Everything you always wanted to know about sex, drugs and urban decay, but were afraid to ask — or, welcome to a chat with a true countercultural icon (who’s humble enough to hate that word). Lydia Lunch began her career as a confrontationalist in 1976, acting as primal screamer and guitar guerrilla for seminal NYC no wave band Teenage Jesus & the Jerks. Lunch left the Jerks to form various projects before launching her solo career in 1980 with *Queen of Siam*. With a big-band cabaret sound provided by the Billy Ver Plank Orchestra, the critically acclaimed record proved Lunch could take her music in any direction. After 1982's *13.13*, Lunch began a long series of collaborations with Nick Cave and the Birthday Party, Einstürzende Neubauten, Jim "Foetus" Thirlwell, the Swans’ Michael Gira and Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon.
