Beirut Slump was Lydia Lunch’s side project while she was in Teenage Jesus & The Jerks. Other members include underground filmmaker Vivienne Dick, artists Jim Sclavunos, Liz Swope and Bobby Swope. It was mainly for a collaboration with Lunch for a short film, but other artists from the scene had learned that they were doing music together and asked them to do some live shows which includes performing at one of Andy Warhol’s house parties.
For this unruly combo, Lunch steps aside to concentrate on her trebly, nightmare-surf strumming and assigns the vocals to Bobby “Berkowitz” Swope, who sings like a nauseous, homosexual Frankenstein menacing you with an icy growl. Vivienne Dick’s B-movie organ disfigures The Doors into a bad-acid freak show; Sclavunos and bassist Liz Swope’s sluggish tempos anticipate the cruel plod of early Swans.
They released a 7” Try Me / Staircase in 1979. Some unrealeased tracks appeared on Lydia Lunch’s compilation “Hysterie” |
