Steve Almaas - Suicide Commandos & Beat Rodeo
Minneapolis, Minnesota's Suicide Commandos formed in 1974 and are considered one of the first punk bands. In 1997, a house that they had rented was condemned and scheduled to be burned down so they wrote a song about it and filmed a video during it's incineration. The song was "Burn it Down" and the video director was legendary filmmaker Chuck Statler.
Over the next two nights, the band played with Iggy Pop and then the Dead Boys. In the audience was Mercury label rep Cliff Bernstein and he offered them a deal on the spot. "Make A Record" (Blank, 1978) was produced by Twin/Tone Records co-founder Paul Stark. The band broke up by the end of the year but still released a live album "The Commandos Commit Suicide Dance Concert" (Twin\Tone 1979).
Here's the video for "Burn It Down"
Make a Record was released on cd but is out-of print.
The Suicide Commandos were:
Dave Ahl - drums, vocals
Steve Almaas - bass, vocals
Chris Osgood - guitar, vocals
More on the Suicide Commandos at Something I Learned Today
In 1983 Almaas formed Beat Rodeo. The band was named after an EP that Almaas made with the help of some of the Bongos and producer Mitch Easter. He formed a band and recorded an album and in 1984 Beat Rodeo's debut album, "Staying Out Late" was released in Germany on Zensor Records. After signing to I.R.S it was released in the U.S. "Staying Out Late" was produced by Don Dixon (with two tracks by Richard Gottehrer). Tours of Europe and the U.S. followed. Next came the Scott Litt produced "Home in the Heart of the Beat" but after that the band broke up.
Beat Rodeo were:
Steve Almaas - guitar, vocals
Bill Schunk - guitar, vocals
Dan Prater - bass, vocals
Mike Osborn - drums
Lewis King - drums
George Usher - keyboards
Steve Almas continues to record
8 Comments:
Thanks for the Beat Rodeo post Eric. I haven't heard that song since the time it came out. Man that's a great song, thanks again!
thx for the suicide commandos links, love 'em!
Very Cool Site! My site has a similar idea, but it's more classic rock, folk, and blues oriented. Keep up the great work! I'm adding a link to your site on my site.
Yeah, good stuff. Thanks.
Chris Osgood is very good people. I don't know whatever happened to the label, but he used to work at Twin\Tone back in the day. Very nice guy. I always wanted to hear this, so thanks!! :-)
Great blog! Chris Osgood and Dave Ahl still play occasional gigs around the Twin Cities. In fact, I'm going to see them tonight, so it was fun to watch "Burn it Down" in preparation!
Well, Beat Rodeo's "Just Friends" isn't among the download links; is there a way of knowing when something will come back into rotation, or can I bribe you with a few more ad clicks to email it to me?
Thanks for starting this blog/site. I am sitting w friends in Mt Pleasant in DC and we're rocking out to this great album (Home in the Heart of the Beat)that I've had for 20 years and didn't play too much for some reason.
This is a really great vibe. Thanks, Neil
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