Alan Vega

Boruch Alan Bermowitz (June 23, 1938 – July 16, 2016), known professionally as Alan Vega, was an American vocalist and visual artist, primarily known for his work with the electronic protopunk duo Suicide.

Alan Vega
Vega (right) with Martin Rev, 1988
Background information
Birth nameAlan Bermowitz
Born(1938-06-23)June 23, 1938
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 16, 2016(2016-07-16) (aged 78)
New York City, New York, U.S.
GenresProtopunk, electronic, experimental, electro-punk, minimalist, industrial, synthpop
Occupation(s)Musician, sculptor, painter
InstrumentsVocalist
Years active1966–2016
LabelsZE Records
Associated actsSuicide, Ric Ocasek, Pan Sonic, Al Jourgensen, Gillian McCain, Mercury Rev, The Vacant Lots

Life and career

Alan Bermowitz was raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Until the announcement of the 70th birthday release of his recordings in 2008, Vega was widely thought to have been ten years younger; the 2005 book Suicide: No Compromise lists 1948 as his birth year and quotes a 1998 interview in which Vega talks about watching Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show (1956) as a "little kid".[1] A 1983 Los Angeles Times article refers to him as a 35-year-old,[2] and several other sources also list 1948 as his birthdate.[3][4] Two 2009 articles confirmed his 1938 birth date, one in Le Monde about the Lyon exhibit[5] and one in the magazine Rolling Stone.[6] Vega also long claimed to be Catholic due to his mother's Puerto Rican ancestry. Although themes of Catholicism were important to his lyrics and visual art over the years, in a 2008 interview with The Jewish Chronicle he admitted he lied about his own religious upbringing to "fuel the myth".[7]

In the mid 1960s, he attended Brooklyn College where he studied both physics and fine art under Ad Reinhardt and Kurt Seligmann[8] and graduated in 1967.[9] In the 1960s, he became involved with the Art Workers' Coalition, a radical artists group that harassed museums and once barricaded the Museum of Modern Art.[10] In 1969, funding from the New York State Council on the Arts made possible the founding of MUSEUM: A Project of Living Artists—an artist-run 24-hour multimedia gallery at 729 Broadway [11] in Manhattan. Calling himself Alan Suicide, he graduated from painting to light sculptures,[note 1] many of which were constructed of electronic debris. He gained a residency at the OK Harris Gallery in SoHo where he continued to exhibit until 1975.[8] Barbara Gladstone continued to show his work well into the 1980s.

Seeing The Stooges perform at the New York State Pavilion in August 1969 was an epiphany for Vega.[note 2] In 1966, he met and befriended Martin Reverby. Together, the two began experimenting with music and formed the band Suicide along with guitarist Paul Liebgott. The group played twice at MUSEUM before moving on to the OK Harris Gallery. Calling himself "Nasty Cut", he used the terms "Punk Music" and "Punk Music Mass" in flyers to describe their music,[12] which he adopted from an article by Lester Bangs.[13] In 1971 the group dropped Paul Liebgott and added Mari Reverby on drums,[14] though she didn't play in their live performances. With Bermowitz finally settling on Alan Suicide as a working name, they began to play music venues. Suicide went on to perform at the Mercer Arts Center, Max's Kansas City, CBGB and ultimately, achieve international recognition.

In 1980, Vega released his eponymous first solo record. It defined the frantic rockabilly style that he would use in his solo work for the next several years, with the song "Jukebox Babe" becoming a hit single in France. In 1985, he released the more commercially viable Just a Million Dreams, but was dropped from his record label after its release. The album originally was set to be produced by Ric Ocasek as a follow-up to the critically acclaimed Saturn Strip (1983), but production switched over to Chris Lord-Alge and Vega ran into several difficulties during the recording sessions.[15] The album eschewed many of Vega's experimental traits in favor of power pop songs and he later lamented, "They took all my songs and turned them into God knows what."[1]

Vega teamed up with Martin Rev and Ric Ocasek again in the late eighties to produce and release the third Suicide album, A Way of Life (1988). Visual artist Stefan Roloff produced a music video for the song Dominic Christ which was released by Wax Trax! Records, and Suicide went overseas to promote the album by performing the song "Surrender" in Paris which was aired on French television. Shortly thereafter, Vega met future wife and music partner Elizabeth Lamere while piecing together sound experiments that would evolve into his fifth solo album, Deuce Avenue (1990). Deuce Avenue marked his return to minimalist electronic music, similar to his work with Suicide, in which he combined drum machines and effects with free-form prose. Over the next decade he would release several more solo records as well as perform with Suicide.

