, featuring a track I recorded with Beta Evers from Germany. It’s coming soon on Zerohour Doom & Glamour.