Team Hot Press is saddened to learn of the death of Alan Vega, one half of the legendary New York punk electronic outfit, Suicide.
The news that the 78-year-old had passed away was broken by friend and admirer Henry Rollins on his website.
The family statement he posted reads as follows: “With profound sadness and a stillness that only news like this can bring, we regret to inform you that the great artist and creative force, Alan Vega has passed away. Alan passed peacefully in his sleep last night, July 16. He was 78 years of age.
“Alan was not only relentlessly creative, writing music and painting until the end, he was also startlingly unique. Along with Martin Rev, in the early 1970’s, they formed the two person avant band known as Suicide. Almost immediately, their incredible and unclassifiable music went against every possible grain. Their confrontational live performances, light-years before Punk Rock, are the stuff of legend. Their first, self-titled album is one of the single most challenging and noteworthy achievements in American music.
“Alan Vega was the quintessential artist on every imaginable level. His entire life was devoted to outputting what his vision commanded of him.
“One of the greatest aspects of Alan Vega was his unflinching adherence to the demands of his art. He only did what he wanted. Simply put, he lived to create. After decades of constant output, the world seemed to catch up with Alan and he was acknowledged as the groundbreaking creative individual he had been from the very start.
“Alan’s life is a lesson of what it is to truly live for art. The work, the incredible amount of time required, the courage to keep seeing it and the strength to bring it forth—this was Alan Vega.
Alan is survived by his amazing family, wife Liz and son Dante. His incredible body of work, spanning five decades, will be with us forever.”
Using synths and primitive drum machines, Vega and partner Martin Rev more than held their own playing with the likes of Iggy Pop, The New York Dolls and the Clash, and have been cited as a key influence by everyone from U2 and Radiohead to Bruce Springsteen and Daft Punk.
“Thank you Alan Vega for all your passion, energy and rebellion! RIP Ghost Rider,” say Irish band Altered Hours while Luke Haines of The Auteurs describes him rather wonderfully as an “art attack Gene Vincent from space crooning dystopia over a $5 Walmart keyboard – what an idea, what a genius.”
Adds filmmaker Paul Duane: “Suicide were one of the greatest and most influential bands of all time. And they were a RIOT live.”
We suggest you get your hands on their self-titled 1977 debut album, which remains as abrasively potent as the day it was released.