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Suicide
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Suicide (band)




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  Background group_or_band
  Origin USA
  Genre Proto-punk , Punk , Post-punk , Electronic Music , Experimental Music , No Wave
  Current Members Alan Vega <br/> Martin Rev


Suicide is an American Rock Music group intermittently active since 1971 and composed of Alan Vega ( Vocals ) and Martin Rev ( Synthesizer s and Drum Machine s). Much like Silver Apples , they are an early synthesizer/vocal musical duo.

Never widely popular amongst the general public, Suicide are nonetheless hugely influential: critic Wilson Neate writes that Suicide "would prove as influential as , Techno , and Industrial Dance sounds of the '80s and '90s, and now the new New Wave of Electroclash , all gesture back to that foundational album." {Link without Title}


HISTORY

Rev's simple, keyboard Riff s (initially played on a battered Farfisa Organ before he acquired a Synthesizer ) were accompanied by primitive Drum Machine s, proving an ideal backdrop for Vega's vocals. Vega owed an obvious debt to Elvis Presley and Rockabilly singers, but his muttering, shrieking, nervy delivery was unique, sounding at once both fragile and threatening.

Suicide emerged alongside the early punk scene in street thugs, and Vega was notorious for brandishing a length of motorcycle Drive Chain onstage. This sort of audience confrontation was inspired by Vega witnessing a Stooges concert in the early '70s, which he later described as "great art".

Their first album, '' pushed to the edge: critic Emerson Dameron writes that the song is "one of the most terrifying, riveting, absurd things I’ve ever heard." {Link without Title}

Suicide's albums and performances in the late 1970s and early 1980s are regarded as some of the most influential '' album is clearly influenced by Suicide -- sounding almost like Suicide " Unplugged ".

In 1986 Alan Vega collaborated with Andrew Eldritch of The Sisters of Mercy on the 'Gift' album, released under the name of 'The Sisterhood'. Vega and Rev have both released solo albums, and Suicide released their first album in over a decade with 2002 's '' American Supreme ''. Sales, however, were slow and critical reception was mixed.

In 2005, SAF Publishing put out ''Suicide No Compromise'', a "docu-biography" by David Nobahkt, which featured extensive interviews with Vega and Rev as well as many of their contemporaries and famous fans. Also that year, their song "Ghost Rider" was used in a Brazilian deodorant commercial.


DISCOGRAPHY



Albums

  • '' Suicide'' (1977) (Mute/Blast First CD reissue includes extra disc of 1978 live performances, including the original "23 Minutes Over Brussels" flexidisc)

  • ''21½ minutes in Berlin/23 minutes in Brussels'' (1978) (Red Star Records Frankie 1)

  • '' Suicide '' (second album) (1980) (Produced by Ric Ocasek - reissued as The Second Album - Mute/Blast First CD reissue includes extra disc of 1975 rehearsal sessions)

  • '' Half Alive '' (1981) (collection of live and demo material recorded from 1975-1979 - originally on ROIR cassette only - liner notes by Lester Bangs)

  • '' Ghost Riders '' (1986) (live concert from 1981 - originally on cassette only)

  • '' A Way Of Life '' (1988) (Produced by Ric Ocasek - Mute/Blast First CD reissue includes live bonus disc recorded in 1987)

  • '' Why Be Blue '' (1992) (Mute/Blast First CD reissue includes live bonus disc recorded in 1989)

  • '' Zero Hour '' (1997) (late 70's live recordings)

  • '' American Supreme '' (2002) (initial CD copies included live bonus disc recorded in 1998)



EXTERNAL LINKS