Avsnitt
-
Reg Bloor is a guitarist, instrument builder, and founder of the Systems Neutralizers record label. For 18-years she collaborated with composer Glenn Branca, serving as a guitarist, concertmaster, and manager on international tours and multiple albums. On June 12, 2026, she will conduct Branca's Symphony No. 13 at Lincoln Center, and she is currently preparing the release of his Symphony No. 4.
Independently, Reg has released four solo guitar albums, co-founded the bands The Paranoid Critical Revolution and Twitcher, and contributed to several film soundtracks.
-
Robert "Bobby" Swope belonged to a talented cadre of avant-garde visionaries—among them Arto Lindsay, Connie Burg, Mark Cunningham, and Gordon Stevenson—who first crossed paths as students at Florida's Eckerd College in the mid-1970s. This collective moved to New York City in 1977, where they formed the nucleus of the No Wave movement alongside other luminaries like Lydia.
Bobby first met Lydia at her birthday celebration in 1978, where she was introduced to both Bobby and his sister, Liz. Captivated by their energy, Lydia invited the siblings to join Vivienne Dick and Jim Sclavunos in Beirut Slump, a side project conceived to run parallel to her band, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Bobby adopted the stage moniker Bobby Berkowitz, a satirical nod to David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam who had terrorized New York City from 1976 - 1977. Beirut Slump's tenure was brief—spanning a year of rehearsals, a single release, and three live performances—the group eventually dissolved as Lydia moved on to new frontiers.
Following his foray into the musical underground, Bobby pursued a variety of professions before co-founding a successful antiques enterprise with his partner. The business eventually relocated to Pennsylvania, ultimately paving the way for Bobby's current chapter in Mexico City where this interview took place. -
Saknas det avsnitt?
-
Lydia and Tim are on a whirlwind tour right now, hitting stages in Brazil, Australia, Japan, and Europe! The heavy travel and intense performance schedule have made pinning them down for an interview tough, but this week we've got the scoop on exactly where you can see them live. If they are coming to your city, you won't want to miss it. Listen now to get all the details.
-
In this episode returning to The Lydian Spin is writer and artist Zoe Hansen. Zoe is a writer, video artist, and longtime friend of the podcast. On this episode she is here to celebrate a big milestone. Her brand new memoir, Going Down in Gotham, is officially out from Far West Press. It is an amazing, firsthand look at three decades of New York City's underground culture, documenting her survival and journey from a London runaway to a Manhattan madam.
-
Genre Is Death, a limitation-destroying noise band formed by Ty Varesi (guitar, vox) and Tayler Lee (bass, vox), release their debut album, Attractive People out May 1 2026 on In The Red Records.
Their sound is abrasive yet melodic, using heavy distortion, dissonant riffs, and reverberating vocals to create music that feels both minimal and overwhelming. Their newest record Attractive People, recorded by legendary sound producer Martin Bisi, prods and pushes its listener with tongue in cheek lyrics that accuse and indict their audience, cacophonous guitar shrieks of power and madness, and bass lines that oscillate from funky to erratic dissonance. While comparisons to Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks are inevitable (and quite welcome), Genre is Death build's on NYC's legacy without repeating it… eschewing nostalgia and nihilism in favor of total sonic liberation.
The duo moved from the south to NYC in August of 2023 looking for something more than their mundane lifestyle of day drinking and playing doom metal in friends' basements… Their move to NYC, coupled with their desire to express something, anything, led to the inception of Genre is Death. The pair hit the ground running, playing anywhere and everywhere they could… However, it was only after a chance encounter with 80s noise forerunners Live Skull that the pair was introduced to the strange underbelly of NYC noise and began playing regular gigs with The Art Gray Noizz Quintet and Lydia Lunch. In 2025 the pair played toured with Gogol Bordello, embarked on their first East Coast tour, and played gigs with Cherubs, Bush Tetras, and Jon Spencer. The album is out now. Order a copy here.
-
Lorin Benedict is a California-based improvising vocalist (scat singer, essentially), who operates in the fields of jazz and jazz-adjacent music. In addition, he works as a theoretical and computational applied physicist where his focus is on understanding the properties of materials in extreme conditions of pressure and temperature.
-
As the frontman for U.S. Maple, Al Johnson utilized his voice as a textural and percussive instrument rather than a melodic vehicle. His delivery consisted of rasps, sharply drawn breaths, and fragmented phrasing. Al operated with rigid adherence to a self-devised notation system, scripting every pause and vocal eccentricity in advance. This formalized approach to dissonance allowed his vocals to function not as a traditional lead, but as an integrated component within the band's broader framework of structural deconstruction.
-
Part 2 of Larry Mullin's sit down with Lydia and Tim.
-
Larry Mullins, also known as Toby Dammit, is a musician, record producer, and composer who plays drums, percussion, and keyboards. He performs as a member of the bands Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Swans, and previously played with Iggy Pop and The Stooges. He has also worked on scores for film and television and appeared in a performance role in the series Babylon Berlin. Stay tuned next week for Part 2.
-
Ian Svenonius is a musician and author who began his career in the 1980s Washington D.C. punk scene. He has been the lead vocalist for several bands, including The Nation of Ulysses, The Make-Up, and Chain and The Gang, and later released music under the electronic solo project Escape-ism. In addition to his musical output and hosting a talk show on VBS.tv, Ian has written several books of essays and cultural criticism. His published works include Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group (2012) and the essay collection Censorship Now!! (2015).
