No Wave Returns With Help From Lydia Lunch, Thurston Moore

Although No Wave was a short-lived New York City music and art scene, lasting approximately just four years, it was resurrected last week when Teenage Jesus and the Jerks -- a seminal No Wave band -- reunited for two heart-stopping performances in one night at NYC's Knitting Factory.

Frontwoman Lydia Lunch was joined by Jerks member Jim Sclavunos, who now plays drums with Nick Cave, and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. Although Moore was never a member of Teenage Jesus, he and Lunch collaborated together and wrote 'Death Valley '69' -- an early Sonic Youth song -- together on a bus to Spanish Harlem, Lunch told Spinner.

"Fear is an important thing," Lunch said when describing the No Wave sound. "I mean, [No Wave group] Mars were insane. This group gave you the fucking creeps. The Contortions scared you -- you thought you were gonna get punched in the f---ing face. And before that was Suicide. It was the apocalypse happening."

Atavistic Records has re-released a career spanding Lunch collection, including all the Teenage Jesus recordings and many previously unreleased live tracks. A DVD of live shows spanning Lunch's career will be released on August 6 by Atavistic through a music video distributor.

In addition, Moore is the co-editor, along with with Byron Coley, of 'No Wave: Post Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980.' The Teenage Jesus reunion show was held to celebrate the release of the book. Moore and Coley, both veterans of the scene, decided to put the book together because not only did the era mean a lot to them, there was also a wealth of material to work with.

"We had the good fortune to be introduced to Tamar Brazis, an editor at Abrams who had done the CBGB book and found some of the No Wave era photos very cool," Coley said. "She was interested in the idea of doing something more specifically about that era, so Thurston and I prepped like crazy for a couple of days, then bombed down to her office and tried to convince her that it should be a book just about the No Wave bands, and that we should be the ones to do it."

Judging by the crowded scene outside the Knitting Factory last week, the book and the scene received a welcome return.