Teenage Jesus and the Jerks
Lydia Lunch founded Teenage Jesus and the Jerks at sixteen, and the band's songs were built to be over almost as soon as they started: brutally short, the guitar work abrasive enough to sound like strangulation. James Chance, still going by James Siegfried at the time, played alongside Lunch before splitting off to form the Contortions; both acts ended up on No New York. A 1977 interview for the fanzine FFanzeen captures the band's contempt in real time. The interviewer, walking in cold with no idea who any of these people were, came away convinced the whole thing was theater: 'It is not that this band is obnoxious, but that it is bullshit obnoxiousness. Their attitude is their gimmick. People like to be assaulted, as long as they know there is no physical threat.' That hostility was the point. Teenage Jesus stands as one of the four groups that defined no wave's anti-commercial aesthetic on record.
At a glance
- Active
- 1976–1979
- From
- New York City, USA
- Listening guide track
- “Popularity Is So Boring (Live at Max's Kansas City, 1978)”
Listen
In the NYC No Wave listening guide: “Popularity Is So Boring (Live at Max's Kansas City, 1978)”
In the issues
- NYC No WavePrincipal · 1977-1984
NYC No Wave is a music scene from Lower Manhattan, New York City, 1977–1984. Its principal artists include Suicide, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Sonic Youth and The Contortions. This issue covers 10 essential albums and 14 dated events.
Family tree
Bands that shared members with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and who.
- Sonic Youth1981–2011Jim Sclavunos
Voices
Quotations from the issues, each matched word for word against the source it links to.
“The ultimate goal of the group is to annoy. We just want to show the other bands how bad they are. New Wave is dead wave. There's no such thing because all the New Wave bands are re-hashed Who. We have one influence: I live in front of a factory. That's the only influence.”