Teenage Jesus and the Jerks

2025-05-30T22:31:59Z

68.237.5.26: I would like to give a shout out to unfunny haters who took away the joy of people seeing that it said Teenjus in the infobox

{{Short description|American no wave band}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Teenage Jesus and the Jerks
| image = Teenage Jesus and the Jerks (2584307444).jpg
| landscape = yes
| caption = [[Jim Sclavunos]] and [[Lydia Lunch]] performing with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks in 2008
| background = group_or_band
| alias = Teenage Jesus & the Jerks
| origin = [[New York City|New York]], United States
| genre = [[No wave]]
| years_active = 1976–1979, 2008
| label = Migraine, [[ZE Records|ZE]], Celluloid
| associated_acts = [[8 Eyed Spy]], Beirut Slump, [[Lydia Lunch]], [[James Chance and the Contortions]], Friction
| past_members = [[Lydia Lunch]] [[James Chance]] [[Friction (band)|Reck]] Bradley Field [[Gordon Stevenson]] [[Jim Sclavunos]]
}}

'''Teenage Jesus and the Jerks''' were an American [[no wave]] band, based in [[New York City]], who formed part of the city's [[no wave]] movement.<ref name="AllMusic">{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/teenage-jesus-the-jerks-mn0000018753 |title=Teenage Jesus & the Jerks – Music Biography, Credits and Discography : AllMusic |last=Huey |first=Steve |work=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=June 9, 2013}}</ref>

== Background ==
[[Lydia Lunch]] met saxophonist [[James Chance]] at [[CBGB]] and moved into his two-room apartment. She started to combine her poetry with acoustic guitar and was spurred to start a band after seeing one of [[Mars (band)|Mars]]' earlier performances.<ref>Moore and Coley, p. 13</ref> Lunch found guitarist [[Friction (band)|Reck]] at CBGB and recruited him as a drummer, later moving him to bass. They formed a band called the Scabs and briefly added [[Jody Harris]] to their line-up. Lunch knew Bradley Field through [[Miriam Linna]] and convinced him to join in early 1977.<ref>Moore and Coley, pp. 19–20</ref>

The band put together a ten-minute set of very short songs.<ref>Moore and Coley, p. 20</ref> It released only a handful of singles.

Featured on the seminal ''[[No New York]]'' LP, a showcase of the early [[no wave]] scene, compiled and produced by [[Brian Eno]], the group left behind little more than a dozen complete recorded songs. Most of the surviving titles were collected on the eighteen-minute career retrospective compilation ''[[Everything (Teenage Jesus and the Jerks album)|Everything]]'', released in 1995 through Atavistic Records. However, other studio versions of several songs exist, alongside a few live recordings.

The group disbanded at the end of 1979, only reuniting briefly in 2008 for a small number of performances with former bassist [[Jim Sclavunos]] on drums and [[Thurston Moore]] on bass guitar.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://larecord.com/interviews/2009/10/06/teenage-jesus-and-the-jerks-lydia-lunch-interview-nothing-could-possibly-disgust-me |title=TEENAGE JESUS AND THE JERKS: NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY DISGUST ME|publisher=[[L.A. Record]] |date=2009-10-06 |access-date=2020-03-21}}</ref>

== Musical style and philosophy ==
In his book ''[[Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984]]'', [[Simon Reynolds]] identifies Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as an exercise in rock sacrilege:

<blockquote>Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and their comrade bands [[Mars (band)|Mars]], [[James Chance and the Contortions|Contortions]] and [[DNA (American band)|DNA]], defined radicalism not as a return to roots but as deracination. Curiously, the no wave groups staged their revolt against rock tradition by using the standard rock format of guitars, bass and drums. It was as if they felt the easy electronic route to making post-rock noise was too easy. Instead, they used rock's tools against itself. Which is why no wave music irresistibly invites metaphors of dismemberment, desecration, defiling rock's corpse.<ref name="Reynolds">Reynolds{{Page needed|date=January 2015}}</ref></blockquote>

Lydia Lunch has voiced her disdain for punk rock, claiming in ''Rip It Up'': "I hated almost the entirety of punk rock. I don't think that no wave had anything to do with it. Who wanted [[guitar chord|chords]], all these [[chord progression|progressions]] that had been used to death in rock? To play [[slide guitar]] I'd use a knife, a beer bottle... glass gave the best sound. To this day I still don't know a single chord on the guitar."<ref name="Reynolds"/>

==Discography==
===Singles and EPs===
:{| class="wikitable"

!rowspan="2"| Date
!rowspan="2" style="width:14em"| Title
!rowspan="2" style="width:14em"| Label
!rowspan="2" style="width:7em"| Format
|-
!| Catalogue
|-
|| May 1978
| "Orphans"/"Less of Me"
| Migraine Records
| 7" vinyl
| style="text-align:center;"|CC-333
|-
|| April 1979
| "Baby Doll"
| Migraine Records
| 7" vinyl
| style="text-align:center;"|CC-334
|-
|| 1979
| ''[[Teenage Jesus and the Jerks (album)|Teenage Jesus and the Jerks]]''
| Migraine Records
| 12" pink vinyl
| style="text-align:center;"|CC-336
|-
|| 1979
| ''[[Pre Teenage Jesus and the Jerks]]''
| ZE Records
| 12" vinyl
| style="text-align:center;"|ZE12011
|}

===Compilations===
* [[Lydia Lunch]] - ''[[Hysterie]]'' (Widowspeak - 1986)
*''[[Everything (Teenage Jesus and the Jerks album)|Everything]]'' (1995 - [[Atavistic Records]]) - this claims to be a compilation of the original Teenage Jesus tracks, but is, in fact, merely side one of Lydia Lunch's 'Hysterie' compilation album, featuring material remixed by [[J. G. Thirlwell]], credited under his pen name Clint Ruin.
*''Shut Up and Bleed'' (2008 - [[Atavistic Records]]) - this actually is the original Teenage Jesus recordings, including all of the material from the singles and EPs and all but one song from the "No New York" album
*''Live 1977-1979'' (2015 - Other People) - compiles material from six different live recordings
*''Discography'' (2015) (via Bandcamp) - A compilation of the "Pink" EP, "Pre" EP and the tracks from the "No New York" compilation. Tracks 1-10 were transcribed from vinyl copies, as master tapes are no longer available.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lydialunch.bandcamp.com/album/discography|title=Discography, by Teenage Jesus and the Jerks|website=Lydialunch.bandcamp.com|access-date=14 October 2021}}</ref>

===Appearances===
*''[[No New York]]'' (1978 - [[Antilles Records]])

==Notes==

{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=Thurston |author-link1=Thurston Moore |last2=Coley |first2=Byron |author-link2=Byron Coley |year=2008 |title=Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976–1980. |publisher=[[Abrams Image]] |isbn=978-0-8109-9543-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/nowavepostpunkun00moor }}
* {{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Reynolds |year=2005 |title=[[Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984]] |publisher=[[Faber and Faber Limited]] |isbn=0-571-25227-3 }}

== External links ==
* {{Discogs artist}}

{{Teenage Jesus and the Jerks}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:No wave groups]]
[[Category:Musical trios from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1977]]
[[Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1979]]
[[Category:Musical groups from New York City]]
[[Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2008]]
[[Category:ZE Records artists]]
[[Category:1977 establishments in New York (state)]]
[[Category:1979 disestablishments in New York (state)]]

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Teenage Jesus and the Jerks