Pere Ubu: Classic Or Dud

"DON'T need a cure/DON'T need a cure!"

I had the surprise opportunity to run into David Thomas and I think Ravenstine at the station I was at in 1991. I asked him about the Living Colour and Peter Murphy covers of "Final Solution" -- said he hadn't heard the LC one, but that Mr. M 'got rid of the solo' but otherwise did a good job.

After those: Spotty. Some excellent stuff, though, in among the only okay stuff, and David Thomas hooking up with the very, very creative Spaceheads (Two Pale Boys) is a brilliant move, I think.

Ubu are at their best recording "avant-garage" (late early period) than "pop/rock songs" (mid late period). That was a bit confusing. Let's just say 'New Picnic Time-Song Of The Baling Man' = "avant-garage". While 'The Modern Dance' or (mid late period) 'Story Of My Life' = "pop/rock songs". Yes, even 'The Modern Dance' plays to this weakness for song form, where Ubu are clearly best without song form = the point.

However, David Thomas (singer/leader) is as good (if not slightly better - let's just say different than Ubu, but in a good equal way) solo than as Pere Ubu. With his box set 'Monster' as proof.

But, certainly if one wants truly "classic" and truly interesting art-rock or art-punk...look no further. Some might go with Wire or The Fall. I'll take Pere Ubu, anytime.

*Also, Pere Ubu are one of the greatest live rock bands ever (yes, ever)...I've seen them twice - in support of 'Story of My Life' opening for They Might Be Giants (sort of like Public Enemy and how they used to open for the Beastie Boys) and again at a smaller club as headliner in support of 'Raygun Suitcase'. Both times, great. Second time, incredible. David Thomas is a natural on stage (oddly enough - in that, one could see him as some sort of "anti-social" if they didn't know better, with some of the lyrics and mumbling voice, etc).

my take: two classic albums, followed by a string of spotty-to- terrible ones, lost (to paraphrase i think mark) up their own arse of determined non-repetition. the singles collected on terminal tower, however, are a handful of the most towering documents in the history of this rock music thing. made all the more powerful by the fact that they were scrawled in black magic marker by wights from collapsing ohio factory backwaters.

I owned thee boxset a while back, & sold it, of course, duh. The music was fine, but the cram-happy aesthetic ruined everything past Disc 2. (And I never gave the Ubu-related music much of a spin, and including live Ubu did nothing for me.) That said, I agree w/ Jess on Modern Dance & Terminal Tower. Rock & roll drunk on the couch with Pretentious Art, making out and drooling all over the place. Pass the funnel, woo!

Dub Housing might be a grower, though I can't recall it well because of the CRAP SEQUENCING on the boxset CDs, damn it. I have a tape copy of Cloudland, which sounds just fine (if a bit happy-go-lucky, which I don't expect from DT, despite his kiddie-clown voice). The newer stuff (on Tim Kerr & Thirsty Ear) scares me because of all the conflicting comments.

And what's this I hear about the 5-disc David Thomas boxset being unbelievably awesome? Is this the truth?

The Tenemant Years is good but not classic.

Cloudland is half classic (the last Paul Harman engineered half), and half crap (the Stephen Hague produced first half).

Worlds In Collision and Story Of My Life are not so hot all -- especially Eric Drew Feldman on synth -- his cartoony work is terrible to these ears -- completely lacking Ravenstine's touch or Wheeler in the later period. Completely POP in a cut out all the good parts way. (also, I don't think Cutler was a good fit with the band either).

Raygun Suitcase through St. Arkansas are a return to form, the resurrection of a band that almost sank during the Eric Drew Feldman period. Especially great is the return of Tom Herman. Also to be noted is the underrated playing of Jim Jones, a man who has done many excellent things but hasn't got the kudos he deserves.

I've never been too sure whether it's 'peh-ray ooboo' or 'pear ooboo' or possibly even another way, any helpers?

yeah picnic, walking where were i got dropped right in it, so dub was a bit too much popping dub and the guitar records too much guitar records like sonic youth

the late period stuff, well it's more measured austere and yet part of the continuum of not over till after the fat man's stopped singing that is pere ubu

these guys are carrying the torch for wacky alfred jarry and people complain about silly ok != surreal or sensible but maybe absurdist -- yet absurdism points fingers, reminds us we are the bourguiese (is that correct spelling ? just couldn't resist)

my gripe would be how easy to map to real world via absurdism (which in jarry's case mapped so well) is peter thomas ? anything to say ? (great effects dept.)

all credit to them though for being first to the millenium bug though via "Data Panic in the Year ..", so ahead of their time as much now as then someways -- do not C/D until, y'know, uh, loses some weight ??

"The Tenement Year" may be a bit harder to find, as I do not think it was ever reissued. I've had a vinyl for a long time and got it before I found the first two LPs and the reissue of the early singles.

I think listening to quite a bit of electronic music in the past three or four years has changed my perspective of some of the more abstract/ambient/free form sounding songs.

I've never heard anything after "Pennsylvania" or the "St. Arkansas" albums, are they any count?

So is all Mr Thomas's solo / other stuff, especially Blame The Messenger, Mirror Man and the live CD with the "Monster" boxset.

"I've never heard anything after "Pennsylvania" or the "St. Arkansas" albums, are they any count?"

I don't believe you've missed any official releases since St Arkansas Earlnash, although there were a couple of live albums in between them: Apocalypse Now (which, as others have said above, is an excellent album) and The Shape Of Things (semi-official, dodgy 1976 live recordings, for completists only).

Actually, I just checked the Ubu web site & found this:
The left & right channels are reversed and the tape transfer left all songs running at a slower speed. All Rough Trade / Twin Tone cd & vinyl releases are affected. These faults were corrected by the 1994 digital transfer & eq. The 1998 cd reissue features the Mayo Thompson / Geoff Travis mixes of "Not Happy" and "Lonesome Cowboy Dave" as released on the 1981 Rough Trade single. The 1985 Twin Tone / Rough Trade releases use the David Thomas mixes done at Suma.

.. So I guess the CD is better than the LP.

I've never heard anything after "Raygun Suitcase" are the "Pennsylvania" or the "St. Arkansas" albums any count?

At least from the reviews, it seems if you like Pere Ubu, the last two albums will be to your liking. They are on my list and I probably will look for them when I go up to Bloomington/Indianapolis at the end of August.

Dub Housing is so classic. Total paranoid schizo vibe. I suppose buying more albums of theirs isn't strictly necessary but surely if you like the box set you'd like others?

