Alan Vega [Suicide]
live at Spit
Lansdowne Street
Boston, Massachusetts USA
Summer [probably July] 1981
uncirculated soundboard tape
tracklisting:
01 Kung Fu Cowboy 4:42
02 intro 0:33
03 Fireball [cut short] 3:37
04 intro 0:23
05 Hot Date 5:50
06 intro 0:25
07 Jukebox Baby 5:20
08 intro 1:03
09 Otis Redding 4:53
10 intro 1:02
11 Bye Bye Bayou 7:24
12 outro 1:25
total time: 36:45
Not the best sounding, lots of distortion and at times the usual distance typical of small room soundboard tapes, with noises and feedback from Vega knocking the mic around but a rarity for Suicide/Alan Vega fans nonetheless. The band was probably a guitar with a drum machine and/or drummer and there may have been a keyboard. "Fireball" was cut short on the tape - seems that whoever was running the tape deck just stopped the recording; I don't know how much was lost. Alan was annoyed because he thought it wasn't loud enough and he complains about it a couple of times.
This cassette was given to me a shortly after the show by a friend/co-worker of mine who was part of the soundcrew - it could be from the monitor board; it's possibly the master tape but since I'm not certain call it "unknown generation". I might have played it once but I don't remember it and I just found it in one of my old boxes of roadie debris, still sealed in it's broken case with the crumbling duct-tape I wrapped it in back in the day.
According to this site:
http://www.fromthearchives.com/av_mr/chronology.html
Suicide performed "only a few times" in 1981, but this show isn't listed at all in the site's "gigography" as a solo or Suicide show.
I haven't found any other information on this show.
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So, is this stuff punk, avante-garde or psychobilly?
Since Alan Vega was one of the first people to call his own music "punk", I'll go with that.
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Some samples included.
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Source/lineage:
Soundboard>
normal bias cassette>PC>Soundforge>WAV>tracked and edited in Soundforge>WAVS>SBEs repaired, checksum files and FLAC-8 files created in Trader's Little Helper
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More info:
http://www.alanvega.com/
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Alan+Vega
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Vega
http://www.myspace.com/alanvegamusic
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/alan-vega/id20134319
http://www.slimsmith.com/alanvega/vegaart.html
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"Where I grew up in Brooklyn, man, a punk was like a wuss, the guy who ran away from the fight. 'You’re a punk. You’re a weasel. You’re nothing.' Now it has this connotation of being the tough-guy thing. The revolution, are you kidding? So I liked the word and used the term 'punk music mass,' maybe inadvertently trying to turn it into something else. One day I wake up and there’s the word punk all over the place. That’s when it became meaningless to me. Somebody said that Suicide had to be the ultimate punk band because even the punks hated us." (Alan Vega, 2008)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Vega
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In the December 1970 issue of Creem, Lester Bangs, mocking more mainstream rock musicians, ironically referred to Iggy Pop as "that Stooge punk". Suicide's Alan Vega credits this usage with inspiring his duo to bill its gigs as a "punk mass" for the next couple of years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_rock
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A Zootype project, February, 2010
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ffp:
flac fingerprint file generated by Trader's Little Helper
; generated on February 8, 2010, at 16:09:34
01-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Kung Fu Cowboy.flac:2d5bbfad1aaab793239fbe405d43200c
02-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-intro.flac:1027f93278eecb85d95373602cf4b66c
03-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Fireball.flac:85583e5c5dbeb5b5ae6e40bb5c154b37
04-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-intro.flac:7fe5c3b2876b54bc90a720c84bbe6541
05-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Hot Date.flac:4004cb1c7999ba5d3a9b509833fec7ed
06-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-intro.flac:59cb17deb9d0f9efb2cb294e05337471
07-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Jukebox Baby.flac:b699f9d4ec0f90f2065dd1e160f339d5
08-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-intro.flac:df7e4c66f37aea822c3106f294ba7df9
09-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Otis Redding.flac:a0b2c9918f5217e4915a99b8e0c7ac45
10-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-break.flac:8fa534f9cf5a7b84fdecdcdc289b2806
11-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Bye Bye Bayou.flac:291a928b3a7fbfb54a645aa286c3fc22
12-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-outro.flac:39b66c9cc8a671a4f0e45ed587285e73
-----
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st5:
shntool md5 fingerprint file generated by Trader's Little Helper
; generated on February 8, 2010, at 16:10:14
2d5bbfad1aaab793239fbe405d43200c [shntool] 01-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Kung Fu Cowboy.flac
1027f93278eecb85d95373602cf4b66c [shntool] 02-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-intro.flac
85583e5c5dbeb5b5ae6e40bb5c154b37 [shntool] 03-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Fireball.flac
7fe5c3b2876b54bc90a720c84bbe6541 [shntool] 04-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-intro.flac
4004cb1c7999ba5d3a9b509833fec7ed [shntool] 05-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Hot Date.flac
59cb17deb9d0f9efb2cb294e05337471 [shntool] 06-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-intro.flac
b699f9d4ec0f90f2065dd1e160f339d5 [shntool] 07-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Jukebox Baby.flac
df7e4c66f37aea822c3106f294ba7df9 [shntool] 08-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-intro.flac
a0b2c9918f5217e4915a99b8e0c7ac45 [shntool] 09-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Otis Redding.flac
8fa534f9cf5a7b84fdecdcdc289b2806 [shntool] 10-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-break.flac
291a928b3a7fbfb54a645aa286c3fc22 [shntool] 11-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-Bye Bye Bayou.flac
39b66c9cc8a671a4f0e45ed587285e73 [shntool] 12-AlanVega-Spit-Boston-1981-outro.flac
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could be Suicide (but probably not)
Soundboard > normal bias cassette
Not the best sounding, lots of distortion and at times the usual distance typical of small room soundboard tapes, with noises and feedback from Vega knocking the mic around but a rarity for Suicide/Alan Vega fans nonetheless. The band was probably a guitar with a drum machine and/or drummer and there may have been a keyboard. "Fireball" was cut short on the tape - seems that whoever was running the tape deck just stopped the recording. Alan was annoyed because he thought it wasn't loud enough and he complains about it a couple of times.
"Where I grew up in Brooklyn, man, a punk was like a wuss, the guy who ran away from the fight. 'You’re a punk. You’re a weasel. You’re nothing.' Now it has this connotation of being the tough-guy thing. The revolution, are you kidding? So I liked the word and used the term 'punk music mass,' maybe inadvertently trying to turn it into something else. One day I wake up and there’s the word punk all over the place. That’s when it became meaningless to me. Somebody said that Suicide had to be the ultimate punk band because even the punks hated us." (Alan Vega, 2008)