In 2002, art dealer Jeffrey Deitch tracked him down after a couple of his young gallery employees "gushed" over a Suicide gig at the NYC Knitting Factory.[16] Vega constructed Collision Drive, an exhibition of sculptures combining light with found objects and crucifixes.[10]

Vega's tenth solo album, Station, was released on Blast First Records in 2007 and was described by his colleagues as "his hardest, heaviest album for quite a while, all self-played and produced."[17] In 2008, British label Blast First Petite released a limited edition Suicide 6-CD box set and monthly tribute series of 10" Vinyl EP's, to mark the occasion of Alan Vega's 70th birthday[18] Musicians who contributed to the tribute series included The Horrors, Lydia Lunch, Primal Scream, and Miss Kittin.[19]

In 2009, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon, France, mounted Infinite Mercy – a major retrospective exhibit of Vega's art, curated by Mathieu Copeland.[20] This included the screening of two short documentary films: Alan Vega (2000) by Christian Eudeline, and Autour d’Alan Vega (extraits) (1998) by Hugues Peyret.[21]

In 2012, Vega suffered a stroke. That, and problems with his knees, led him to focus on less physically demanding art, such as painting, rather than music. He continued to live in downtown New York City.[16]

In 2016, Vega made a small return to music by contributing vocals to the song "Tangerine" on French pop veteran singer Christophe's album Les Vestiges du chaos.[22]

In 2017, Alan Vega's final album IT was released posthumously on July 14 on Fader. The album was produced by Alan Vega, Liz Lamere, Perkin Barnes and Jared Artaud of New York City band The Vacant Lots. The album cover and inner sleeves featured Vega's original artwork.[23] Two posthumous art shows "Dream Baby Dream" at Deitch Gallery and "Keep IT Alive" at Invisible-Exports exhibited Alan Vega's work in New York City.[24]

Religious views

On Vega's religious views, he was raised in the Jewish faith, but declared himself to be Catholic for many years due to his mother's upbringing. When asked about God he stated, "I distrust the name 'God' but, yes, I do believe in a higher power, God is in all of us," he says, before deciding: "There is an immense power. There has to be." He also shared the views of Spinoza, the pantheist philosopher.[25]

Death

Vega died in his sleep on July 16, 2016 at the age of 78. His death was announced by musician and radio host Henry Rollins, who shared an official statement from Vega's family on his website.[26]

Discography
For recordings made with Suicide, please see Suicide discography.

Albums

Collaboration albums

Soundtracks

Compilations

Bibliography
  • Vega, Alan (1994). Cripple Nation. 2.13.61. ISBN 978-1880985168.
  • Vega, Alan (2000). 100,000 Watts of Fat City. OCLC 469640909.
  • Vega, Alan (2010). Copeland, Mathieu (ed.). Alan Suicide Vega – Infinite Mercy? Let U$ Pray!. Dijon, France: Les presses du reel.
  • Vega, Alan (2017). eBook (ed.). Alan Vega – Conversation with an Indian. LE TEXTE VIVANT. ISBN 9782367230443.

Notes
  1. "I started as a painter. The first time I did a light piece was when I was working on a very big purple painting. There was one light bulb in the room and as I walked around I noticed how the painting acquired different aspects. I wanted it to be one color so I said, "Fuck this, man!" I took the light out of the ceiling and really stuck it on the painting." Alan Vega, 1993 – 100,000 Watts of Fat City Anna Polerica.
  2. "It showed me you didn't have to do static artworks, you could create situations, do something environmental. That's what got me moving more intensely in the direction of doing music. Compared with Iggy, whatever I was doing as an artist felt insignificant." Reynolds, Village Voice.January 29, 2002
gollark: I use orbital mind control lasers myself.
gollark: MP4 is not even a very good container.
gollark: Bee you.
gollark: Which aren't really an equivalent category to those but do weird things.
gollark: Also retroviruses.

