Lydia Lunch has defied classification for three decades, consistently thrilling her audiences with rebellious, rousing expressions of her aggressive defiance. Her versatility, both in range and media, has established her as an icon for generations of women from 70s feminists to the new millennium's post-post-feminists. Collaborating with a dizzying array of artistic visionaries-Nick Cave, Einsturzende Neubauten, Mark Almond, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Hubert Selby Jr., and Richard Kern-Lydia Lunch has made her mark in film, spoken word, acting, photography, music, and writing. Her frank sexuality and aggression have defined her as a "confrontationalist," and an inexhaustible woman ready to challenge the mores and values of an apathetic, patriarchal, capitalistic society. Make no mistake-she'll be seizing hostages.

We caught Ms. Lunch before her Calliopefest performance in Hollywood, where she will be performing with Ani Di Franco, Melissa Ferrick, and other local and national bands: Pank Shovel, Remember the Ocean, Diane Ward, The Amy Steinberg band, and many more.

How were you first inducted into the New York punk scene? I read you were never interested in the punk scene specifically, but just got lumped together with the movement.

I hit NYC in 1976, drawn to the music of The Voidoids, Television, Patti Smith. My goal was to create a musical genre that went beyond these influences because I felt they were still too traditional. I wanted to expand the limitations of rock music.

How do you think the No Wave bands of the late '70s affected the music and culture of the period?

No Wave was important because it rebelled against its influences…most of the music out of NYC from 1977-1980 sounded completely unique. Still does. I never liked punk rock- Liked the politics, hated the music. Not diverse enough. I was always confrontational, but punk was a "movement." I felt I've always stood outside of everything. An army of one.

You have collaborated with so many talented musicians and producers. Have there been any projects/ instances that really stand out? Is there anyone else you'd like to work with?

I'm amazed I was able to coordinate, produce and collaborate with as many people as I have. I will always continue to do so. Bringing two disparate energies together creates something that would have never existed unless under those conditions. I'd love to work with Eminem , who's more punk than punk at this point...I think he's really brave to reveal so many horrifically intimate details of the squalor he's survived. I feel he's vastly misunderstood. He's a hurt little boy who's still lashing out. I can relate! I'm still lashing out too...at our fathers, the nuclear family, God the Father, The 'Father' of our country...

What are your views on women in music today? What are you listening to recently?

I could harp all day about how awful all these pop-porn-post-punk-commercial cyborgs are...I'd rather focus on who's GOOD... Carla Bozulich has just recorded a cover LP of Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger...Neko Case, Diamanda Galas, The BellRays, Norah Jones, Jill Tracy, Jill Scott, Ani Di Franco…it depends on what you focus on. Politically I focus on what offends me, culturally I focus on what stimulates me...writers like Wanda Coleman, Rachel Resnick, Karen Finlay... as far as music, all I listen to is rap, murder rap, blues or jazz.

Are you a fan of the internet? Do you believe it has helped or hurt your career?

I am one of the most stubbornly independent, outrageously prolific people on the planet. The internet should serve as the encyclopedia it is.. When your time becomes too monopolized by any one thing, whether it's TV, bars, drugs, relationships, or net surfing, then you've got a problem. How we waste our time is the first question everyone should ask themselves first thing every morning. Get a grip on where the hours bleed, and you'll get a lot more done.

Do you believe that there is more apathy today as people are bombarded with increasingly inane media and attention spans are decreasing in younger audiences?

500,000 people marching on Washington the weekend of January 18th doesn't sound like apathy to me...there are more anti-war protests now then even during the Vietnam War...again it's where you decide to focus...watch too much TV and you'll become as stupid and vapid as everything they force feed you.

What can we expect from your performance at Calliopefest?

I will be doing an anti war rant entitled MURDERED SONS which will be offset by a few illustrated word pieces involving musical soundscapes. Expect an aggressive impassioned plea for a return to sanity...

