Thalia Zedek (born 1961) is an American singer and guitarist. Active since the early 1980s, she has been a member of several notable

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

groups, including

Live Skull Live Skull is a post-punk/experimental rock band from New York City, formed in 1982. In an overview of their abrasive no wave-influenced music, ''Trouser Press'' said, "As part of the same New York avant-noisy scene that spawned Sonic Youth, Ly ...

and Uzi both of which, according to ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' magazine, "made big noise in the underground", and

Come Come may refer to: Places *Come, village of a Greek polis *Comè, a city and commune in Benin *Come (Tenos), an ancient town on Tenos island, Greece Music *Come (American band), an American indie rock band formed in 1990 *Come (UK band), a Britis ...

. Critic Heather Phares writes that Zedek's music can be defined by "the permanent, aching rasp in her voice, her guitar's bluesy bite, the startlingly clear-eyed lyrics about life and loss."

Biography

Zedek grew up in a Jewish family in the metropolitan area of

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

She attended Springbrook High School in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, where she played clarinet in the marching band under band director Charles Sickafus. The early punk era of the late 1970s in which she came of age, and in particular

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...

, contributed deeply to the formation of her musical aesthetic. While still at high school, she would travel to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

with her brother, Dan Zedek, to see Smith perform. Zedek moved to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

in 1979, attending

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

for one semester before deciding to pursue a musical career instead. Her first band, the all-female White Women, broke up after a couple of years, and she formed the Dangerous Birds. This group had somewhat more success, including a single, "Smile on Your Face/Alpha Romeo", which achieved airplay on college and alternative-commercial radio; but Zedek wanted a more "violent" sound in contrast to the somewhat "girlie pop" tendencies of her Dangerous Birds bandmates. Her next project, Uzi, worked towards this aim, producing an EP, ''Sleep Asylum''. The EP was characterized by elusive yet subtly menacing lyrics superimposed upon lugubrious but driving instrumental tracks, featuring layers of dense, murky yet muscular guitar arrangements, blended with heady synthesizer and tape effects. However, despite the promise of "Sleep Asylum", Uzi dissolved, owing to tension between Zedek and the band's drummer, Danny Lee. She next took the role of primary vocalist for

, a band already well established. While the album ''Dusted'', the first product of this collaboration, reflected an intense synergy between Zedek's vocal style and the complexly histrionic instrumental work of Live Skull, the follow-up ''Positraction'' floundered, and Live Skull also disbanded, due to conflicts, in 1990. Zedek soon co-founded

, with

Codeine Codeine is an opiate and prodrug of morphine mainly used to treat pain, coughing, and diarrhea. It is also commonly used as a recreational drug. It is found naturally in the sap of the opium poppy, ''Papaver somniferum''. It is typically use ...

drummer and guitarist

Chris Brokaw Chris Brokaw (born August 1, 1964) is an American musician, best known for his work with the bands Come (American band), Come and Codeine (band), Codeine. Life and career While studying at Oberlin College, Brokaw met many people who became figu ...

. It was with them that she had her biggest successes, releasing four albums before the group disbanded in 2001. In that same year, she also released '' Been Here and Gone'', her first solo project. Since then she has released six further full-length solo albums and several EPs. Zedek was also a participant in the 1998 Suffragette Sessions tour, organized by the

Indigo Girls Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duet (music), duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The two met in Primary school, elementary school and began performing together as Secondary school, hig ...

. In 2006, she performed at North East Sticks Together. In spite of limited commercial success, Zedek has been acclaimed by music critics throughout her career, and has arguably been deeply influential within the

indie-rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent record labels, by th ...

realm, particularly through her influence within the prolific Boston indie scene, which has spawned many noteworthy artists. She is an " out-and-proud

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

Discography

Thalia Zedek Band

Albums

*'' Been Here and Gone'' (

Matador A bullfighter or matador () is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter, and describe all the performers in the activ ...

, July 31, 2001;

Thrill Jockey Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label established by former Atlantic Records A&R representative Bettina Richards and based in Chicago. History Richards started the label in 1992 with $35,000 of family and personal capital, while ...

, forthcoming 2021 on vinyl) *''Hell is in Hello'' (Return To Sender, August 2, 2004) Limited edition of 2000 copies *'' Trust Not Those in Whom Without Some Touch of Madness'' (

, September 14, 2004) *'' Liars and Prayers'' (Thrill Jockey, April 22, 2008;

Low Transit Industries Low Transit Industries was an independent record label founded in Melbourne, Australia in 1999 by Darren Smallman (Dez Dare) and Simon Baird. The label toured and released bands across the world until 2010 when the partners closed operations due ...

, 2008) *''

Via Via or VIA may refer to the following: Arts and entertainment * ''Via'' (Volumes album), 2011 * Via (Thalia Zedek album), 2013 * VIA (music), Soviet and Russian term for a music collective Businesses and organisations * Via Foundation, a Cz ...

'' (Thrill Jockey, March 19, 2013) *''

Eve Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and there ...

'' (Thrill Jockey, August 19, 2016) *''

Fighting Season ''Fighting Season'' is a 2018 Australian television drama series that screened on Foxtel's Showcase (Australian TV channel), Showcase channel. The series is a mystery involving Australian soldiers returning on leave from deployment in Afghanistan ...

'' (Thrill Jockey, September 21, 2018) *'' Perfect Vision'' (Thrill Jockey, August 27, 2021) *''The Boat Outside Your Window'' (Thrill Jockey, May 23, 2025)

EPs

*''You're a Big Girl Now'' (Acuarela/Kimchee Records, 2002) CD only *''The Nature of Drones'' (Self-released, 2005) 7-song, 35-minute

CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can only be Write once read many, written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) ...

EP, home-recorded and self-released exclusively for the July 2005 Australian tour (remaining copies were available only through Thrill Jockey Mail Order). It contains four songs, one cover ("

House of the Rising Sun "The House of the Rising Sun" is an American traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid the ...

") and two re-workings of older work ("Evil Hand", "JJ85"). *''SIX'' (Thrill Jockey, February 24, 2014) Six-song, 29 minute EP (CD and limited LP) including a cover of

Freakwater Freakwater is an American alternative country band from Louisville, Kentucky, with one co-founding member living in Chicago. Freakwater is known for the lead vocals of Janet Bean and Catherine Irwin, who mix harmony and melody in idiosyncratic di ...

's "Flathand"

Live

*''Live at Tonic, NYC 1/16/2000'' (Self-released, 2000)

With E

* ''E'' (Thrill Jockey, 2016) * ''Negative Work'' (Thrill Jockey, 2018) * ''Complications'' (Thrill Jockey, 2020) * ''Any Information'' EP (Self-released, 2022) limited edition of 335 copies on vinyl * ''Living Waters'' (Silver Rocket, 2024)

References

External links

Biography from Matador RecordsBiography of Thalia ZedekThalia Zedek - A Different GirlInterview with Thalia Zedek on Well-Rounded Radio for 2008's Liars and Prayers albumGig Review
at Corsica Studios, London (5/10/08) {{DEFAULTSORT:Zedek, Thalia 1961 births Living people American rock guitarists 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American women guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American lesbian musicians Musicians from Boston Jewish American musicians LGBTQ people from Washington, D.C. LGBTQ people from Maryland Guitarists from Massachusetts 20th-century American women guitarists 20th-century American guitarists Songwriters from Washington, D.C. 20th-century American women singers Low Transit Industries artists 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American Jews No wave musicians