(Credits: Far Out / IMDB)
Sat 6 September 2025 0:00, UK
Pop music is a far more diverse and expansive landscape than it is credited as, incorporating a plethora of different artists and atmospheres, and even then, it is difficult to imagine the subversive stylings of no wave queen Lydia Lunch rubbing shoulders with the world of pop.
Lunch emerged onto the scene in New York during the mid-1970s, at the peak of the punk explosion, but her work didn’t tend to fit in with the buzzsaw sounds of CBGBs.
Instead, the songwriter became immersed in the underground, befriending the likes of Suicide and James Chance, and becoming a key figure within the development of the no wave scene in the process. A subversive reaction against the mainstream relevance of punk and new wave, no wave was far more experimental and abrasive, which suited Lunch’s sensibilities perfectly.
During the early days of the scene, Lunch’s cult status was affirmed by her time with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, but it was her subsequent solo career which really cemented her distinctly dissonant aural world. In turn, that trailblazing sound inspired the next generation of DIY experimentalists, in the form of Sonic Youth.
Disciples of the no wave scene, Sonic Youth were endlessly indebted to folks like Lunch, Glenn Branca, and Alan Vega, who all acted as mentors of some kind during the early days of the outfit. In fact, an early highlight within Sonic Youth’s discography came in 1984, when they collaborated with Lunch on the haunting anthem ‘Death Valley ‘69’, written by the no wave pioneer alongside Thurston Moore.
A nihilistic, nightmarish tale seemingly revolving around a brutal kidnapping and murder deep in Death Valley, with heavy connotations of the Manson Family, the song is hardly a sunshine summer anthem. Then again, its unsettling presence and darkly morbid lyrics are about what you would expect from a collaboration between Lydia Lunch and Thurston Moore. Even still, the former was not overly pleased with the reception of the song following its release in 1984.
Namely, the song was listed as one of 50 “most evil songs” by Kerrang in 2020, to which she responded, in an interview with Songfacts, “Obviously, they haven’t heard the other 49 that I probably co-wrote as well”. Lunch seems to have a very different view of the song and its inherent mood than most, continuing, “That’s a happy pop song. Read into it what you will. Evil? I guess. I have far more malignant material than that. More terrifying, that’s for sure”.
According to the songwriter, the darkness of the track came from a real place. “One of my co-stars in the film Fingered, Martin Nation, he grew up in Topanga Canyon, and when he was about 12, they [the Manson Family] had a bus propped there and they tried to wrangle him onto the bus,” she revealed.
Still, it is difficult to imagine a “happy pop song” about the Manson Family attempting to abduct a young boy, but perhaps that is as close as Lunch’s dark and abrasive material comes to upbeat pop energy. Either way, ‘Death Valley ‘69’ remains a beloved no wave anthem, and a pretty flawless choice for any Halloween party playlist, too.
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