Modern Dance > Dub Housing >>>>>>>>> everything else

The Wooden Birds - "Blame the Messenger"
Rockets from the Tombs
& the Peter Laughner disc.

-David Thomas solo records are also great, if you like 'Sentimental Journey'
-Home and Garden records are spotty, but I really love some of em.

xpost...

Pere Ubu = teh classik.

The later stuff varies from meh (Cloudland) to very good (Ray Gun Suitcase), with The Tenement Year being a personal favourite, even tho nobody else seems to like it much - too prog or something, with the doubled drums and accordion and all.

Uh, if you don't count Mushroomhead....

Love the more "rawk" oriented early stuff like Final Solution and Heart of Darkness. And the funky shit that came after, circa The Modern Dance and Dub Housing. Fact, I love both them two records about the same. Dub Housing is darker and woozier, but it totally rules all the way through. Funny, scary and fascinating.

I've got The Terminal Tower and a boxed reproduction set of the first four singles on vinyl (put out by T/K records a decade or so ago). Terminal Tower sucks in comparison.

After "Dub Housing" I dunno that anything the band did is truly essential. I like "New Picnic Time" and "The Tenement Year" well enuf, but almost never play 'em. On the other hand, I spin the early stuff all the time...

only saw them live once, doing the music for roger corman's the man with the x-ray eyes. interesting and funny, especially how they slotted in some of their better-known songs (e.g., playing "the modern dance" during a shot of people dancing at a party). david thomas attempted to "conduct" the band, which meant he made flailing arm movements that they completely ignored. great show, though.

The "reunion" show I saw in 1987 was indeed a return to form for DT but I sorta lost track of all the albums released since then.

what's the ILM buzz on the Rocket from the Tombs reunion? I've got bootleg tapes of RFTT from 1975 that are crazed takes on metallized proto-punk. But my favorite UBU is another bootleg tape from 1976, the last gigs with Peter Laughner. from his bedroom to the baroom.

ah the avant-garage. so many people followed in these guys footsteps it's hard to imagine just how isolated/unique it all was at first.

My favourite moment on Night Network...

more exciting are the Home & Garden Mp3s and these websites:
http://www.homeandgardenmusic.com/index_main.asp
http://www.homeandgardenmusic.com/index_multimedia.asp
http://myspace.com/homeandgardenmusic

and the release of History & Geography on CD ..

after the insufferable mayo thompson joined (did adrian belew really need to be cloned?),

I may not love the Pere Ubu stuff with him on it, but insufferable? Forget the version of Horses done with Pere Ubu and listen to the original. Amazing.

Wow, Tom Herman, haven't thought about him in about 20 years. I auditioned for him around the time of "Long Walk Off a Short Pier". He played some very nasty slide guitar. I wasn't called back.

Saw Ubu on the Urg tour w/The Members, Dead Boys, and Magazine. Devoto was a putz. Thomas should get over himself but I still dig his work. He makes himself such an easy target... and I ain't talking about his size.

Mercury UK has reissued the long OOP first bunch of Ubu Mk II albums. (Tenement Year, Cloudland, Worlds In Collision, Story Of My Life).

I can take or leave the other three, but I've always loved Tenement Year, which IMO yields only to the early singles and first two LPs. But it always sounded like shit, gray, cluttered and muddy. Got the remaster and it sounds fucking marvelous, all the fidgety detail of the double drummers exposed, Ravenstine's synth disclaimers sounding thick and rich, etc etc. I'm very happy to have this album un-lamed.

Cool! That's good to hear. The only time I saw them they were touring that record iirc. Thompson deliberately ruined "Final Solution" by wailing all of the lyrics in an incomprehensible yowl, which was at least, uh, interesting.

No mention of Tripod Jimmie on this thread that I see... Tom Herman's post-Ubu band. They have at least one fantastic album that I still own, archival stuff that came out in the 90's, but I am 2000 miles away from my records right now so I can't look it up.

I like some of Dub Housing, almost none of New Picnic Time. Tenement Years and Ray Gun Suitcase are pretty good also, I imagine Ray Gun is oop after the meltdown on T/K Records (also home of the needs-so-bad-to-be-reissued Peter Laughner double LP).

Ray Gun Suitcase has been reissued on either Smog Veil or Hearpen, can't remember which. It's on eMusic, too.

Someone upthread implies that they auditioned for Tripod Jimmie, actually! I was a big fan of TJ's Warning To All Strangers LP. I'd buy that in a minute if it was on CD. "There ain't NO WAY I'm gonna put MY HAND in THERE without my box."

Luckily Tom Herman was back in the lineup when i saw Ubu in 2003; it was really nice to see him in action.

Pere Ubu is one of those bands that I've wanted to like for quite a long time, but I can't really get past Thomas' voice.

I resemble that remark. It amazes me that people can like this but hate, for instance, Phish, because of their squeaky voices and endulgent "noodling." How do these criticisms not apply to PU (good abbreviation!)? Beats me (and I'm sure many of you would like to right about now). Oh well, I don't have to like or understand everything.

I've never owned Cloudland and have wanted to for years. This is good news.

I interviewed Thomas for a Wire cover story last year, and he mentioned there was some talk of reissuing those discs. Glad to hear they're back out there.

A very enjoyable interview, too. Fun guy to talk to about the mechanics of record-making and live performance, etc. Philosophical "meaning of rock" stuff, not so much. Keep it quotidian and you'll get a great conversation out of the guy. Try to get arty, or fetishize the past, and he'll slap you down in a heartbeat.

Alfred, a phonograph player and a three dollar copy off ebay could have done the job nicely! : D

Ok, slight tradeoff for the much-improved sound on Tenement: A very different mix of one song, "Dream The Moon," is used this time. Bass/Drums/Guitar sound the same, but totally different vocal track. Can't tell yet how I feel about the alt. mix, just 'cause I'm so imprinted on the old one. I'll probably tag the original mix onto the end of the reissue in my library for good measure.

The two B-sides included as bonus tracks are really fun. Two Peel sessions as well.

xpost to unperson-- I read that! Really good article, man.

(Wow-- Peel version of "Miss You" kicks ass...)

Alfred, here's the lowdown on the Cloudland re-ish/remaster.

The album was originally mixed by Paul Hamann at Paisley Park Studios, Minneapolis MN. Subsequently four tracks were re-recorded in London and the others remixed for the 1989 Fontana release. This reissue substitutes in the running order the following Paisley Park mixes by Paul Hamann: Monday Night, Lost Nation Road, Nevada!, The Wire, The Waltz, and Pushin. Five extras have been added: the UK b-sides Wine Dark Sparks and Bang The Drum, the Paisley Park mix of Breath (never previously released), Bus Called Happiness recorded live in the studio for the John Peel Show (never previously released), and a dance remix of Love Love Love.

