The Suicide Commandos

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).