-
Norman Westberg is a guitarist known for anchoring the monolithic avant-rock of Swans. Away from the band's trademark volume, however, his solo work—like the Lawrence English-produced After Vacation—abandons traditional riffs for meditative, ambient drone. By manipulating sustained tones through effect pedals, Norman restructures the instrument's sound into atmospheric compositions. His career balances decades of dense post-punk with restrained, minimalist solo recordings.
-
Nuha Ruby Ra is a London-based artist working across music, performance, and visual art. Blending industrial sound, art-pop, and spoken word, her work explores power, instinct, and transformation through raw, physical live performance. Following two critically acclaimed EPs, she is currently creating her debut album, a project unfolding under the creative force known as NOWSYN.
-
In 1977, Gary Wilson finished recording You Think You Really Know Me in his parents' basement and released it himself. Through the 1980s, his work in experimental music that draws across styles including new wave, rock, funk, jazz, lounge, and avant-garde. developed a following. After a 1981 tour, he was largely out of public view. Gary resurfaced around 1996, and Michael Wolk filmed his 2002 return to the stage for the documentary You Think You Really Know Me: The Gary Wilson Story. Gary has released seventeen full-length albums.
-
Blake Fleming is a percussionist, author, and educator known for his work with experimental bands and for writing The Book of Rhythm, an encyclopedia of over 5,000 organized rhythms for all instruments. The book has been sold in more than 20 countries and was a top 5 instruction title in the 2020 Modern Drummer Reader's Poll, and Blake was featured in SPIN's 100 Greatest Drummers of Alternative Music. He has recorded and toured across jazz, rock, and avant-garde scenes, and his drumming has been covered by outlets including The New York Times, NPR, Spin, Rolling Stone, MOJO, Modern Drummer, and Pitchfork. In addition to studio work and teaching students worldwide through live online lessons, he has completed his second full-length album, The Beat Fantastic, scheduled for release later this summer on vinyl and digitally via blakefleming.bandcamp.com.
Blake co-founded and drummed for the math-rock/post-hardcore group Dazzling Killmen in the early 1990s, later touring with Japan's Zeni Geva in 1996. In the late '90s, he formed the experimental instrumental quartet Laddio Bolocko, and in 2001 became the co-founding drummer of The Mars Volta, recording early demos and briefly returning for touring in 2006. He went on to form Electric Turn To Me, contributed to projects like The Rollo Treadway. Blake has an extensive studio résumé, recording with Omar Rodríguez-López on multiple solo releases and contributing session work for artists including Kim Taylor, The Ropes, and Israel Nash Gripka.
-
Rhode Islander, Stephen Mattos is a musician and librarian. He's been performing since the late 2000s under the name Chrome Jackson, and his latest band is , THERE. Outside of music, he spends his time cycling, working on photography, and cooking and gardening with his wife, artist Alicia Renadette. Stephen previously co-founded bands including Arab on Radar, Athletic Automaton and Doomsday Student.
-
Sonny Vincent fronted Testors in the mid-1970s New York punk scene, playing CBGB and Max's Kansas City before the band split in 1981. He later formed Sonny Vincent and the Extreme and Model Prisoners, and went on to record and tour with Maureen "Mo" Tucker and Sterling Morrison from the Velvet Underground. He has continued releasing records and wrote the memoir Snake Pit Therapy.
-
Scott Bomar is a Memphis lifer who moves easily between the grit of garage-surf (Impala) and the deep-pocket groove of classic soul (the Bo-Keys), with credits alongside Stax/Hi orbit players and on Al Green's comeback-era sessions. As a producer/engineer and film soundtrack composer, he continues to drag the Memphis musical DNA into bigger rooms with work on movies such as Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan, Dolemite Is My Name. Scott's scores lean on funk, spy-noir, and vintage synth heat without turning into cosplay.
-
Kavus Torabi is a British musician, composer, broadcaster, and DJ known for a "bent path" songwriting style. He's worked with Knifeworld, Gong, Guapo, and Cardiacs, and now focuses on structure-driven songs, home recording, and steering clear of cliché while bringing the music in his head to life.
-
Mishka Shubaly is a nonfiction writer and storyteller known for essays on addiction, recovery, endurance, and reinvention. After earning an MFA in fiction from Columbia University, he toured as a musician before returning to writing. His seven Amazon Kindle Singles all became bestselling titles, praised for grit, dark humor, emotional honesty, and vulnerability. Each summer, Mishka teaches a nonfiction writers workshop at Yale Summer Session, helping writers refine their craft.
-
This week's episode features a conversation with critic, Byron Coley, whose work has covered experimental music and independent culture. Byron discusses Now Jazz Now, the newly published, fully illustrated 270-page softcover book edited by Eva Prinz, with a preface by Neneh Cherry and an afterword by Joe McPhee.
Now Jazz Now brings together the perspectives of Mats Gustafsson, Neneh Cherry, Joe McPhee, Thurston Moore, and Byron, compiling personal archival selections of recorded works that orbit free jazz and free improvisation. Structured around 100 essential releases presented chronologically—but explicitly rejecting hierarchy or competition—the book foregrounds album art, labels, liner notes, and collector reflections as lived history rather than canon. Byron discusses record collecting as a lifelong practice, the cultural conditions that shaped free music, and the idea of listening as an act grounded in curiosity, memory, and freedom.
- Visa fler