CLASSIC! Just saw them live over here in Oporto, and they were fucking amazing - some sound problems in the begining, and Dave Thomas seemed sort of SCARY, running offstage and barking at his backing players, but it all got sorted out and he seemed to realise the absurdity of his own position - total charmer through the rest of the set.

The latest album, 'Why I Hate Women' is totally worth getting. Great title too.

I think I lost that album or something. I went looking for it as I'd been doing periodically since I got it and it was nowhere.

I liked it but couldn't totally make up my mind how much. Nothing seems to come close to the Modern Dance and as a result is skewed by it's shadow.

If it's a pissing contest for essential CDs, I'll take 'Terminal Tower' over Modern Dance, but I find everything on the boxset a must. I also have a soft spot for 'Worlds In Collision' - nice pop songs, and a contender for worst cover art ever.

I'd always ignored the four albums that came before Raygun Suitcase, despite the fact that I saw them in '93 and they were hugely entertaining. Seemed to have more story songs. I made a note to re-listen to some of that stuff but never did. With last year's remastered reissues dipping down to $11 + $3 shipping at Importcds & Caiman via Amazon, I think it's time to try out Tenement Year and Cloudland.

Oh boy, Cloudland.

just got ray gun suitcase

damn this is great! i think i like it as much as the real early stuff

upcoming album is pretty awesome :-)

anyone heard it yet or seen the performance? it's all based on Alfred JArry's "Ubu Roi" and was composed using the hum and click of 220 decaying apple macs.

I went on the first night at the South Bank (last year was it) and it was dire. Thomas did later apologise for it, saying it had been underprepared. That it certainly was, but seemed also excruciating in conception. Like something a six-form drama group would come up with to be performed at the end of the lesson.

I actually skipped the second half because I felt I'd rather be in the pub. But others I went with stayed behind and said the second half was 'very, very slightly better'.

It was a shame because the last live gig I saw Pere Ubu do was incredibly good.

A friend has been downloading some sort of podcast related to the performance and is hoping that the recorded version will be less intensely awful - he's actually quite hopeful in this respect, and I suppose not having to see them go through their dismal manouevres on stage can only be a good thing. And sometimes these things set free of their mundane shackles to float in aural spaces can be transformed.

Here's hoping.

I went on the first night at the South Bank (last year was it) and it was dire. Thomas did later apologise for it, saying it had been underprepared. That it certainly was, but seemed also excruciating in conception. Like something a six-form drama group would come up with to be performed at the end of the lesson.

more details plz

the pere ubu box set is £7.79 on amazon right now, for some reason.

It's a worry: SaraJane Morris ....

xpost which box? The singles or the albums?

"It's a worry: SaraJane Morris ...."

I got a promo copy 4 days ago, and I still have to find the courage to play it. Maybe I'm just wrong.

more details plz

Um, from what I remember. Group over to the right hand side of the stage from the audience's point of view. Microphones set up in the middle. Chairs to the left, where those not participating in a scene would sit.

In the main it consisted of Thomas standing in front of the mike, reading out from a script he had in front of him, in the character of Pere Ubu, (in this case Ubu Roi) berating the various characters who appear and come and talk into the microphone.

Sometimes in the character of David Thomas berating his collaborators for getting it wrong. Not as amusing as it sounds (in fact although this can be a feature of their gigs as well, I tend to find that they are at their best when there is less arguing.

Back projections ranging from the mildly interesting to the mildly uninteresting.

Some very embarrassing mechanical style dancing/marching across the stage.

The music the group played wasn't terrible by any means, but it wasn't particularly great.

Sorry - that's pretty undetailed details, but I can't remember too much more about it, other than finding it all excruciatingly embarrassing. I'd go quite a long to make allowances for David Thomas, but it was just a hodge-podge.

As I say, there's a possibility that it's been refined considerably since then.

that, admittedly, does not sound great. i've read elsewhere on the internet about some ubu live experiences giving an impression of "but surely they could have done better".

lol @ david thomas slipping in and out of role on stage. seems that the two are basically interchangeable anyway, although i'm disappointed by their lack of preparation for this venture. it's typically facetious of him to do this kind of thing only a few years after sreynolds quoted him as being entirely dismissive in the alfred jarry play.

of?

is there a real connection between the jarry work and the band's? i thought it was just "oh, wow, cool name"

Yes, I think it was originally just 'wow, cool name' and 'great! we get to say merdre merdre a lot'. Apparently people have been on at him for years to do something with the play though, and he'd always refused.

Live gigs that I've seen have generally been great - although I prefer it when he's cantankerous rather than actively disruptive (whereas I like MES to be actively disruptive in The Fall's live performances).

And it sounds like this album, or set of podcasts, might be worth a listen, the whole caboodle presumably having undergone some processing since I saw it.

all the same, i've enjoyed the new album from a musical standpoint. sj morris and thomas work well as pere/mere ubu and there's an almost miyazaki meets dada vibe to the whole thing. it manages to be avant-garde, absurdist and puerile (a whole track of grotesque burping noises over eerie ambient music - sounds pretentious, and probably is, but that's Ubu for you). elsewhere there are "proper songs" - even some punky stuff, infuriatingly catchy chants, 8-minutes of eerie "pillow talk" between pere and mere played out like a pitch black big-reveal nightmare, and even some quite pretty moments. i liked it, the gent in the wire said he didn't, but like the original it will divide audiences who give a rats arse.

avant-garde, absurdist and puerile

tempted to make that my 'three adjectives that describe you' on okc —

is this the first ubu release (of new compositions) since why i hate women? i might actually get it, despite not having read the play. is it out yet? what's it called?

pere ubu and the fall are probably top two on 'bands i am hugely fond of and who are still gigging but could probably not bear to actually go and see'. actually they may be the only two on that list.

it's called "long live pere ubu" - don't know if it's out yet.

what's the deal w/ Datapanik being so cheap in the UK? Is it the same thing being reissued?

Well, if they come to your town and you actively avoid seeing them you are making a mistake cuz they are still fucking great live.

i've never seen Pere Ubu, but I did see the reunited Rocket from the Tombs, and would def. put Thomas up there as one of the top 10 best/scariest frontmen I've ever seen.

Am I crazy or is this performance simply stunning?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hYqvtHzr48

I can't get over Thomas's vocal performance here....every moment that he's not singing is filled with a breath or tic that is just perfect. He's actually harmonizing, too.

