“Little Dead Bodies”, Algebra Suicide

This way: Little Dead Bodies

In the fall of 1982, at a reading at Columbia Squires, Hedeker publicly accompanied Tomkiw’s poetry for the first time. It was a rudimentary setup, with Hedeker providing minimally amplified washes of sound on a somewhat glitchy Vox Guitar Organ. This experiment soon coalesced into an actual band. Their name, Algebra Suicide, came from a line in the poem “Recalling the Last Encounter.” It was, from the very beginning, envisioned as a vehicle for Tomkiw’s poetry; Hedeker’s intention was to bring interesting accents and color to the poems themselves.

Tomkiw and Hedeker formed the label, Buzzerama Records, and in the winter of 1982 released their first 7” EP True Romance At The World’s Fair. Algebra Suicide’s first public performance was Labor Day evening 1983 at the West End Club. The song “True Romance at the World’s Fair” was selected by the New York-based new wave magazine Trouser Press for inclusion on its trailblazing 1983 compilation, The Best of America Underground.

Tomkiw and Hedeker spent the better part of that year developing and recording new work. Shows were infrequent; they viewed performances much more as special events than as part of a regular gigging schedule. In 1984, Algebra Suicide released its second EP, An Explanation for That Flock of Crows.

Momentum and interest were gathering behind Algebra Suicide and crucially for Tomkiw’s identity as a poet, nearly all the critics recognized the fundamental poetic aspect of the project. Tomkiw was regularly credited as a burgeoning, successful poet and the nature of the songs as poems was central to critical appreciation of the band.

In 1985, Algebra Suicide released their debut album, Big Skin, on the label Cause and Effect. Its format represented the firmly dual nature of Algebra Suicide — a cassette of thirteen songs paired with a chapbook presenting thirteen poems in the same running order.

[Spotify] Little Dead Bodies