Several years ago I was in New Jersey visiting my lovely sister. Each day as her and her then fiance (now husband) would cart off to work I would dutifully take the train into the city. After a few days my wandering became isolated to the Chelsea area of Manhattan, with the train trips back to Jersey being consumed with the then brand new Sonic Youth biography Goodbye 20th Century by David Browne. What I started to realize on my trips home was that I was wandering around the stomping grounds of Sonic Youth thirty years too late. I would read an address from a now defunct club and think, “I walked past that building today. I know exactly what that is, where that is.” It certainly enhanced my reading experience. If this had not been the case, I believe I still would have thoroughly enjoyed this biography. Browne explains that Sonic Youth were not just a band. They were a catalyst for a
“new generation of musicians (Nirvana, Cat Power), film directors (Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola, Todd Haynes), actors (Chloe Sevigny), and visual artists (Raymond Pettibon, Richard Prince).”
Goodbye 20th Century is just as much about the culture of the New York art scene as it is about Sonic Youth. If you enjoy listening to Daydream Nation or Goo or Washing Machine, or you just enjoy New York and 80s culture, this is a fantastic book to read. It’s amazing how many people had their careers launched by Sonic Youth. Drummer Steve Shelley discovered Chan Marshall, who goes by Cat Power. If Sonic Youth hadn’t made the jump from indie label to major label, Nirvana probably wouldn’t be as iconic as they now are. Sonic Youth actually pressured Geffen to sign Nirvana, implying they wouldn’t sign with Geffen if they didn’t. Do not overlook this book. 
If I had not read this book, I probably wouldn’t know who Lydia Lunch is. Lunch is portrayed as a real hard-ass New York artist type, at one point running away from home,
“earning spare change by pretending to collect money for cancer research on the streets of the Village. A ravaged kewpie doll with a dark mop and a lasciviously smoky voice, she had no problem confronting local icons like David Byrne and Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye on the street, where she would scream her nihilistic poems in their faces. “
She became a fixture in the New York scene when, together with James Chance, she started the provocative No Wave band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Her success and influenced a young Thurston Moore at the turn of the 1980s. Prior to his marriage to Kim Gordon or his success with music, “Moore had idolized her from afar.” After meeting Lunch, Moore was quickly swallowed up to play in a rhythm section of her band
“she likened to a good hate-fuck. Just sort of relentless pelvic pounding. The other part of his audition involved losing his virginity to Lunch – quite willingly, mind you. “
Moore admits
“She was very flirtatious. She was kind of a man-killer.”
If it seems like I am rambling about crazy people, I am, but it’s for a reason. Since reading Goodbye 20th Century a number of years back, I have known who Lydia Lunch is. When people ask I usually tell them she was a “musician, artist, anti-socialite kinda gal from the 80’s in NYC. Very edgy and counter-culture, ya know? ”
Okay. Now that you are super familiar with who she is, I’m writing to you to tell you that she has a really strange new cookbook out called Lydia Lunch: The Need to Feed. Lemme tell ya, this book is wild. Aside from recipes, the book is littered with comic-style line doodles of food, body parts, animals, and sometimes naked ladies or murder scenes. Each chapter suggests several songs to go along with the type of food you are making. Occasionally the chapters have tag lines like 
“ass-kicking, blood-pumping, tongue-swelling recipes for the masochist in your life.”
and
“outrageously quick pick-me-ups for that chance encounter or unexpected late-night visitor.”
Just to give you an idea of the dishes.
You’ll Thank Me For Kicking Your Ass Curry
Curry recipes are like dirty uncles: everybody’s got one.6 organic chicken thighs, rinsed and patted dry
4 tablespoons virgin coconut oil, divided
2 cups thinly sliced yellow onion
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 red and 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin
1 to 3 hot chili peppers such as Scotch bonnet or Piri Piri, seeded and chopped (depending on how much you want this to hurt…)
2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
Or
Kill Billy With Beef In Chipotle Marinade
When you need a meat fix, this does the trick.4 tablespoons minced chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
2 tablespoons honey
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 to 2 1/2 pounds London broil, top round, or flank steak, about 1 inch thick
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Lime wedges for serving.
If you want to know how to actually make these dishes, you should come to Lemuria and buy the cookbook.
Both of these books perfect gifts for yourself, or for that edgy friend in your life. They really are both enormously interesting on several different levels that are guaranteed to bring hearts to the eyes of anyone that looks at them.
Goodbye Twentieth Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth by David Browne, Da Capo Press, 2009, $16.95.
by Simon
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