And the video is notable also for David Sanborn sporting the official "late 80s, early 90s" uniform.

Yeah, I've referred to this clip several times in the last couple of years. They also performed "Waiting For Mary" with Debbie Harry!

How's the recently issued live album with both Cutler and Krauss on drums? (Recorded just after Cloudland I believe)?

The live album - London, Texas - 's great. Dudes're in fiery fettle.

I bought the 'Datapanik in Year Zero' box today despite never really hearing Pere Ubu. Impulsive yes but I've had some good luck in the past buying box sets of stuff I've never heard before i.e the Robert Wyatt box and the first four factory records Durutti Column set.

Looking forward to diving in tonight.

Or should I have listened to AMG?

"However, if you're simply interested in Pere Ubu, consider the set carefully before investing. Pere Ubu were indeed one of the most innovative and challenging bands of their era, which means that their music is an acquired taste. However, those willing to invest in the box will find a wealth of inventive, hard-edged avant rock & roll."

i found i had to retune my brain in order to get Pere Ubu, but it was worth it. I am a real fan of their last album. i think i voted it number one on the 2009 albums poll.

it's a fantastic box set. dig in!

I lean heavily on the first two CDs, but certainly worth it.

I basically listened to The Tenement Years every day last October ("Say Goodbye" and "We Have the Technology" especially)

Yeah-- if anotherdeadhero buys one other disc to supplement his box set it should be Tenement Year.

Or maybe it should be Cloudland.

Cloudland has some great highs but too many duds. And Tenement Year has actual OG Allen Ravenstine on squawks, bleeps and whirrs as opposed to a dude drafted in from late Beefheart.

The highs on Cloudland >>>> The Tenement Year.

Ooof. Have to revisit the materials if I wanna respond to that.

I can listen to "Waiting for Mary," "Breathe," "Bus Called Happiness" and "Love Love Love" on an endless loop.

Hmmm by wild coincidence I just noticed 'Long Live Pere Ubu- The Spectacle American' is happening march 28 here in nyc at Le Poisson Rouge...

so weird, I had "waiting for mary" in my head a few days ago but could not remember what song it was or who it was by. I kind of like this sub-talking heads period of pere ubu.

Yeah there's something endearingly quixotic about it. Right down to the record label they were on-- Imago (lol).

I can listen to "Waiting for Mary," "Breathe," "Bus Called Happiness" and "Love Love Love" on an endless loop.Those would definitely be my four picks from the album, if I could only pick four.

(line break)

I saw thenm on a double bill around the time of Tenement Year with John Cale. good show.

never understood them, like Material or 23 skidoo.

I like all three, to varying degrees...but Pere Ubu have way more to offer. While I can imagine struggling with some of the weirder early album stuff, I'm not sure what's not to understand about Heart of Darkness, Final Solution, Nonalignment Pact etc...pretty modern rock-n-roll, but not the most obtuse stuff.

Well, aided by something calling itself plant feeder I stayed up till 6 am with my good woman blasting tunes.

Managed to get through the first two discs (focusing mostly on 'The Modern Dance' and 'Dub Housing'). Really enjoyed a lot of the creative guitar playing. Lots of it sounded nothing like I expected and I was quite surprised by a lot of the mellower moments. 'Humour Me' from 'The Modern Dance' stood out, the rest was a schizophrenic blast of all sorts. Good stuff though. Looking forward to returning. I particularly dug the production. Lots of crazy noise. Even went down well with my girlfriend.

Dunno if I'm wrong but I'm sure I recall hearing that there's quite a divide between those who prefer 'The Modern Dance' and 'Dub Housing'. 'The Modern Dance' probably edged it for me on first listen. Really need to pull out 'Rip it up and Start Again' and re-read the Ubu chapter.

Cloudland has some great highs but too many duds. And Tenement Year has actual OG Allen Ravenstine on squawks, bleeps and whirrs as opposed to a dude drafted in from late Beefheart.

Allen's legendary (analog) EML synths provide the squawks, bleeps and whirrs on both 'Cloudland' and 'Tenement Year.'

It wasn't until 'Worlds in Collision' that he was replaced by the estimable Eric Drew Feldman, formerly of Snakefinger's band & the Shiny Beast thru Ice Cream for Crow-era Magic Band, and later "the 5th Pixie" and a frequent Frank Black-collaborator (not too shabby an avant-rock resume for a nice Jewish boy from L.A.).

Cool fact: I saw 'em at a club called Velvet Underground. So the ticket stub suggests an Ubu/Velvets double bill.

"Really need to pull out 'Rip it up and Start Again' and re-read the Ubu chapter." From the Velvets to the Voidoids by Clinton Heylin has some really good background on Pere Ubu and what was going on in Cleveland in the mid-70s. It is an older book at this point, but a good read.

I actually am listening to the Terminal Drive CD tonight and the Ububox quite a bit of late. Overall, I think their sound has held up pretty well.

Seconding the From The Velvets To The Voidoids recommendation. Excellent material on Ubu and Television.

yeah, i love that book, though i've talked to some people who say a lot of the info could use some fact checking. still a great read.
as opposed to a dude drafted in from late Beefheart.
dunno, you could do worse than eric drew feldman -- he seems like a great musician.

Yeah I was just being a dick. Feldman is good. Actually, so is the very Ravenstine-esque operator they had in the band last time I saw them live (2003). Keyboards are fine and dandy but there's nothing like watching a guy frantically unplugging and switching patch cords on an antediluvian synth while simultaneously operating a theremin.

yeah, Ravenstine definitely gets props because he *invented* that sound/way of playing (and did it in the mid-70s, when that shit must have been hard!).

I'd have to say Eno invented that style! Or other precedents like United States of America?

From the Velvets to the Voidoids was huge for me...and every other music dork who went to Oberlin and discovered the Cleveland scene. There just isn't/wasn't other easy to find sources to read about the Styrenes and Electric Eels.

Speaking of which, Styrenes are about to start at 35th anniversary tour...

http://www.thestyrenes.com/

I think you could give Eno props for the synth on those first couple of Roxy Music records being out before Pere Ubu, but by the timeline, I think it is very possible that Ravenstine was already doing what he was doing just not in a band that was releasing records. I'd say both of them would have had to heard United States of America or Mother Mallard or early Cluster and certainly early Tangerine Dream.

re: from the velvets to the voidoids. i was always surprised that "please kill me" didn't include more on the cleveland scene along w/all the dead boys stuff

What about DikMik and his "audio generator" (whatever that was)?

