Lydia Lunch, Crass Lips
Lydia Lunch
“Punk is not dead. Noise is not dead. If you are listening to it and talking about it, how could you convince yourself it’s dead?” questions CamilaMaria Alvarez of avant-punkers Period BOMB with the nervy jolt of youth her conjoined first name hints at. “Who cares if barely anyone you know knows about your favorite artists? All the more reason to start your own project and start booking your own shows.” Much more has started with a lot less in the past and for the next generation of South Florida punks, weirdos, artists, and fringe dwellers, she’s the kind of spearheading multi-tasker they’ll need.
And it would only be fitting to her style to secure the first mainland South Florida gig by famed and seminal artist Lydia Lunch. Lunch, an icon of New York’s No Wave scene and an influence on the punk, avant-garde, noise, and industrial scenes that followed, has forged an entirely independent career in music, writing, art, and film and was last seen this far south in the early 90s at the defunct Washington Square. Never fearing cult status making her unapproachable, Alvarez went for the kill in the simplest and most direct fashion. “I just reached out to her through her website and wrote her a kind of cryptic message about a cool show opportunity for Basel and told her to call my hotline 877-577-BOOM.”
The perfect antidote for what Art Basel has turned into, not that it ever guised itself as anything other than a profitable mining of the art world, Lunch brings the requisite dose of angst and creativity locals will appreciate in a season that largely ignores them. The show, though headlined by Lunch, is as much a testament to Alvarez’s savvy as is her determination to give an outlet to the aforementioned punks, weirdos, artists, and fringe dwellers. Along with fellow bandmate, Gladys Nobriga, she started Crass Lips Records after a big bite from the DIY bug got them while on tour.
Citing her eclectic taste and disavowing the outmoded ideology of genre homogeneity gave the label the necessary fuel. Often vocal of seeing all of her friends at different shows but never the same one is the umbrella from which they operate and it is reminiscent of the early 90’s local scene with like-minded labels like Starcrunch and Space Cadette Records who fledged in the technological disadvantage of their eras. With eight releases under their belts, the label has upcoming tapes from Illuminati Sex Party, Problem Child, Debbie Dahmer and Miracle Swirl among others. Their Monthly Mystery Tape Club on a $5 monthly membership is another ambitious project they’re undertaking.
For now, Lunch’s first appearance on a Miami stage is the perfect and correct way of cementing this label and the efforts of its founders. “I have always been influenced by her but only recently realized how much and how deeply she is rooted in everything and everyone I love,” explains Alvarez. “Now it’s turned into this beautiful gathering of just about everyone I’d wish to have in my crazy femme No-Wave army in this crazy, all-too-real battle against this greed and machismo infestation destroying our country.”
Split:Lip Service feat. Brutal Measures (Lydia Lunch and Weasel Walter) at 8pm on Thursday, December 1 at Churchill’s Pub.
w. Squelchers(.com), pari∀h, Period BOMB, PLEASURES, EW (Gainesville),Pocket of Lollipops, The Grumps, Grave Moss, The Water Colors, Treasure Teeth, FAT SUN, SANDRATZ, Jellyfish Brothers, Fatal Jamz, Problem Child,Gland, Snakehole, Poncili Creacion, Moon River Cabaret, Sharlyn Evertsz,NoFace, James Benjamin, Abyss X, Burundanga, Sponge and TRESPASS.
Art & Zines by:
Valerie Bay
Marisabel Lavastida
Susana Raffo
Crass Lips Records
PORK Magazine
Coffee by Lawless Coffee and food by The Stuffed Cuban
Houndstooth Cottage will be handling the backstage while Rat Bastard handles the inside sounds & Nightbreed visuals & other surprises.
Discount $10 Presale tickets available HERE!
Crasslipsrecords.com
~ Abel Folgar
