I'm not sure where to start in writing
about Alan Vega. As a musician, he's an enigma. He toiled in
obscurity since the 70s, but he was easily one of the most
influential musicians in punk, post-punk and experimental music of
all the time. His music was confrontational, bleak, wildly
experimental and unforgiving. It's, frankly, difficult to listen to.
But, without Alan Vega, there would be no John Zorn, no Sonic Youth,
no Beck, no Pere Ubu and no countless other experimental and
uncompromising forms of music seen today.
Having just recently finished ClaytonHeylin's "From the Velvets to the Voidoids", Vega's music and influence is still forefront in my mind
right now. Even in the wilds of early New York's punk and
experimental scene, which featured bands like Television, The
Voidoids, Sonic Youth and DNA, Vega was considered an outsider, an
artist that few paid attention to. But those who did drew much
influence from his work.
Vega, born Alan Bermowitz in 1948, was
best known for his work with Suicide, a noise/synthpunk duo he formed
with Martin Rev. After seeing the Stooges in 1969, Vega was inspired
to make music, forming his first band with Rev and performing
publicly as Suicide for the first time in 1970. Vega was one of the
first adopters of the term “punk music”, which he borrowed from
the influential underground writer Lester Bangs.
Suicide played a ramshackle style of
electronic music, with Rev's keyboards cobbled together from old
organs and primitive drum machines, and Vega adding an inhuman growl
and shriek to their performances. I've often heard it said, and I
often say it myself: no one could scream like Alan Vega. Vega would
often emulate Iggy Pop, brandishing a motorcycle chain on stage,
wildly swinging it around, antagonizing audiences and sometimes
wading into the audience with the chain. Like The Stooges, Suicide
were often booed as soon as they hit the stage, and more than one
concert degenerated into a full blown riot.
Suicide's first album, a self-titled
effort, came out in 1977, to virtually no critical acclaim, but the
album has remained a touchstone for punk bands, industrial musicians,
art rockers, noise bands and hardcore bands alike. Today, it's
considered one of the most important punk albums of all time. Their
ten minute opus, “Frankie Teardrop”, a disturbing song about a
factory worker pushed to the edge, is a seminal punk and post-punk
track.
Suicide's discography is wildly sparse.
Since forming in 1970, they have just five albums to their credit,
the last, American Supreme, coming out in 2002.
Vega's solo and collaborative work is
much more substantial. His first solo album, a self-titled album in
1980, had a lo-fi rockabilly feel to it. 1983's Saturn Strip saw him
working with The Cars' Ric Ocasek and Ministry's Al Jorgensen. In
1985, he put out a failed stab at a more commercial accessible album
called Just a Million Dreams, which led to him being dropped by his
label. He followed that up in 1990 with a minimalist electronic album
called Deuce Avenue, which he recorded with his new wife Liz Lemere.
His collaborations with Finnish minimalist noise/electronic band Pan sonic as VVV are remarkable in their sparseness and disorienting screams. Together they released two albums, Endless in 1988, and
Resurrection River in 2004.
In 2008, Blast First Records released a
series of 10” records in tribute of Vega's 70th
birthday, tributes recorded by artists like Lydia Lunch, Primal
Scream, Julian Cope and Bruce Springsteen.
Vega died in his sleep on July 16th
at the age of 78. His death was announced by Henry Rollins, who
considered Vega a huge influence on his own work, and his Rollins
Band covered Suicide's “Ghost Rider” for the soundtrack to the
movie The Crow in 1994.
