Martin Rev, the keyboardist and one-half of the influential duo Suicide, turned 74 today. Enjoy the clip of "Ghost Rider" from 1980.
Showing posts with label Suicide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Suicide. Show all posts
Saturday, December 18, 2021
Monday, July 18, 2016
Remembering Alan Vega
[Photo this morning by Derek Berg]
Someone spray-painted Alan Vega's name on the wall here on Sixth Street at First Avenue...as mentioned previously, the co-founder of influential electronic and proto-punk band Suicide died Saturday. He was 78.
From The New York Times:
Suicide, particularly in its early years, was as much a provocation as a concert act. Formed in 1970, it was one of the first bands to bill themselves as “punk music.” With Martin Rev playing loud, insistently repetitive riffs on keyboards and drum machines and Mr. Vega crooning, chanting, muttering and howling his lyrics about insanity, mayhem and death, Suicide fiercely polarized its audiences.
In the trashy, fertile downtown New York City arts world of the early 1970s, Suicide performed at the Mercer Arts Center, Max’s Kansas City and CBGB as well as at art galleries. The band was initially a trio, including a guitarist, but by 1972 it was just Mr. Vega and Mr. Rev.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
RIP Alan Vega
[Image via]
Alan Vega, one half of the seminal electronic duo Suicide, died yesterday. He was 78.
Henry Rollins first reported the news via his website. Rollins also posted a message from Vega's family:
With profound sadness and a stillness that only news like this can bring, we regret to inform you that the great artist and creative force, Alan Vega has passed away.
Alan passed peacefully in his sleep last night, July 16. He was 78 years of age.
Alan was not only relentlessly creative, writing music and painting until the end, he was also startlingly unique. Along with Martin Rev, in the early 1970’s, they formed the two person avant band known as Suicide. Almost immediately, their incredible and unclassifiable music went against every possible grain. Their confrontational live performances, light-years before Punk Rock, are the stuff of legend. Their first, self-titled album is one of the single most challenging and noteworthy achievements in American music.
Alan Vega was the quintessential artist on every imaginable level. His entire life was devoted to outputting what his vision commanded of him.
One of the greatest aspects of Alan Vega was his unflinching adherence to the demands of his art. He only did what he wanted. Simply put, he lived to create. After decades of constant output, the world seemed to catch up with Alan and he was acknowledged as the groundbreaking creative individual he had been from the very start.
Alan’s life is a lesson of what it is to truly live for art. The work, the incredible amount of time required, the courage to keep seeing it and the strength to bring it forth—this was Alan Vega.
Alan is survived by his amazing family, wife Liz and son Dante. His incredible body of work, spanning five decades, will be with us forever.
As NME noted, the Jesus And Mary Chain, Bruce Springsteen, Thurston Moore, Nick Cave, New Order, Steve Albini, MIA and LCD Soundsystem are among the bands-musicians who have cited Suicide and Vega as an influence on their own music.
Early on, though, Vega, who was born in Bensonhurst, didn't think that people liked the band so much.
From a profile in Brooklyn magazine last December:
Vega, New York City punk icon, spent over a decade convinced that no one liked his band. “Suicide was hated by everybody. Everybody! It’s true. You should have seen the night we opened for The Ramones [at CBGBs],” he says. “They were late. Hilly [Kristal, CBGBs owner] was going nuts. So we had to go on… again! You should have heard the fuckin’ ‘Booooooooooooooooo.’ You couldn’t stop it, it was endless. Finally, the Ramones showed up, but Jesus Christ, we still had to do a few songs.”
He can laugh about it now, but for him and bandmate Martin Rev, the 70s were pretty rough. “They hated us from the day we started.” So he started swinging bicycle chains at their gigs to overtly menace the crowds unready to embrace Suicide’s brutally minimal, sorta terrifying music, because, fuck ‘em.
Updated
A few tributes via Instagram...
Thursday, December 25, 2014
'Dear Lord' — A Christmas song from Suicide
The fine folks over at Dangerous Minds posted about a Christmas song by one of our favorite bands, the misanthropy* duo Suicide.
Here are details per Dangerous Minds:
In 1981, the great no-wave label ZE Records — home to the eardrum-hurty likes of Lydia Lunch and Arto Lindsay — decided that the label would release A Christmas Record, a compilation of original Christmas music by its deeply underground artists. It seems, and was, pretty ridiculous, but that album yielded an actual enduring holiday season classic in the Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping.” Other artists who contributed were Material with Nona Hendryx, Cristina, and Was (Not Was). It was and remains deeply regrettable that Lydia Lunch contributed no Christmas song, but there was one by the equally malevolent Suicide, and another by that band’s singer Alan Vega.
Head over to Dangerous Minds for more, including the Vega track...
* misanthropy is Dangerous Mind's description. We like that.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Viva Alan Vega
Alan Vega, one half of Suicide, here with "Jukebox Babe" circa 1981.
Bonus photo:
Suicide outside CBGB circa 1979...
Friday, September 23, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Friday, September 18, 2009
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
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