References
  1. Suicide: No Compromise. Google Books. 2004. ISBN 9780946719716. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
  2. "ALAN VEGA: MELLOWING ON AMERICA". Los Angeles Times. August 11, 1983. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  3. Buckley, Peter (2003) The Rough Guide to Rock, Rough Guides, ISBN 978-1-84353-105-0, p. 1131
  4. Thompson, Dave (2000) Alternative Rock, Miller Freeman Books, ISBN 0-87930-607-6, p. 667
  5. "La crucifixion, la mort et l'extase selon Alan Vega". "Le Monde". June 5, 2009. Archived from the original on July 7, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  6. "The Feelies, Dirty Three With Nick Cave Revisit Classic Albums at All Tomorrow's Parties". Rolling Stone. September 12, 2009. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
  7. "Suicide: How the godfathers of punk kept the faith", Paul Lester, The Jewish Chronicle, October 10, 2008.
  8. Copeland, Mathieu (2010). Alan Suicide Vega – Infinite Mercy? Let U$ Pray!. Dijon, France: Les presses du réel. ISBN 978-2-84066-379-9.
  9. "Alumni Newsmakers". Brooklyn College Magazine. Spring 2009. Retrieved May 10, 2010.
  10. Reynolds, Simon. "Suicide Watch". Village Voice. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
  11. "display ad". Village Voice. September 25, 1969. Retrieved May 10, 2010.
  12. "SuicideChronology". From The Archives. Archived from the original on June 14, 2010. Retrieved May 10, 2010.
  13. Miller, Marc H. (April 20, 2009). "Punk Art Catalogue – Section IV: Suicide, Bad Boys, Tattoos". 1978 Punk Art Exhibit. 98Bowery.com. Archived from the original on March 30, 2010. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
  14. "Suicide Chronology". FromTheArchives.org. Retrieved May 10, 2010.
  15. Valdivia, Victor W. "Just a Million Dreams review". Allmusic. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  16. Klingman, Jeff (December 3, 2015). "Punk, 77: At Home With Alan Vega". Brooklyn. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  17. "Live". Alan Vega. Slim Smith. December 2006. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2013. The new live set is based around Alan's new album, "Station", his hardest, heaviest album for quite a while, all self-played and produced.
  18. Paul Smith (2008). "Alan Vega Turns 60- Years Old/Box Set". MV Remix Rock. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
  19. "Primal Scream cover Suicide for new single". NME. Time Inc. February 11, 2009. Retrieved March 7, 2011.
  20. "Alan Vega, Infinite Mercy". Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  21. "Documentaires sur Alan Vega". Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  22. Les Vestiges du chaos (album booklet). Christophe. Universal Music Publishing France. 2016. 478 221 4.CS1 maint: others (link)
  23. "Suicide's Alan Vega Posthumous Album IT". Pitchfork.com. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  24. "Alan Vega Ignored The Art World It Won't Return The Favor". New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
  25. Paul Lester (October 10, 2008). "Suicide: How the godfathers of punk kept the faith". The Jewish Chronicle Online. Vega is similarly ambivalent. He alludes to the "miraculous" nature of his career with Suicide and fateful meeting with Rev, begging the question – does he believe in a higher power? "I distrust the name 'God' but, yes, I do believe in a higher power," he says. He adds that he shares the rationalist stance of Spinoza, the 17th-century Jewish philosopher and "pantheist theologian". "God is in all of us," he says, before deciding: "There is an immense power. There has to be."
  26. Kreps, Daniel (July 17, 2016). "Alan Vega, Suicide Singer and Punk Icon, Dead at 78". Rolling Stone. ISSN 0035-791X.
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