"Road Rant - A Week On The Road With Lydia Lunch" DVD (director: Merrill Aldighieri)

Lydia is unquestionably one of subversive rock's first ladies, having led no-wave progenitors Teenage Jesus And The Jerks and working alongside such names as Einsturzende Neubauten, Foetus, Swans, Sonic Youth, and the Birthday Party. She's done extensive work in music, film, and print, and deserves "legendary" status, for sure. This is a documentary of her 2007 French tour to promote her book, "Paradoxia", and it's a curious look at her persona onstage and off.

Swinging back-and-forth between Lydia's spoken cabaret performances and some travel and tour footage with bandmates Joe Budenholzer and Terry Edwards, "Road Rant" is a mixed bag. Lydia's usual confrontational dissection and dissertation on sexual politics is tiring and overdone. Where director Aldighieri succeeds is in showing Lydia "opening up" to more honest opinions and attitudes, outside of her public persona. She undoubtably has tons of stories to tell, and much insight. As it stands, "Road Rant" is an interesting look at Lydia Lunch, definitely worthy for fans but I don't think it's going to convince her detractors that she's much more than an aging punk rocker who's bitter about life. (MVD Visual)

Lydia's official website

Teenage Jesus And The Jerks - "Beirut Slump / Shut Up And Bleed" CD

This new collection of early (1978-79) work from a young Lydia Lunch and friends is a welcome summation of this post-punk chanteuse's classic (and timeless) no-wave proto-noise rock, including just about everything from the band's rare 7" singles, 12 inches, and compilations. This 29-song compendium also generously provides some unreleased bits from Beirut Slump sessions (with vocalist Bobby Berkowitz, who sounded a little bit like Marc Almond if he were really strung out).

Heralding the soon-to-be-vital NYC scene that spawned peers like Sonic Youth and Swans, Teenage Jesus and Beirut Slump's live shows were fiery and intense exercises in endurance and exorcism, eviscerating audiences with their shards of broken-glass guitars, rudimentary drums, and Lunch's atonal shrieks and agonized wails. You could probably consider this 'punk', in a loose way, but Lunch's marriage of visceral aggression to a looser, more experimental and even almost jazz/improv vibe places them firmly into more avante-garde territory. Cuts like the feral 'Less Of Me' showcase Lunch's spunky back-alley attitude, and the haunting whirlwind of the aptly-titled 'Tornado Warnings' show the force that TJ&TJ were capable of. Of note as well is drummer Jim Sclavunos, who has since gone on to join Nick Cave's Bad Seeds and Grinderman.

Lydia has since grown up, and has gone on to refine her primal anger and biting cynicism at our troubled culture through other mediums, but never has her attitude been so brutal and primal. Essential works here. (Atavistic)

Lydia's website