Suicide

Suicide

Suicide - What a fuckin' cool name for a band and what a band indeed!. Formed in 1970 and coming out of the same Mercer Arts scene as the New York Dolls, the band sucked up those Stooges, Velvet Underground and 60's garage classics influences and then churned them through a Vox continental, echo chamber and drum machine to produce an unholy soup of loud abrasive electronic textures. If that wasn't provocative sonically, then couple that with a confrontational singer possessed by the spirit of Iggy (and then some) and you have one of the most original bands ever. Synth punk is the only way to describe them or in their own words "Punk, Funk and Sewer Music by Suicide". Truly ahead of their time.

Martin Rev - Keyboards | Alan Vega - Vocals

So ahead of their time that deprived of the traditional guitar, bass & drums set up, audiences could just not relate to them and frequently translated this into violence, attacking the band and their instruments. If you want a band that genuinely lived on the edge this was it.

"I guess the music is as much bringing it on you might say as anything else. The sound probably starts them off somewhere inside, but the guy who's making the sound isn't always the focal point of the sound because Alan's provoking them in a visual way as the sound provokes in a musical way." Martin Rev Sounds 24.6.78

"Most people were scared of Alan, who would have a black leather jacket and a chain wrapped around his arm and wouldn't hesitate to smash the wall with the chain." Marty Thau - From The Velvets To The Voidoids by Clinton Heylin

While by 1978 the band had calmed somewhat the reaction to them certainly hadn't.

As support to the Clash in the UK in late 1978 Suicide got it pretty bad: "I got my nose busted in Crawley...In Glasgow someone threw an axe by my head! ...In Plymouth The Nazis...got me in the dressing room" Worse still was the Elvis Costello support slot across Europe marked by riots. Infamously captured on tape (23 Minutes Over Brussels) is the Brussels 16.6.78 gig where the crowd trashed the venue and riot police with tear gas entered the fray.

The band fed off this negativity so it was a surprise when playing Tiffany's Edinburgh on their own tour in 1978 and viewing a thousand people ready to charge them that they suddenly realised (and were perplexed to find) that they were dancing and enjoying themselves to Suicide's music!

Suicide - Red Star Records 1977

Only one record relased in our time period bar their contribution to the Max's Kansas City album and its a classic.

"This remarkable debut album, released some seven years after the group had formed, was still way ahead of its time back in 1978... Tough guy Vega croons like an evil Elvis bred on garage rock and performance art; the stoic Rev lays churning, repetitive, and oddly melodic lines down on his beat-up Farfisa, and the ancient drum machine--it actually sounds steam-driven--propels the music toward a ratty, Blade Runner future. "Dream Baby Dream," "Che," "Ghost Rider"--these eerie, sturdy, steam-punk anthems rank among the most visionary, melodic experiments the rock realm has yet produced."
Mike McGoniga From Amazon.com

If you like this album then check out 'The Second Album' released in 1980 for even more goodies. They still record and perform to this day.

In my view noone ever caught up with Suicide!

Click to hear clip of 'Rocket USA'