("Velvets to Voidoids" recommendation thirded, fourthed, whatever)

probz gonna go see 'em next week

Yeah likewise in NYC.

Was enjoying Bay City by David Thomas and Foreigners quite a bit this morning. Kind of an odd man out amongst semi-recent Thomas stuff as it is not an Ubu record nor does it feature Two Pale Boys. Same kind of noir-ish mood of some of that stuff though, just feels more loose.

Ive only heard the first three albums and like them all... truly a unique sound and band!

Last one; Why I Hate Women is great.

Destroy: The coverart of Worlds in Collision. I like the album though.

I know the first 3 albums and EP are generally considered their best work, but I'd think you could make a killer 2 or 3 disc anthology by picking the best tracks from later albums.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, October 12, 2011 4:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

For Gerald and anyone else who's interested, here are some highlights from the self-described "modern era" of the band, along with tracks from David Thomas's albums with Two Pale Boys and "Foreigners" from the same period. All of it's on Spotify except for the St. Arkansas album (which includes my personal favorite Ubu song, "Slow Walking Daddy"), so I linked to some youtubes for that one. Probably runs about two hours total.

http://open.spotify.com/user/123383973/playlist/2u2JGdebORLtpBWdbdRlmg

Raygun Suitcase (Pere Ubu - 1995)

Beach Boys
Turquoise Fins
Three Things
Red Sky
Down by the River II

Erewhon (David Thomas and Two Pale Boys - 1996)

Obsession
Planet of Fools
Nowheresville

Pennsylvania (Pere Ubu - 1998)

Woolie Bullie
SAD.TXT

Bay City (David Thomas and Foreigners - 2000)

White Room
Charlotte

Surf's Up! (David Thomas and Two Pale Boys - 2001)

Man in the Dark
Night Driving

St. Arkansas (Pere Ubu - 2002)

The Fevered Dream of Hernando DeSoto
Slow Walking Daddy
333
Phone Home Jonah
Dark

18 Monkeys on a Dead Man's Chest (David Thomas and Two Pale Boys - 2004)

New Orleans Fuzz
Numbers Man
Little Sister
Golden Surf
Prepare for the End

Why I Hate Women (Pere Ubu - 2006)

Caroleen
Flames Over Nebraska
Mona
Texas Overture

Pere Ubu has finally clicked for me, in a big way. Tracked down the original 5 disc box (the reissue ditched the live disc!) and love it all much to my surprise, because in the past disc 3 really grated whereas now the best bits shine and the wonky stuff amuses me.

And actually the live disc is shockingly enjoyable - how do the other live albums from this period ("390 degrees of Simulated Stereo Vol. 1" and "One Man Drives While The Other Man Screams") compare?

"The Modern Dance" is essential. The following albums ("Dub Housing" etc) are good, but I can live without them. The later period isn't bad, but somehow just not very interesting either.
― Dr. C
aww, jeez...Dub Housing is actaully "better" but i dunno how you can like one (1) and find the rest not of innerst....i still need to spend more time with disc 3 of datapanik but i already know it's got greatness (looking at you "Birdies")

sorry, kinda fun stories: saw PU twice around 1991. first show at a small club in L.A. someone was heckling David throughout. he cut the set short saying "i'm sorry we couldn't be friends". sounds lame but was brilliant. then a few months later i moved to SF and saw Norm from Cheers at a PU show @ Slim's (blanking on his name right now) at the bar. i thought to myself maybe he thought they said Beer ubu

how do the other live albums from this period ("390 degrees of Simulated Stereo Vol. 1" and "One Man Drives While The Other Man Screams") compare?

390 degrees is excellent, never heard one man drives

One Man Drives isn't horrible, but it's heavy on the mayo (Thompson), largely responsible for the largely annoying Art Of Walking era. 360, however, is totally essential.

I never loved the Mayo era...and I'm a huge fan of a great amount of his work through the years.

i love that Shape of Things live recording too, from 76. Murky sound quality but some ridiculously good performances. good transition period between rftt and ubu.

sorry, kinda fun stories: saw PU twice around 1991. first show at a small club in L.A. someone was heckling David throughout. he cut the set short saying "i'm sorry we couldn't be friends". sounds lame but was brilliant. then a few months later i moved to SF and saw Norm from Cheers at a PU show @ Slim's (blanking on his name right now) at the bar. i thought to myself maybe he thought they said Beer ubu

― epigram addict (outdoor_miner), Thursday, March 1, 2012 2:22 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

semi surprised you recognised it was him. George Wendt's a lot taller than he seems in Cheers.
I did hear he was a big fan of bands like Husker du. So these possibly aren't that wild a jump.

Plus he's physically like ol' Crocus...

only saw him sitting so i had no idea he had height to speak of. must've been the fact that he was sitting at a bar that made me instantly recognize (?)

http://louderthanwar.com/pere-ubu-announce-new-album-lady-from-shanghai/

I'm seeing these guys on Wednesday. The venue makes sense for them, but I don't really like it.

Pere Ubu has finally clicked for me, in a big way. Tracked down the original 5 disc box (the reissue ditched the live disc!) and love it all much to my surprise, because in the past disc 3 really grated whereas now the best bits shine and the wonky stuff amuses me.

And actually the live disc is shockingly enjoyable - how do the other live albums from this period ("390 degrees of Simulated Stereo Vol. 1" and "One Man Drives While The Other Man Screams") compare?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, March 1, 2012 12:31 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The reissue definitely ditched the compilation of contemporary Cleveland bands I thought it still had teh live disc. Not played it from disc through recently but pretty sure all teh PU stuf that was on the original box is there.

Wish I could recover the drive i had that had several live sets on it. Not been able to so far.

anybody have this thang? http://www.neros-neptune.com/pere-ubu-live-at-the-longhorn-3-sided-lp-cd/
is it a bootleg? orrrrr what?

Interesting! It'd be nice if there were sound clips, though.

Discogs sez official - I have some good sets from DIME including a 78 one, but have not heard this show. Pirate's Cove show from '76 (?) is great.

pirates cove is the shape of things release right? that one is so great (even if it's not the best recording quality).
yeah the longhorn thing looks good - some samples here: http://www.squidco.com/miva/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=17658

Sounds good! I was just worried that it was some non-soundboard cassette dealie. Will likely get this.

yeah seems like a great recording. reason i ask if it's a bootleg is that it's not up on the pere ubu projex site (where they sell a lot of this kinda thing)

Hah, just listened to discs 1-3 the other day, still loving it. Also thanks for the cool Spotify playlist of later material, such a fascinating band.

