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Suicide (USA)
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B2 Club 
Formed in 1971, from New York City and always with the avant-garde, they made the sound of New York... They were part of that "pre-punk era" with all that bands from Max Kansas City and CBGB's (Velvet Underground, the New York Dolls, Ramones, Blondie, Dead Boys, Wayne/Jayne County, Richard Hell, Lydia Lunch, ... cf. compilations) and today, they are venerated by any Techno-CowBoy which respects himself. Few bands (Velvet Underground, Suicide, the Stooges...) had and still have such an impact on the others (as diverse as OMD, Human League, Spiritualized, Orbital, Pulp, Soft Celle, Nick Cave, Jesus & Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Chemical Brothers, Luna, Foil, Bloodstar, etc etc).
Alan Vega (a.k.a. Alan Bermowitz) was born in Brooklyn, New York, and Martin Rev (a.k.a. Martin Reverby) grown up in the Bronx. Alan Vega started as a sculptor. In 1974 he opened a small gallery in the lower Manhattan, where he put up the Project of Living Artists, pluri-artistic place (like Andy Warhol's Factory, but much smaller), where they tried any kind of happening or artistic attempts. What enabled him to meet a jazz band Reverend B, with certain Martin Rev on piano (electric). It was the first step of an adventure of (more) 30 years : they recently gave a gig at CCCP, Barcelona, Spain (june 1999), for the SONAR festival of techno music, wich such comments as "deliberate demonstration of sounds provocation and irreverent toward assistence".
" Suicide was always about life. But we couldn' t call it Life. So we called it Suicide because we wanted to recognize life. " (Alan Vega, 1985).
Roy Trakin said when they issued their first record : "Suicide is not about alienation but about hope. They are not robotic monsters intent on leveling civilization and culture. Suicide will outlast each trend because they are the real thing -unique and experimental, yet totally accessible and in line with the tradition of rock and roll. Suicide is Alan Vega's vulnerability and cock-eyed pessimism/optimism as it is Martin Rev's stoical mask hiding a sense of humor and humility that is inspiring as it is heartbreaking."
"... I never heard anything avant-garde. To me it was just New York City Blues." -Alan Vega 1980
Just think about Suicide acting live: Martin Rev with his cheap-second-hand Farfisa and drum-machine, binary-playing, not even a guitarist nor drummer. Alan Vega howling and threaten the audience with a chain, as if downtown. Obviously that often finished in riot (a happening?). And when they happen to open the set for the Ramones in a stadium... fun! In comparison, the audience during their last acts in London in 1998 seemed so formal, in spite of the of Alan Vega'efforts. In fact, in an unexplainable way for much, one of the few to support them, so far to ask them to open his own acts with the Cars was Ric Ocasek, which remains close to them up to now.
After some 6 years away from the front scene, Blast First invited them to play live in London to coincide with the re-release of the first albums: "The band played four sold out nights at The Garage in the Spring of 1998 and reaction was so positive from audience and media alike that they continued to work together and later that year played their first shows in their home town of New York for nearly twenty years." After that they began again to tour, specially in places related to Art e.g. : Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Art, London Institute of Contemporary Art) (Oct. 2001), Fondation Cartier (Paris, Feb.2002), Centre Georges Pompidou (Musйe d'Art Moderne de Paris, nov.2002) and also invited to the most important Techno festivals : Sonar (Barcelona, 2000) and Astropolis (Brest, France, 2001).
American Supreme, their first opus from 10 years and Why Be Blues, reaction from NYC to the cultural fall that followed 9-11. Tours in USA & Europe in 2003 & 2004 confirm their come back as one of the biggest influencers of the modern music, with in addition some solo gigs, in particular Martin Rev at the festival Synthйtique Plaisir in Pau, France, and Alan Vega in Bilbao, Spanish Basque Country.
In 2005, the book Suicide: No Compromise is published to coincide with the release of Suicide’s remastered CDs:– A Way of Life and Why Be Blue, both coming with bonus live CDs, on Mute records.
Suicide
Although they barely receive credit, Suicide (singer Alan Vega and keyboardist Martin Rev) is the source point for virtually every synth pop duo that glutted the pop marketplace (especially in England) in the early '80s. Without the trailblazing Rev and Vega, there would have been no Soft Cell, Erasure, Bronski Beat, Yaz, you name 'em, and while many would tell you that that's nothing to crow about, the aforementioned synth-poppers merely appropriated Suicide's keyboards/singer look and none of Rev and Vega's extremely confrontational performance style and love of dissonance. The few who did (Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire) were considered too extreme for most tastes.
Suicide had been a part of the performing arts scene in New York City's Lower East Side in the early/mid-'70s New York Dolls era. Their approach to music was simple: Rev would create minimalistic, spooky, hypnotic washes of dissonant keyboards and synthesizers, while Vega sang, ranted, and spat neo-Beat lyrics in a jumpy, disjointed fashion. On stage, Vega became confrontational, often baiting the crowd into a riotous frenzy that occasionally led to full-blown violence, usually with the crowd attacking Vega. With their reputation as controversial performers solidified, what was lost was that Suicide recorded some amazingly seductive and terrifying music. A relationship with Cars mastermind Ric Ocasek proved successful, bringing their music to a wider audience and developing unlikely fans (Bruce Springsteen went on record as loving Suicide's Vietnam-vet saga "Frankie Teardrop"), but after numerous breakups and reconciliations, Rev and Vega settled for being more influential than commercially successful.
Ironically, the '90s proved to be a decade of vindication for Suicide with the rise of industrial dance music, Chicago's Wax Trax! label, and the bands associated with it (Revolting Cocks, Ministry, 1000 Homo DJs, etc.). Although not a big part of the scene anymore, the profound influence of Suicide on a generation of younger bands was readily apparent. When the duo returned in 2002 with American Supreme, its first studio release in ten years, much fanfare resulted, no doubt considerably furthered by Vega's presence around this time as a heavily profiled exhibitionist of art in New York, where he had presented a show at the Jeffrey Dietch Gallery in New York earlier in the year.
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