The Suicide Commandos

Long before Prince, Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum, and the Replacements came to define Minneapolis rock in the 1980s, Chris Osgood, Steve Almaas, and Dave Ahl formed the Suicide Commandos, a lean punk trio whose high-velocity approach set the local template. The group released just two albums, one of them recorded live, yet stood among the earliest and most consequential acts to deliver unvarnished, faster-and-louder punk from the Twin Cities. In addition to igniting the Minneapolis punk community, the Commandos joined Pere Ubu as the sole bands signed to Mercury’s short-lived punk imprint Blank. Where Pere Ubu leaned toward art-punk, the Commandos favored straightforward propulsion, burying hooks and riffs beneath layers of rapid distortion. That emphasis on raw simplicity does nothing to diminish the stature of Chris Osgood’s guitar work, widely regarded as some of the finest and least celebrated playing to emerge from the Twin Cities, offered by one of its most affable figures. Following the muted reception of their debut album Make a Record, the band toured briefly alongside Pere Ubu before disbanding once Almaas moved to New York to pursue power-pop with the Crackers and, later, Beat Rodeo. Although they were not the most celebrated of the region’s first-wave punk acts, the Suicide Commandos supplied the initial spark without which the excitement of Minneapolis rock in the 1980s would be difficult to envision.