Stevo - regarding the Datapanik box set reissue, this is from Discogs.com:
Reissue of the 1995 box set, with the studio albums remastered from the 192khz/24-bit digital transfers of the original 2-track tape masters in 2005 (The Modern Dance) and 2008 (Dub Housing, New Picnic Time, The Art of Walking, and Song of the Bailing Man). This version restores 'Use Of A Dog' missing from the original 1995 box set. The rest of the tracks were remastered in 1994, i.e. for the release of the 1995 box set.

The box set also contains early singles and B-sides, a CD with rarities and unreleased Pere Ubu related material (Terminal Drive), and a 38 page booklet. However, the CD with live recordings, 390° of Simulated Stereo Vol 2, present in the original 1995 box set, is not included.

just ordered the 2009 reissue to replace my scratched up '90s discs. i think i'll hang onto that live disc tho.

Are you still out there, Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs? I love your anthology picks, howabout epanding them to cover Long Live Pere Ubu! and Lady From Shanghai!

Oh wait, "Love Live Pere Ubu" is a soundtrack. "Carnival Of Souls" is out any day now, though!

Sure! Yeah, Long Live Pere Ubu is worth checking out, but it doesn't really fit in with the rest of this stuff. Here are my picks from Lady From Shanghai (which is kind of hit-and-miss):

Mandy
And Then Nothing Happened
Musicians Are Scum
The Road Trip of Bipasha Ahmed
414 Seconds

Eagerly anticipating Carnival of Souls. "Irene" is up on Spotify now -- I added it to the playlist.

I need to hear d Thomas' new re-remix of More Places Forever. What he did with it for the old Monster box set was not good compared to the vinyl.

Wish they'd release a set of decent lossless live sets from the period of the first singles & couple of lps so '76 to around '78 possibly '79. Would love another Shape of Things or a box set of similar.

Also really wish I could access the harddrive I had my live sets on but it crashed taking with it a lot of Loop and Henry cow and a couple of other semi-avant garage/punk type bands.

Thanks! While you're at it, please pick from The Tenement Year / Cloudland / Worlds In Collision / Story Of My Life! I love compiling anthologies where none exists.

Tenement Year:

The Hollow Earth
George Had A Hat
Rhythm King
We Have the Technology
Busman's Holiday

I really need to spend more time with Tenement Year and Cloudland, but here's what I'd pick from the other two.

Worlds in Collision:

Oh Catherine
I Hear They Smoke the BBQ
Goodnight Irene
Worlds in Collision
Life of Riley

Story of My Life:

Wasted
Come Home
Fedora Satellite II
Kathleen
Last Will and Testament

Bizarre memory: hearing the intro to "Wasted" in an insurance commercial circa 2003

Goodnight Irene is one of their best ever non-experimental songs

So I compiled all the suggestions into one 3.5 hr playlist. My observations:

- I can understand why you originally started the "Modern Era" playlist with "Raygun Suitcase". The previous 4 albums are ok but lack the outright weirdness that makes Ubu so compelling.

- Speaking of which, EXCELLENT choices from each album, it all flowed really well and was strength-to-strength. The Raygun material is particularly fantastic as well as some of the side project stuff from Surf's Up and 18 Monkeys. I'm going to dig deeper into some of these on Spotify.

- Lastly, shall we complete our picks by pulling the highlights from the albums that make up Dave Thomas' "Monster" box set?

We should. Monster Walks The Midnight Lake and More Places Forever can both contend with the best Ubu.

New D Thomas interview on The Quietus today. DT himself seems to date the modern era from Raygun Suitcase!

Cool, glad you're enjoying it! The band itself actually describes Raygun as the start of the modern era, which makes total sense -- it was a huge departure from the slickness of the previous handful of albums. It's cool that they've continued to play that stuff live in more recent configurations of the band.

Variations on a Theme is the only album from Monster that I've listened to much. I'd go with these:

A Day At The Botanical Gardens
Bird Town
Pedestrian Walk
Hurry Back

Would love to hear some suggestions from the other albums.

More Places Forever:

Whale Head King
Enthusiastic
Through the Magnifying Glass
Song of the Bailing Man
Big Breezy Day

Basically side A of the record.

Monster Walks... is a cohesive song cycle and very hard to cherry pick.

Also the solo albums prior to the Two Pale Boys stuff are not on spotify

Ok, new album is out, what's your picks, VTC?

really didn't enjoy lady from shanghai so i'm not holding out for this one but who knows? will get back.

New album is the bee's, but I loved "Lady From Shanghai", hell I loved "Long Live Pere Ubu!"

Yeah! I like it more than Lady From Shanghai. Here are my picks:

Golden Surf II
Visions of the Moon
Bus Station
Road to Utah
Irene

I was thinking this album hews a little closer to the stuff with Two Pale Boys, and there are even more lyrical callbacks than usual. Then I read that it's actually meant to be a companion piece to 18 Monkeys, by DT & TPB. The last track especially is kind of a reworking of the last track on that album, and I'd say it suffers a bit in comparison. Golden Surf II, on the other hand, has the same set of lyrics as the first Golden Surf, but they're in totally different context and it stands ably on its own.

"Golden Surf II" reminds me of the latest incarnation of The Fall.
"Irene" is great.

I was thinking this album hews a little closer to the stuff with Two Pale Boys, and there are even more lyrical callbacks than usual. Then I read that it's actually meant to be a companion piece to 18 Monkeys, by DT & TPB. The last track especially is kind of a reworking of the last track on that album, and I'd say it suffers a bit in comparison. Golden Surf II, on the other hand, has the same set of lyrics as the first Golden Surf, but they're in totally different context and it stands ably on its own.

― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Wednesday, October 15, 2014 2:37 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This for sure, but, probably because of the clarinet I was reminded a bit of "Bay City" as well.

And actually some of the moon references seem to be call backs to "Butcherhouse 4" from the Rocket From the Tombs record "Bar Fly"

Or maybe he's just thinking about the moon a lot

Favourites of the most recent one are

Golden Surf II
Road to Utah
Carnival
Irene
Brother Ray

but i've just started listening to his re-release/remix of 18 Monkeys NOW, and it's fantastic. will be returning to this more than to CoS I suspect. Recent live gigs I've been to have been really really good (they're generally v solid imo, but the last one or two have been something else).

Fizzles have you heard the rerelease/remix of More Places Forever? Which I am hoping is an undoing of the fuckery he applied to it for its first CD issue on the Monster box set?

hey. no, i haven't - but hadn't heard the 'original' either. probably going to have a listen over the next couple of days tho as am meeting up with big DT fan and we'll almost certainly be spinning some of this stuff.

