Nomy Lamm
Encyclopedia
Naomi Elizabeth "Nomy" Lamm (born September 1, 1975) is an American
singer/songwriter
and political activist. Lamm has described herself as a "bad ass, fat ass, Jew, dyke amputee."
scene in Olympia, WA, where she performed with various musicians and published a zine
titled I'm So Fucking Beautiful. In 1999, Lamm released a solo debut album of punk rock
music with revolutionary
themes, titled Anthem. Originally, the record company Talent Show sought to compile the work of the various bands with whom she performed as frontperson, but Lamm chose to re-record the music as a solo project.
Later in 1999, Lamm released The Transfused, a soundtrack to the anti-corporate rock musical
that she created with The Need
. Lamm also toured as part of Doctor Frockrocket’s Vivifying Reanimatronic Menagerie and Medicine Show.
Effigy, released by Yoyo Recordings, represented a departure for Lamm, with electronica
replacing the sparse production of her previous work. "What I'm doing now is total disco
-pop
," she said at the time, "but it’s still punk because it was created through punk channels using punk ethics." Thematically, Effigy continued Lamm’s call for a revolution
, but this album's focus was on an internal, rather than external revolution.
Lamm continued to publish zines, and she also gave theatrical college lectures on fat oppression
, sometimes dressed in fairy
wing
s and waving a magic wand. For this, Lamm was nominated for Ms. Magazine
's "Woman Of The Year" award. Lamm also toured as part of the spoken word
performance troupe, Sister Spit
, and wrote as a regular columnist for Punk Planet
magazine.
From January, 2004 until May, 2005, Lamm co-hosted a monthly genderqueer
open mike
variety show
called The Finger with Ana Jae. The show was held at a feminist sex toy
store in Chicago, called Early to Bed, and it featured live poetry
, improv, comedy
, dance
, storytelling
, video
exhibition, folk music
, rock music
, and performance art
. The Finger was said to inspire local queer people to take artistic risks and express themselves freely.
Lamm's music is featured in the 2006 documentary, Young, Jewish, and Left
. An interview with her about the connections between punk rock and Judaism appear in the DVD extras.
Lamm's most recent group musical venture is with the band Tricrotic with Marcus Rogers and Erin Daly. They have recorded one EP
.
Her current project is entitled nomy lamm and The Whole Wide World, which is a platform for collaborations with other artists, such as Dylan Shearer, Mirah
, Annah Anti-Palindrome, EPRhyme, and Felonious. She writes for make/shift magazine in the section called "every day actions." She also has performed with a Bay Area organization called Sins Invalid, a non-profit arts organization, which features performances about sexuality and disability and centralizes the work of people of color and queer people. Lamm is working on her first novel, titled "The Best Part Comes After the End".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer/songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and political activist. Lamm has described herself as a "bad ass, fat ass, Jew, dyke amputee."
Biography
Lamm was involved with musical theater during her youth. She became part of the queercoreQueercore
Queercore is a cultural and social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of punk. It is distinguished by being discontent with society in general and its rejection of the disapproval of the gay, bisexual, and lesbian communities and their "oppressive agenda"...
scene in Olympia, WA, where she performed with various musicians and published a zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
titled I'm So Fucking Beautiful. In 1999, Lamm released a solo debut album of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
music with revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
themes, titled Anthem. Originally, the record company Talent Show sought to compile the work of the various bands with whom she performed as frontperson, but Lamm chose to re-record the music as a solo project.
Later in 1999, Lamm released The Transfused, a soundtrack to the anti-corporate rock musical
Rock musical
A rock musical is a musical theatre work with rock music. The genre of rock musical may overlap somewhat with album musicals, concept albums and song cycles, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concept albums become rock musicals...
that she created with The Need
The Need
The Need was a queercore band that originated in Olympia, Washington in the late 1990s. It was formed by Rachel Carns and Radio Sloan ; both were veterans of other indie rock bands...
. Lamm also toured as part of Doctor Frockrocket’s Vivifying Reanimatronic Menagerie and Medicine Show.
