Lach (musician)

Lach is a musician associated with the Anti-folk movement.

As a songwriter Lach founded the Antifolk art and music movement, which is cited as a main inspiration by hundreds of performers today from Beck and Jeffrey Lewis to Hamell on Trial, The Moldy Peaches and Regina Spektor in the US to the likes of Laura Marling in the UK. Lach has released six albums, as well as a new book of poetry to be published in January 2015 and a regular series on BBC Radio 4 called The Lach Chronicles which is currently on its second season.

Lach came to Greenwich Village (New York City) in the early 1980s, heading straight for Folk City. However it seemed Lach’s renowned punk/folk style was not welcome and so he moved to the Lower East Side, opening his own illegal after-hours club, The Fort. The same week Lach opened The Fort, Folk City held the New York Folk Festival, and so, Lach held the first New York Antifolk Festival. The first wave of Antifolk was born.

In 1990 Lach put out his debut CD, Contender on Danny Goldberg's (who was managing Nirvana at the time) Goldcastle label. The album received rave reviews in the press ("Lach is the spokesman for a new generation!” - Spin) and considerable radio play but unfortunately the label folded three months later. Lach moved to San Francisco releasing an EP, Family Values Pack, containing The Hillary Clinton Song which aired on over 600 stations during Bill Clinton's first campaign.

In 1993 Lach returned to New York City and started The Fort up again at The Sidewalk Cafe in the East Village, ushering in a new wave of Antifolk. In 1997 Lach started his own label, Fortified Records, and released, in conjunction with Shanachie Records, Lach's Antihoot: Live from the Fort. Fortified subsequently released downtown comedian Rick Shapiro's Unconditional Love, produced by Lach (1998) and Major Matt Mason USA's Me, Me, Me (2000). In 1999 Fortified released Lach’s second album Blang!, produced by Richard Barone (The Bongos).

18 September 2001 saw the domestic release of Lach's newest work Kids Fly Free, again produced by Richard Barone with a 16-page lyric booklet illustrated by celebrated outsider artist Daniel Johnston. Tours of the UK by Lach and other NYC Antifolkers such as The Moldy Peaches, Hamell On Trial and Jeffrey Lewis sparked the beginnings of the UK Antifolk scene inspiring such British artists as Milk Kan, Filthy Pedro, David Cronberg’s Wife, Sgt. Joe Buzzfuzz and Laura Marling. The landmark London music venue The 12 Bar Club began hosting monthly Antifolk nights called Blang! In honor of Lach’s album and influence.

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