Description: This is the second revision of the original 1985 release. The original mix for vinyl release in 1985 suffered from lack of time and distractions. It was remixed at Suma in 1996 with the radical approach that David Thomas had originally planned for. A less than good post-production process, hurried again, caused Thomas to re-visit the various mixes in April 2014. All mixes were examined and, in some cases, edits were made or alternate mixes chosen. The audio was re-EQed by Paul Hamann and attention given to the post-production processing. This is the way it was supposed to sound.

apparently.

so, friend's take on More Places Forever, what I can remember of it through drink anyway:

the stripped-down version on the original vinyl had never been entirely to DT's taste, and had been toned down from what he'd intended. The Monster box set, which we got out but didn't actually play, had been an attempt to rectify this, and at least in part (friend's opinion), DT's current explanation of the end result should be taken with a pinch of salt. We also didn't listen to the new version, but as I say, that 18 Monkeys remix is superb.

I'm finding Carnival of Souls a little difficult to get in to, and we did discuss briefly whether St Arkansas, 18 Monkeys and Why I Hate Women should be seen as the apex of recent Pere Ubu, though as I say above I think some of their recent gigs where the CoS and LoS stuff was still being worked through and was more Protean were the best I've seen.

A couple of weeks before, I'd been struggling slightly with his lyrical content on Carnival of Souls, and had, coincidentally gone to Michael Faraday's carefully preserved laboratory beneath the Royal Institution. Seeing the electrical coils, early telegraph (and the consequent birth of radio), and and being in the place where new elements had been plucked from the void, was very instructive generally, but also opened up recent PU for me.

Their use of theremin, with its bristling waves and spirals of electricity, is the leitmotif for their lyrical content, the rock n roll tail end of the scientifically Edwardian - radios, electrical fire, telephones ringing in the desert etc.

The other night we'd separately been talking about how you refresh the materials of art with the modern - and it felt to me that current Pere Ubu was a curious if you like 'gothic' example of this - very potent and strong - but nevertheless of a noir america that is a cultural collage. It doesn't matter to me, but it also doesn't feel directly engaged.

At the end of the evening friend kinldy lent me his signed copy of The Book of Hieroglyphs, suggesting there some stuff that was applicable in there. I haven't really picked it up yet though.

Carnival of Souls is okay man! Reminds me a bit of Tom Waits' the Black Rider. I especially like the clarinet on Visions of the Moon.

I still need to check that out, but relating early and maybe recent Ubu to 19th Century science, tech x gothic seems very appropriate. Also, Thomas the rock writer always had a way with reviewer/editor-bait pitches, nailing the connection between their 70s sound and the environment of Cleveland's Flats, the classic rundown 70s urban industrial space---like in 70s NYC, when artists could move from their tenements to lofts and other real estate vacated by old school enterprises---as long as you were ready to "take responsibility" for living in the gritty wilds, the mean streets etc etc (don't think he got around to mentioning that Ohio was still the Wild West of early 19th Century America, and a weird powerhouse of late 19th/early 20th Century American poltical machines, but he might have). The actual sound coming out of this place and hype, though could later be taken as an early, leading indicator of the Rust Belt, even making me thing of rusty belts, creaking, rasping, rattling, seemed more about going for the gusto, as the beer commercial had it, rather than harping on decline of Western Civ ---entrophy, civic decay were givens, part of the commuter's route to the grocery store, bar, even dayjob, if absolutely necessary---though not something you could ignore (Thomas's eventual Jehovah's Witnesses-related visions of utopian picnics in the urban desert would take some getting used to).

Perfect tag for their jerry-rigged, rough-and-ready inventions: avant-garage, centered by Ravenstine's synth, which he said was left behind (another Witnesses precursor!)in a farmhouse, and forever customized, souped-up, as backyard mechanics and backstreet racers would say: the kind of steampunk that's always gaining on you---'til it stops for a while (the spaces in which Thomas began the improvised bits that later became whole stand-alone performance pieces, with mixed results). Then comes back to reality, lurching fwd.

"Avant-garage" was Thomas's tag of course.

Dub Housing is still amazing. Listened to it properly for the first time in years yesterday. Whole sections that just don't sound recognisably like anything else at the time.

But why can't I find it (or other PU albums) on vinyl anywhere? We must demand a repress now!

Discogs.com marketplace has a mint LP reissue for $20.

was just listening to the early stuff this morning. amazing.

what i like about it especially is that the electronic/musique concrete stuff isn't just random noise overlaid on new wave, but very cleverly integrated into the songs. Those eerie door-opening squonks and whoops during the quieter breakdowns on Caligari's Mirror for example.

Allen Ravenstine was probably the best single element of this band imo, great great analog synth player

Agreed. What does he do now?

ha i was just looking him up to answer that very question... via wiki:
In 2012, an invitation to contribute to "I Dream of Wires: The Modular Synthesizer Documentary" led to the recording of an impromptu duo performance on the EML-101 and 200 synthesizers, with current Ubu synthesist Robert Wheeler. Culled from this were a pair of albums and singles, entitled City Desk/Farm Report, which were self-released in 2013.

Left music and became a pilot. I always think he passed away, but that was Peter Laughner.

I heard he was an airline pilot, could that possibly be true???!!?

Ha! (xp)

Fascinating interview with Ravenstine here (from 2010):
http://www.furious.com/perfect/allenravenstine.html

Would be totally amazing to get on a plane and hear "My name is Captain Allen Ravenstine, I'll be your pilot."

lol yeah -- "your inflight music will be a little ditty called '30 seconds over tokyo.' enjoy!"

LOOOL

I really wanna hear that duo synth improv!

And he did "Final Solution." The only contribution I had to that was the moment in there where it says 'guitar's gonna sound like a nuclear destruction' and he (Taylor) had a great big explosion there and I said 'no, that should be the opposite. It should be a vacuum.' And so they made the sound suck itself up and that's my contribution to "Final Solution." That's the only thing I did.

PSF: You played that part on the record?

No, I didn't. I just told them that was what they needed to do at the moment. That's all I did for that song. But then they dumped Dave (Taylor) and then I was back.

man i had NO IDEA ravenstine didn't play on "Solution"

though i guess if i'd looked at the credits that would have been obvious

here's that synth duo thang: http://www.science-with-synthesizers.com/collections/other/products/allen-ravenstine-and-robert-wheeler-city-desk

Taylor is also on three of the live tracks on the B-side of 390 Degrees

Holy crap I need city desk + farm report!

