Music Monday – Queen Hellraiser

artist, counter culture, feminism, interview, music monday, punk, , , , 18 Comments

The Kali of Punk

A little Lydia Lunch for Scorpio Season. The witchy, bitchy, in-your-face-ness of Lydia Lunch is perfect for now. Sometimes you have to tear it down so you can build it up – and I’d say the Kaliyuga is on, full force.

I discovered Lydia Lunch when I was 15 and starting my first band, The Liquid Faction. She perfectly embodied the anger and dissatisfaction I was feeling at the time – how I was being treated because of my gender; the horror of Ronald Reagan; the rise of the Christian Right; AIDS; people like Rush Limbaugh; the Iran-Contra scandal; holes in the ozone layer; meaningless top-40 music; how ignorance and consumption were celebrated, encouraged, and rewarded; physical and emotional abuse in my family . . . it was a shit show. When I discovered Lydia Lunch – I got the courage to rip all that shit to shreds.

I mean, her band was called Teenage Jesus and the Jerks! Holy crap! 

At 16, when I moved to New York, I used to see her around town, hanging out with Nick Zedd. I was star struck and for a time emulated her look with the black hair and pillar box red (and sometimes purple) roots, pale skin, red lips. She was smart, and sexy, and took no shit from anybody. 

She still is. And, she pisses a lot of people off. And, as far as I’m concerned, for the right reasons. She is not nice. And I love her. 

Sometimes a little dose of sour is curative. 

Trigger Warning: Death Valley 69 was a project with Sonic Youth. The video is violent – it’s about the Manson Murders. It’s the first song I ever heard with Lydia Lunch.  

Lydia Lunch has a podcast called The Lydian Spin. For the first five or ten minutes, Lydia and her partner Tim Dahl talk about current events. I find them hilarious – though you may want to jump right to the interview. This morning I was listening to Episode 65, she interviews “feminist surrealist” artist Penny Slinger.

Check out Episode 65 with Penny Slinger.

I’m still listening to the episode – but some great quotes by Penny Slinger so far are:

“Anything that keeps you in fear has power over you.“

“I don’t think being a rebel is a choice, you just don’t fit in.“

“I know I’m subversive all the time because I’m not happy with the system.”

From the Lydian Spin: The work of artist Penny Slinger includes photography, collage, film and sculpture. Slinger emerged out of the tumult of the 1960s. Like many of her generation, she went on a  quest for personal freedom and sexual liberation. Penny, channeled these journeys and desires into her collages and sculptures. All of these works are rooted in a visual language that Penny describes as ‘feminist surrealism’. This language is used to explore and investigate notions of the feminine subconscious and psyche. Penny is her own muse and in many works she uses her own body to examine the relationship between sexuality, mysticism and femininity. 

Have a great week everyone.

LLecho
Lydia Lunch from EchoMag.com – Photo by Jasmine Hurst.

Header image of Lydia Lunch from We Are Cult. More videos of her work are there as well.

Posted by

Holly hails from an illustrious lineage of fortune tellers, yogis, folk healers, troubadours and poets of the fine and mystical arts. Shape-shifting Tantric Siren of the Lunar Mysteries, she surfs the ebbs and flows of the multiverse on the Pure Sound of Creation. Her alchemy is Sacred Folly — revolutionary transformation through Love, deep play, Beauty, and music.

18 thoughts on “Music Monday – Queen Hellraiser”

  1. I’m a Lydia Lunch fan too. I met her when she performed at The Mudd Club. She was very nice to me, very cheery. I was only 18 and she was probably just humoring me by being so nice, though I’ve heard from others how great she is and that she bakes cookies for friends and all….”Queen of Siam” is my favorite from her, but I did love Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, and her spoken word (which I saw her perform with Exene).

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    1. She just did an amazing podcast post valentine’s day – her spoken word and music – I might post that one. She is so good.
      She is a champion for women – she was probably sincere.

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  2. That’s a great interview. I like near the end when she’s talking about relationships. She is so right about the cultural sense of finding mister and miss right and expecting another person to deal with and fix all your emotional baggage BS. I liked the fact that she gave public education the finger and dropped out in the 10th grade. I dropped out in my junior year of high school. I’m not quite a year older than she, but we both saw right through the public education BS in those days. It’s not much better today. Lydia’s great.

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      1. Good for you. We drop outs are the best. I’ve always been contra, although, fortunately, I didn’t have to deal with the same type of abuse you and Lydia had to deal with. But I love it when people go on about stupid drop outs and I say “I dropped out!” The person usually looks quite dumbfounded and says “But you went to college? Right?” And I say “Duh!” That’s one thing that was really great about the education system in this country. Universities recognized the uselessness of public schools and admitted people based on their good looks and talent. Well your good looks and talent, my perceived talent.

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        1. “Universities recognized the uselessness of public schools” – yup!! Up until I dropped out I was taking college prep classes since – christ – really about 6th grade. And none of it meant anything.

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          1. Our Technical Vocational Institute (TVI) changed to Central New Mexico University (CNM), a 2 year college, and took over the remedial classes from the University of New Mexico. As more students have to take remedial classes, the remedial classes at CNM is much cheaper than paying full tuition for remedial classes at UNM. However, the vocational classes have suffered at CNM. After I dropped out in 1975, I started taking classes part-time at UNM in 1976 while I worked. I began full-time studies at UNM in 1980 and finished with a Master’s Degree in 1985.

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            1. Sweet!

              I started college when I was 23, finished at 33. I got a degree with a dual major in Creative Writing and Fine Art from Hunter College in NYC. I almost got a degree in Religious Studies, too – but had enough! Started a master’s in Sustainable Communities in 2008 and realized I just wanted to write and make art – so after about a year I said enough.

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              1. I was only 6 hours away from a dual major in Art Photography and Geography. It would have been another semester to get the dual major. I said forget it, took the minor in art and went on with my master’s degree. Laurie loves school she has BAs in creative writing and art, a BFA in painting, a master’s in pure math, and a master’s in linguistics. Now she’s working on a Ph.D. in medieval studies. I’m satisfied with being an independent scholar these days. I just got a paper on La Llorona accepted into the NeMLA Conference in March.

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                1. Wow! Congrats on the paper. I am thinking about going to grad school – I’ve been fascinated with somatic psychology for years. Laurie sounds like she has a lot of really cool eclectic knowledge!

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                2. I have a paper accepted into the International Conference on Construction Grammar that was originally scheduled in Belgium last August. It’s been rescheduled for August 2021 because of covid cooties.

                  You should go for the somatic psychology.

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                4. We are planning on it next year unless they go virtual or postpone it again. We were in Paris in 2018 for the same conference. It happens every two years, I think mostly in Europe. It’s a big deal to get accepted in the ICCG. In 2018, Laurie got accepted but a couple of her professors who are renowned for their scholarship and lecture all over the world didn’t get in. I didn’t submit a paper in 2018.

                  I was really looking forward to going to Belgium last August. A blogger who lives near Antwerp and I had been planning to get together since it was announced that the ICCG was in Antwerp in 2020. Covid really screwed up our plans.

                  I got together with another blogger when we were in Paris in 2018. She gave us a tour of the 19th Arrondissement where she had lived for many years. We had a wonderful time.

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                6. Fortunately, it’s really quite minor compared to all the people’s lives who have been turned upside down and in some cases ruined by COVID. I know you’ve been locked out of performing.

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                7. HI Timothy – It’s always good to look at the bright side. Yes, ultimately this is the state, no gigs. And, I am also fortunate for my health. And time to think. 🙂 and dream!

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