What are you working on currently?

Finishing a musical LP with Anubian Lights , and have just sent to the printers a 288 page anthology which I'm self-publishing entitled Sex and Guts which I co-edited with my partner Gene Gregorits. It is a book featuring interviews and articles on over 40 independent film, music and literary visionaries. John Waters, Margaret Cho, Jello Biafra, Laila Nabulsi who spent 17 years in order to bring Hunter S Thompson's FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS to film, Nick Tosches, Selby and quite a few truly underground artists. I feel it will be an important handbook to those who feel the urge to DO IT YOURSELF.

You have become an icon over the last 20+ years... now what are your goals for the next 20?

Thanks, but I don't think of myself as one. I just do what I HAVE TO DO. Continue uninterrupted to create in a multitude of formats which all share the same intent: urgent passionate discourse on the insane state of global and sexual politics, while at the same time encouraging others to do the same.

Lydia Lunch will be performing on Saturday March 29th at Calliopefest in downtown Hollywood at Young Circle Park, approximately three miles east of I-95 on Hollywood Blvd. Visit the Calliopefest website for more information: www.calliopefest.com

For more information on Lydia Lunch, please go to

www.lydialunch.com

Can't Stop the Love

Lauderdale's Langerado Music festival hits the G-spot, and the O'Jays ride the Love Train at Riviera's Jazz on the Beach

"I'm really stoked about that festival. I think Medeski, Martin and Wood are on it, plus lots of other cool people. I think Moe's gonna be there," the slow, homeboyish voice says over the phone.

But this isn't some local stoner talking about the weekend activity. This is king Philadelphia funkster Garrett Dutton, better known as G. Love: vocalist, guitarist, and harmonica player for G. Love and the Special Sauce. He's speaking from his hometown about performing at the Langerado Music Festival in Fort Lauderdale on March 9.

The inaugural Langerado is billed as a jam band extravaganza featuring over a dozen acts. But for at least an hour, when G Love and his sauce mates, drummer Jeff Clemens and upright bassist Jim Prescott, are on stage, the jamming is going to take a decidedly funky sway.

G. Love's sound is not just funky, a la George Clinton. G. Love's sound is funky like a blanket in a music store-he can cover anything with it. He mostly decides to cover hip-hop beats set to a bluesy, brewing rhythm, paired with his dawdling raps. But he doesn't stop there-ohh no. Actually, G. Love is known for borrowing sounds from many genres and placing his own mark on them.

Nowhere is this more evident than on his latest album, Electric Mile, where G. Love touches base with everything from reggae on the tune "Unified" to Zydeco and rock on "Night of the Living Dead," which features guest John Medeski. Of course, there's also that loping rap and funky blues that G. Love generously spreads across all five of his albums.

Does this hodgepodge of sounds ever get awkward? "No," G. deadpans, sounding surprised. "There's definitely some shit that works better than others. But music for me always seems to work out," he elaborates. It's all on the same vibe."

It's that vibe that brings G. Love into the studio where he's calling CLOSER. He's in the middle of recording an untitled record, which should be released sometime in the last half of the year. "This one will have more beats, more of a hip-hop blues thing," he says about the upcoming disc.

G. knows a little something about beats. It was the infectious self-titled first album in 1994 that put Love and company all over the college radio map. Out of the 14 tunes on that release, who could forget the classics "Cold Drink" and "Baby's Got Sauce"? Likewise, every album after that sported at least one college radio hit-"Kiss and Tell" from Coast to Coast Motel; "Stepping Stones" off of Yeah, It's That Easy; Philadelphonic's "Rodeo Clowns;" and Electric Mile's lead single, "Unified." Despite the string of strong material, G. Love never quite managed to find the success that the nearly gold first album brought. But as G. sees it, he's still ahead of the game.

"I never thought that it would ever be on the scale that it turned out to be," he says about success and what he thought his music career would be like when first starting out.

