Synopsis
The book charts Suicide's uncompromising roller coaster from formative days in performance art and avant garde experimentation to chaotic early shows at drug-infested downtown hotbed the Project of Living Artists. With an introduction by Lydia Lunch., "We were living through the realities of war and bringing the war onto the stage... Everybody hated us, man." says Alan Vega who, along with electronic jazz maverick Martin Rev, formed Suicide, the most terrifyingly iconoclastic band in history, and also one of the most influential. By the time the punk scene they're usually associated with came out of CBGBs in the mid-seventies, Suicide had already been causing havoc in New York's clubs for several years. They were actually borne out of the city's vibrant artistic underground as a counter-cultural performance art statement, opposing the war by mirroring its turmoil. This book tells Suicide's whole amazing story like never before, with New York a shimmering, seething backdrop as Rev studies with jazz greats, such as blind bebop pianist Lennie Tristano and his hero Miles Davis' drummer Tony Williams, while Vega makes a noise on the new art gallery scene springing up on the then-deserted streets of SoHo. Working closely with author Kris Needs, Rev and Vega explain the influences and events which led to the birth of Suicide and their early struggles. They invoke another world and era, peppered with smoky jazz clubs, Iggy Pop in his new-born Stooge persona and even suffer an attack from beat guru Allen Ginsberg. Along with interviewing major figures in the Suicide story, Kris Needs reaches back into 40 years chronicling and interviewing major players in New York's musical history, including Blondie, Jayne County, James Chance and the New York Dolls. While the city changes around them, it all adds up to the definitive account of the lives and times of this unique duo., We were living through the realities of war and bringing the war onto the stage... Everybody hated us, man, says Alan Vega who, along with electronic jazz maverick Martin Rev, formed Suicide, the most terrifyingly iconoclastic band in history, and also one of the most influential. By the time the punk scene they re usually associated with came out of CBGBs in the mid-seventies, Suicide had already been causing havoc in New York s clubs for several years. They were actually born out of the city s vibrant artistic underground as a counter-cultural performance art statement, opposing the war by mirroring its turmoil. This book tells Suicide s whole amazing story like never before, with New York a shimmering, seething backdrop as Rev studies with jazz greats, such as blind bebop pianist Lennie Tristano and his hero Miles Davis drummer Tony Williams, while Vega makes a noise on the new art gallery scene springing up on the then-deserted streets of SoHo. Working closely with the author, Rev and Vega explain the influences and events which led to the birth of Suicide and their early struggles. They invoke another world and era, peppered with smoky jazz clubs, Iggy Pop in his new-born Stooge persona and even suffer an attack from beat guru Allen Ginsberg. Along with interviewing major figures in the Suicide story, the author reaches back into 40 years chronicling and interviewing major players in New York s musical history, including Blondie, Jayne County, James Chance and the New York Dolls. While the city changes around them, it all adds up to the definitive account of the lives and times of this unique duo., Appearing in early 70s New York City as primal prototype street punks, Suicide are now hailed as one of the most important and influential groups of the 20th century, inspiring that decade's major musical movements but too feared and shunned to be awarded their rightful acclaim at the time. Confronting shocked audiences with their electronic "New York blues", singer Alan Vega and instrumentalist Martin Rev fearlessly mirrored the city's sleazy underbelly and decay on blood-freezing gutter-scapes such as 'Ghost Rider' and 'Frankie Teardrop' while invoking doo-wop purity on timeless love songs like 'Cheree' and 'Dream Baby Dream'.The book charts Suicide's uncompromising roller coaster from formative days in performance art and avant garde experimentation to chaotic early shows at drug-infested downtown hotbed the Project of Living Artists.Along with detailed accounts of Suicide's influences, contemporaries and environment which spawned them, the book will position the duo as one of New York's most pivotal but derided outfits as the story moves through their pioneering first album, 1978's shockingly violent UK tour supporting The Clash and subsequent recordings, live sorties and respective parallel solo careers, going up to the present day. The author's eye witness accounts and extensive first-hand interviews with Alan Vega and Martin Rev are joined by conversations with producers Craig Leon, Marty Thau and Bob Blank, contemporaries including Blondie, Jayne County and the New York Dolls and fans such as Nick Cave, Bobby Gillespie and The Clash; adding to a definitive account of this most unique group. With an introduction by Lydia Lunch
