Teenage Jesus and the Jerks
Lydia Lunch was seventeen when she started this band. Three years, a handful of songs, one of the defining No Wave statements. The guitar is slide guitar as weapon; the drums are a child's kit hit at inhuman volume; Lunch shouts the way other singers sing. Four of their songs got documented on Brian Eno's No New York compilation in '78 and that's most of the recorded legacy. But it was enough — the entire subsequent history of noise rock passes through this band.
People
No wave's defining figure. Seventeen years old when she started Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, wielding a slide guitar like she was trying to carve her initials into it. Kept going forever after — 8 Eyed Spy, 13.13, Harry Crews (with Kim Gordon), spoken word, film, writing. Still the most uncompromising person to ever come out of the NYC underground.