Suicide

Alan Vega and Martin Rev started playing together in 1970, two guys from New York working out how to strip rock and roll down to its bones. Vega had come up as a visual artist, studying under the abstract expressionist Ad Reinhardt, the man who painted all-black canvases and declared them the last paintings anyone would ever need to make. Vega's light sculptures, built from junk scavenged off the depressed streets of seventies New York, carried the same austerity into three dimensions. Rev, raised in the Bronx on doo-wop and rhythm and blues, brought a droning Farfisa organ and a primitive rhythm box, building plodding, hypnotic pulses that had nothing to do with the prog-rock synth bands of the day (as Rev told Igloo Magazine in 2008, he never touched a real synthesizer until years later in the studio). Vega treated the microphone like a weapon and howled over the top, rockabilly moans dragged up from somewhere lower. Their early flyers, for a 1971 art-gallery show, billed them as a 'Punk Music Mass'—years before the Ramones or the Sex Pistols, before the word meant anything to anybody outside Lester Bangs's record reviews. Shows at CBGB frequently ended in chaos, and later tours opening for the Clash, Elvis Costello, and the Cars regularly ended in riots. Bruce Springsteen was listening: Alan Vega once heard 'State Trooper' off Nebraska and was sure, for a moment, that it was a lost Suicide track he'd forgotten writing. Widely acknowledged as no wave's godfather, Suicide's fingerprints turn up on Joy Division, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and virtually everything that called itself industrial or electro-punk afterward.

At a glance

Active

1970–2016

From

New York City, USA

Records in the issues

1 (1977), 1 of them a Start here pick

Original label

Red Star Records

Listen

In the issues

• 009
  NYC No Wave

  Principal · 1977-1984

  NYC No Wave is a music scene from Lower Manhattan, New York City, 1977–1984. Its principal artists include Suicide, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Sonic Youth and The Contortions. This issue covers 10 essential albums and 14 dated events.

• 010
  CBGB's 70s Punk

  Supporting cast · 1973-1982 · Members

  CBGB's 70s Punk is a music scene from New York City, USA, 1973–1982. Its principal artists include Ramones, Television, Talking Heads and Patti Smith. This issue covers 10 essential albums and 15 dated events.

Records

• 

  Suicide

  1977 · Start here in NYC No Wave

  Original release: Red Star Records · RS 1 · 12″ Vinyl · US 1977

  Suicide's self-titled debut, recorded in 1977, arrived as the first full documentation of a sound the duo had been building since 1970. Martin Rev's droning Farfisa and primitive rhythm box lay down a hypnotic, plodding pulse; Alan Vega howls, sneers, and preaches over the top, channeling rockabilly through something closer to dread. It landed at a moment when synthesizers were still associated with prog bands like Yes and Genesis—Rev has said the duo never set out to be an 'electronic band' in that sense, they simply were what they were, and got called punk years before the term meant anything. Songs like 'Ghost Rider,' 'Che,' and 'Cheree' carried punk's spirit while quietly laying groundwork for post-punk, industrial, synth-pop, electro, and techno. Bruce Springsteen was listening closely enough that Alan Vega mistook 'State Trooper,' off Nebraska, for a forgotten Suicide song of his own.

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Places

• Max's Kansas City
  New York City · 1965-1981 · NYC No Wave

  The legendary Warhol-era club on Park Avenue South became an important venue for no wave performances in its final years, hosting Suicide and other scene pioneers.

Voices

Quotations from the issues, each matched word for word against the source it links to.