"The sound really caught on at an underground level. Our sound hasn't gotten too over exposed, so the people who found out about us really cared about us. It was like they kinda had to work to find out about us."

And if by chance someday the band breaks out of the underground and gets major radio play-all the better.

"One of my goals is to reach as many people as possible with my music, so I think it'd be great to be on the big commercial stations," G. says sincerely, and then adds a note of sarcasm. "After all, I think my sound sounds great. So I don't see any reason why they shouldn't put it on the radio."

His sound is great-so is his productivity. After their debut, instead of drifting away like the flavor of the month, G. Love and the boys hit the road at a fierce pace. Even today, they still perform anywhere from 150 to 250 shows a year.

They also hit the studio. Each of their five discs has at least 12 tunes on it, most of them originals.

"I usually go into the studio with at least 20 songs," he says about recording. "Right now, with the new record, it's been a couple of years since I recorded. So I really have a lot of material, somewhere like 60 songs in numerous freestyles."

Even though that's enough material for about six records, G. Love shrugs it off as business as usual: "I just get in a zone, and when I get a chance to do my thing I can really write a lot of tunes. Sometimes I write a couple a day. Other times I might go a couple of weeks before I write one, but I'm always thinking about them."

See G. Love at the Langerado Music Festival
Fort Lauderdale Stadium (Commercial Blvd, between I-95 and the Turnpike)
Saturday, March 8. 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Tickets are $32.50 and are available at Langerado.com, 1-800-594-TIXX (8499), and select outlets.

Also playing: Moe; Medeski, Martin, and Wood; The Charlie Hunter Duo; The Codetalkers featuring Col. Bruce Hampton; MOFRO; Rev. Jeff Mosier and the Ear Reverends; Hashbrown; Almost Acoustic Band; Swayback; Kynda; Jerrods Door

Get on Board

Not many bands can claim a lifespan of over forty years. And those that can are either recycling moldy material, or making old fools of themselves on stage-or both. But the O'Jays-the Cinncinati-bred R&B legends, are physically and musically ageless: the trio took off in 1972 with the release of "Back Stabbers," a tough-talking hit about music-industry powermongering ("They smile in your face/all the time they want to take your place"), and the funky, up-tempo happy hit, "Love Train," a tune still impossible to sit down to. The group has lost a few original members (William Powell died of cancer in 1977), but they've never stopped chugging along the rails to surefire hits. As late as 1993 they were topping the charts: Heartbreaker was an R&B top ten, and their newest album, Love You To Tears, is their 28th release.

The O'Jays are one of two headline acts for this year's "Jazz on the Beach," the hoppin and boppin two-day outdoor festival, now in its third year, that begins at sunset on Friday March 28th and ends at midnight the next day. And the festival couldn't have a nicer setting: Roy Ayers, James Rivers Movement, Bob Baldwin with Marion Meadows & Tonni Smith, and a full line-up of national acts will play against the sparkling backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean on Singer Island. Look for other familiar names: pianist/vocalist and political gadfly David Paladino will be belting out his signature martini music, and local jazz legend Melton Mustafa will be making his Melton magic, along with Klassique, the Phat Cat Players, and many more.

Vendors will be selling food and drink, but bring your own blankets, beach chairs and sun screen. Tickets are $10 a day.

Jazz on the Beach
The Third Annual Riviera Beach Jazz & Blues Festival
March 28-29, 2003
On the beach at Singer Island, across from Ocean Mall
Tickets: $10 per person per day, Students with ID $5, Seniors 55+ and children 6 and under free
Availability: Plenty of tickets available at the gate. Advance tickets available Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pm at Riviera Beach City Hall and Riviera Beach Marina. To purchase by phone on a credit card, call (561) 845-3402.
Headliners: Roy Ayers (Friday) and The O'Jays (Saturday)
Times: Friday: show starts 6pm
Saturday: Gates open noon.
For more info call 561-845-4095