Half Alive [LIVE] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Suicide

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 6, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 1981
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live, Original recording remastered
• Label: Roir
• ASIN: B00004TQXU
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #84,415 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > Alternative Rock > Live Albums > Hardcore & Punk

Editorial Reviews

Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of RN’R
“ahead of their time...a link to rock n'roll tradition, with a form of controversial art performance on stage.”

Product Description
“Half-Alive consists of live tracks circa 1978, plus a hand full of unreleased lo-fi studio gems from 1974-1975. Suicide warrant legend status. They found their most fertile reception outside America in the form of Soft Cell, Woodentops, Spacemen 3, Sigue Sigue Sputnik. They should have been the American “Kraftwerk.” -Spin Alternative Record Guide We are releasing in digitally re-mastered and re-edited format the legendary ROIR Suicide cassette of 1981, with three bonus tracks, in cd format. This release with original Liner Notes from Lester Bangs has been one of the most requested (“please put this out on cd”) releases in our 21 year history.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacul Repooc, June 27, 2000

By	"saculrepooc" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Suicide are as close to the real thing as it gets. I LOVE THIS CD. It makes all other electronic punk outfits look like B-movies. Marty Rev and Alan Vega invented a unique new genre and defined the parameters to which it could be extended. Every electronic band exists because of these joined-at-the-hip downtown NYC punk-rock scavangers. The ROIR cassette was great...the Cd even better with 3 bonus tracks from the same era and the original classic liner notes by Lester Bangs you can't go wrong.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AAAAAAAAAAUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHEHHEHHEHHEHYAHYAHYAHYAH!!!!, December 18, 2003

By	Mark Bychowski (houston tx) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

i bought this initially on cassette in austin while picking up furniture for a friend. on the way home, she decided to take a nap, so, needing to pass a couple of hours & being fairly sleepy myself, i needed a little music to keep me going. i unwrapped the cassette, popped it in, & sat back as the leader tape rolled. what followed was the sound best described in the title for this review: no music, just alan vega heavily echoed YELLING AT ME. snapping it off instantly, i listened to pleased to meet me instead, because, come on, shut up, guy! only after i got home & played the rest of the tape was this music redeemed because this RULES! half alive is apt: there's a lot of early demos which are fuller & more cluttered than what shows up on suidide's first 2 albums. essentially some simple heavily chorused synth lines and reverbed vega vocals repeating the title of the song over & over again. (by the way, this isnt placing judgement or denigrating the tunes, merely describing them). the live stuff is much more raw & sloppy, back when audiences quite disliked what they were having to listen to. alan vega is totally in his element therefore; harlem 2, sister ray says, & going to las vegas are all delightfully manic & unhinged, & all night long (which is really just dance with a different title) has alan really frustrated that he's pleading with someone to dance all night long with him, but it clearly isnt happening. to sum up: not for beginners, but man oh man if you loved the first couple albums, you will LOSE IT to hear this. epilogue: the aforementioned cassette that started this review eventually got eaten by my car's tape player, but before breaking, it would fitfully struggle through the tape heads, resulting in a stop & start painfully slow marching gruel of keyboard grunts & deep drawn out screams. almost as good as the real thing, i tells ya.

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest Suicide live CD with Zero Hour, May 4, 2002

By	Vicvic1980 - See all my reviews

The Suicide lives are so different than the albums and so great by themselves that I wonder why they don't put out more of them in CD. In this one, Harlem 2, Johnny Dance, Sister Ray Says, the 2nd All Night Long and, above all, Sweetheart are masterpieces. By the way, it would be the least for the greatest band ever to put out more live CDs.
When are we gonna see a few other ones issued, from the 70s, 80s, 90s...??!