Effigy, released by Yoyo Recordings, represented a departure for Lamm, with electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
replacing the sparse production of her previous work. "What I'm doing now is total disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
-pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
," she said at the time, "but it’s still punk because it was created through punk channels using punk ethics." Thematically, Effigy continued Lamm’s call for a revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
, but this album's focus was on an internal, rather than external revolution.
Lamm continued to publish zines, and she also gave theatrical college lectures on fat oppression
Fat acceptance movement
The fat acceptance movement is an effort to change societal attitudes towards fat, obese, and overweight people.- Background :...
, sometimes dressed in fairy
Fairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
wing
Wing
A wing is an appendage with a surface that produces lift for flight or propulsion through the atmosphere, or through another gaseous or liquid fluid...
s and waving a magic wand. For this, Lamm was nominated for Ms. Magazine
Ms. magazine
Ms. is an American feminist magazine co-founded by American feminist and activist Gloria Steinem and founding editor Letty Cottin Pogrebin together with founding editors Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, and Mary Peacock, that first appeared in 1971 as an insert in New York magazine...
's "Woman Of The Year" award. Lamm also toured as part of the spoken word
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
performance troupe, Sister Spit
Sister Spit
Sister Spit is a lesbian-feminist spoken word and performance art collective based in San Francisco, signed to Mr. Lady Records. They formed in 1994 and disbanded in 2006. Founding members included Michelle Tea and Sini Anderson, Other members included Jane LeCroy and poet Eileen Myles...
, and wrote as a regular columnist for Punk Planet
Punk Planet
Punk Planet was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply another genre of music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering music, Punk Planet also covered visual arts and a wide...
magazine.
From January, 2004 until May, 2005, Lamm co-hosted a monthly genderqueer
Genderqueer
Genderqueer is a catch-all term for gender identities other than man and woman, thus outside of the gender binary and heteronormativity...
open mike
Open mike
An open mike or open mic is a live show where audience members may perform at the microphone. Usually, the performers sign up in advance for a time slot with the host or master of ceremonies. These events can be focused on poetry and the spoken word, music, comedy, and the open format of open...
variety show
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
called The Finger with Ana Jae. The show was held at a feminist sex toy
Sex toy
A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate human sexual pleasure. The most popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals and may be vibrating or non-vibrating...
store in Chicago, called Early to Bed, and it featured live poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, improv, comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, storytelling
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
, video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
exhibition, folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, and performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
. The Finger was said to inspire local queer people to take artistic risks and express themselves freely.
Lamm's music is featured in the 2006 documentary, Young, Jewish, and Left
Young, Jewish, and Left
Young, Jewish, and Left is an American documentary that presents several US-based leftist Jews grappling with identity, politics, and culture.-Synopsis :...
. An interview with her about the connections between punk rock and Judaism appear in the DVD extras.
Lamm's most recent group musical venture is with the band Tricrotic with Marcus Rogers and Erin Daly. They have recorded one EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
.
Her current project is entitled nomy lamm and The Whole Wide World, which is a platform for collaborations with other artists, such as Dylan Shearer, Mirah
Mirah
Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn , is an American musician based in San Francisco California. She has released five albums under the K Records label.- Background :...
, Annah Anti-Palindrome, EPRhyme, and Felonious. She writes for make/shift magazine in the section called "every day actions." She also has performed with a Bay Area organization called Sins Invalid, a non-profit arts organization, which features performances about sexuality and disability and centralizes the work of people of color and queer people. Lamm is working on her first novel, titled "The Best Part Comes After the End".
Albums
- Nobody Knows What We've Been Through, Self-release 2008
- EffigyEffigy (Nomy Lamm album)Effigy is a 2003 album by Nomy Lamm. It combines accordion, layered vocals, sound effects, and electro-driven drum beats. Lamm's official website states the creative purpose of the album was "to create a heartfelt goodbye to her hometown and its control over her"...
, Yoyo Recordings, 2003 - The Transfused, (with The NeedThe NeedThe Need was a queercore band that originated in Olympia, Washington in the late 1990s. It was formed by Rachel Carns and Radio Sloan ; both were veterans of other indie rock bands...
), Yoyo Recordings, 2000 - Anthem, Talent Show Records 1999
External links
- Official Website
- Intercourse 2002: a Sex and Gender Spoken Word Recipe for Revolution Interview with the Portland Mercury