Suicide, which emerged from the underground New York scene before and alongside the growing crowd of the punk and new wave scene, may have been the first act to bill themselves as punk music, but they were hardly what anyone nowadays would label punk rock.
The duo of Martin Rev on keyboards and vocalist Alan Vega put out some seriously weird shit, creating a unique sound—Rev’s throbbing electronic beats and Vega’s bizarre, Elvis Presley-on-a-bad-trip vocals—which they mined for all it was worth, across two oddly compelling albums. Vega’s crooning, moaned and muttered vocals, punctuated by the occasional yelp or shriek, are all kinds of wrong in all the right ways, to bewitching effect.
Here’s a sampling of Suicide. Enjoy it—death never sounded so good.
Note: Apparently, “Frankie Teardrop” from their debut is their most famous track. I can see why—it’s an ominous epic of murder and lost sanity that should be heard by anyone interested in these types of things, myself included. But it’s not actually that good; it’s more awkwardly discomforting than genuinely shocking or believable. I suspect some of the appreciation for the song is ironic—apparently there’s some TV show that dares people to film themselves listening to the entire track all the way through.
Cover Art:
- Alan Vega / Martin Rev: Suicide: Source, Discogs.com, Fair use.
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