Suicide Commandos

Carrying on in the "suicide" theme (in name only), it seemed like a perfect opportunity to discuss Minneapolis's Suicide Commandos. Ostensibly the first "punk" band to come out of the Twin Cities (someone, somewhere can always point to something earlier in most cases), the Suicide Commandos were guitarist/vocalist Chris Osgood, drummer, Dave Ahl, and bassist Steve Almaas. Forming in 1974, the Commandos would release two 7" records on the PS label before landing on Mercury's short-lived punk subsidiary Blank (the only other Blank release was Pere Ubu's The Modern Dance). 1978 saw the release of Suicide Commandos Make A Record, 15 tracks of high energy rock punctuated by Osgood's stun gun guitar and Ahl's animal like drumming. In 1979 the Commandos completed their run, releasing a live platter The Commandos Commit Suicide Dance Party (the first release for TwinTone records) and a couple of tracks for Big Hits of Mid-America III compilation One of the tracks on the comp was "Complicated Fun" - years later this track would turn up in a Target commercial. Anyhow, have a listen:

from 1978's Suicide Commandos Make A Record

Suicide Commandos - Attacking the Beat.mp3
Suicide Commandos - Mosquito Crucifixtion.mp3
Suicide Commandos - You Cant.mp3

A couple from the band's first two 7 inch releases, more in the straight rock vein than the album 1977's "Match-Mismatch" is a long one - 5+ minutes - that kinda drags for the first two minutes before hitting it's mark. "Emission Control" is from the very first 7", released in 1976

Suicide Commandos - Match-Mismatch.mp3
Suicide Commandos - Emission Control.mp3

Notes:

Make A Record was reissued by Mercury on CD in 1996, but that too seems to be unavailable.

A Suicide Commandos page on Twintone's website