8 Eyed Spy

by

Lydia Lunch and 8 Eyed Spy

Edit

but no, i'm serious, dude. this release, plus lydia's queen of siam, represent the only musically decent recordings of ms. lunch's career. sure, i like teenage jesus & the jerks, but only on a visceral level. the key here is the great backup playing by a hot band, leaving lydia to "concentrate" on her vocals. the second half is live, featuring the incredible bass playing of the late george scott III, a true virtuoso amongst punks. add pat irwin (raybeats) & jim scaluvoiucs (or however you spell it) and there's enough to distract when lydia gets too whiny. two great covers are included: run through the jungle & diddy wah diddy, both as good if not better than the originals. 8 eyed spy only lasted about a year before lydia went back to following her muse: despair, degradation, and duds. she was never fun again. and for the record, nick cave is NOT on this release, he's on honeymoon in red.

Lydia Lunch is capable of much stronger work past and present. But the reason that people praise this act is nothing more than sycophancy. Lydia Lunch hated 8-eyed spy, which was formed as an alternative to Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Beirut Slump, and ditched the band right after they had recorded the five studio tracks. Shortly thereafter George Scott died and the remaining members disbanded the act. The label, rather than release these studio tracks as a coherent EP, they crammed it full of useless live track filler, because LP's sell more than EP's.

The end result is a half-hearted album that is lop-sided. Side One really rocks, and side two is the sound of a disinterested vocalist and a stoned bassist playing around to fill for time. Get the LP and listen to side one which has the right tracks in the right order (Diddy Wah Diddy, Love Split with Blood, Ran Away Dark, Lazy in Love, Swamp, Run through the Jungle). now this is a unit that could really rock. Personally, Lydia Lunch is right, groups are good for one album.