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Alan Vega - Alan Vega
 Alan Vega - Alan Vega (81, ^ 87mb) One half of the seminal electronic duo Suicide, Alan Vega was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1948. He began his career as a visual artist, gaining notoriety for his "light sculptures; " eventually Vega opened his own lower Manhattan gallery space, which he dubbed the Project of Living Artists. The Project served as a stomping grounds for the likes of the New York Dolls, Television and Blondie as well as the 15-piece jazz group Reverend B., which featured a musician named Martin Rev on electric piano. Soon, Vega and Rev formed Suicide, whose minimalist, aggressive music — a fusion of Rev's ominous, repetitive keyboards and Vega's rockabilly snarl — helped paved the direction for the electronic artists of the future. Suicide disbanded in 1980, and both Vega and Rev undertook solo careers. Vega's self-titled 1981 debut and his later that year second effort Collision Drive continued to explore the fractured rockabilly identity he had established in his earlier work. 1983's Saturn Strip, produced by longtime fan Ric Ocasek, marked Vega's debut for Elektra Records; corporate relations soured during production for 1985's Just a Million Dreams, however, and at one point the label even attempted to remove the singer from his own studio sessions. Alan Vega used to say that as beeing basically a sculptor, music was secondary for him. Was that just another provocation? Alan Vega is anyway a true legend (a romantic hero or a deamer for some), joining for any kinds of obscure or more visible projects. He actually induces what Legs McNeil calls the astonishment, a mixture of fascination, made of repulsion and admiration: otherwise, how can one continue to adulate somebody who is ok with just a 30 minutes act (sometimes less, sometimes more) without any communication with the assitance? He's probably one of the original punks actors of the CBGB (New York Dolls, Ramones, Richard Hell, Wayne County, etc... see the compilation Songs of the Naked City) and someone which remains the most homogeneous and with the most credible attitude. His latest release is Station (2007) 1 - Jukebox Babe (4:45) 2 - Fireball (3:49) 3 - Kung Foo Cowboy (3:22) 4 - Love Cry (4:39) 5 - Speedway (2:30) 6 - Ice Drummer (4:23) 7 - Bye Bye Bayou (8:30) 8 - Lonely (2:39) Link |