I wish they hadn't vetoed the sharing of their live stuff. Also wish I hadn't had that hard drive that I had whatever of it I had crash.
Would love a load more things like Shapes of Things covering the next 2 or 3 years, since that's 1976 I think, or is it '75? Very early versions of things done live in Cleveland. Sentimental Journey still has a sentence long ttile at the time and they were doing Pushing Too Hard and a couple of other covers.

I think I have a set from London's Marquee in '78 but I used to have a number of dates up to '79. & they were an interesting live band even if Thomas's vocals seemed to be less in control.

But yeah the 1st 3 lps and the Hearthen singles are great. I don't think I've got much into them after that though when I was first getting into them was pre the late 80s Ubu reunion and I would go and see Thomas's solo abstract stuff which is probably more redolent of that later early Ubu. & I did enjoy him doing things like the theory of spontaneous similitude and whatever at the time.

Wish there was earlier video than Birdies from Urgh a Music War. Would love to see them at the time of the 1st 2 lps.

there's a bunch of live stuff available for purchase over yonder: http://www.ubuprojex.com/ubutique.html
haven't heard all of it though....

Oh wow the awesome tripod Jimmie record is available as a digital download now from hearpen! Urgently recommended.

Also the DT solo album Winter Comes Home which I thought he had disowned...

Great little write-up by Jessica Hopper about Dub Housing in the Epiphanies section of this month's Wire.

I've been meaning to post my compilation that you all helped me build. I'm totally enthralled with the quality of the Fontana and Modern Era's but I still think the Solo Era could use some tweaking. Thanks for the suggestions!

The Solo Era:
Crickets In The Flats - The Sound Of The Sand
Happy To See You - The Sound Of The Sand
Crush This Horn, Pt. 2 - The Sound Of The Sand
Pedestrian Walk - Variations On A Theme
Bird Town - Variations On A Theme
A Day At The Botanical Gardens - Variations On A Theme
Hurry Back - Variations On A Theme
Through The Magnifying Glass - More Places Forever
Enthusiastic - More Places Forever
Whale Head King - More Places Forever
Song Of The Bailing Man - More Places Forever
Big Breezy Day - More Places Forever
My Theory Of Spontaneous Simultude - Monster Walks The Winter Lake
Monster Walks The Winter Lake - Monster Walks The Winter Lake
King Knut - Blame The Messenger
When Love Is Uneven - Blame The Messenger

The Fontana Era:
George Had A Hat - The Tenement Year
Talk To Me - The Tenement Year
Say Goodbye - The Tenement Year
The Hollow Earth - The Tenement Year
We Have The Technology - The Tenement Year
Why Go It Alone? - Cloudland
Waiting For Mary - Cloudland
Bus Called Happiness - Cloudland
Monday Night - Cloudland
The Wire - Cloudland
Oh Catherine - Worlds In Collision
I Hear They Smoke The Barbecue - Worlds In Collision
Goodnite Irene - Worlds In Collision
Worlds In Collision - Worlds In Collision
Life Of Riley - Worlds In Collision
Wasted - Story Of My Life
Come Home - Story Of My Life
Fedora Satellite II - Story Of My Life
Kathleen - Story Of My Life
Last Will & Testament - Story Of My Life

The Modern Era (95-02):
Beach Boys - Raygun Suitcase
Turquoise Fins - Raygun Suitcase
Three Things - Raygun Suitcase
Red Sky - Raygun Suitcase
Down By The River II - Raygun Suitcase
Obsession - Erewhon
Planet Of Fools - Erewhon
Nowheresville - Erewhon
Woolie Bullie - Pennsylvania
SAD.TXT - Pennsylvania
White Room - Bay City
Charlotte - Bay City
Man In The Dark - Surf's Up!
Night Driving - Surf's Up!
The Fevered Dream Of Hernando Desoto - St. Arkansas
Slow Walking Daddy - St. Arkansas
333 - St. Arkansas
Home Phone Jonah - St. Arkansas
Dark - St. Arkansas

The Modern Era: (03-14):
New Orleans Fuzz - 18 Monkeys On A Dead Man's Chest
Numbers Man - 18 Monkeys On A Dead Man's Chest
Little Sister - 18 Monkeys On A Dead Man's Chest
Golden Surf - 18 Monkeys On A Dead Man's Chest
Prepare For The End - 18 Monkeys On A Dead Man's Chest
Caroleen - Why I Hate Women
Flames Over Nebraska - Why I Hate Women
Mona - Why I Hate Women
Texas Overture - Why I Hate Women
Mandy - Lady From Shanghai
And Then Nothing Happened - Lady From Shanghai
Musicians Are Scum - Lady From Shanghai
Road Trip Of Bipasha Ahmed - Lady From Shanghai
414 Seconds - Lady From Shanghai
Golden Surf II - Carnival Of Souls
Visions Of the Moon - Carnival Of Souls
Bus Station - Carnival Of Souls
Road To Utah - Carnival Of Souls
Irene - Carnival Of Souls

cool, what's the concept behind the comp?

Make a box set companion to Datapanik.

That and there are certain artists whose work I prefer to cherry pick due to inconsistency or simply not wanting to have to wade through a dozen or more albums.

Monster Dreams of the Days He's Going to Sea
^^^ is that the title? In any case, a track from Monster Walks... that needs to be in yr box. So beautiful.

"Monster Thinks About The Good Days". Excellent suggestion, I missed that one.

That bass melody comes into my head all the time

I'm confused about "Monster Walks", though. How many versions of it are there, didn't it get reissued yet again recently? I've read it's "radically remixed" for the "Monster" box set. Which version is the one to hear?

I "learned" it from the LP, and I don't remember the box set version jarring me the way the box set version of More Places Forever did. (I have the first version of the box set, with the live disc)

I listened to Long Live Pere Ubu again for the first time in a few years... Man that record has a vibe like no other record I know. Some incredibly strange, grotesque sounds.

Saw them the other night. They'd departed from recent Moon Unit/Carnival of Souls stuff, and delivered a very rocking set selected from their recent albums. I've seen the more attenuated stuff quite a lot, both from before and after the release of CoS so this was a v welcome departure and was very good too.

D Thomas seems extremely frail and unwell though, more so than at other times - he said he'd just come out of intensive care, which may have been typical posturing but certainly didn't look like it.

A session on Vic Galloway earlier this week, which I didn't hear, but I believe iplayer radio is now doing full replay (and download on apps) for recently broadcast content, as with its tv stuff now.

He's having health problems? I had no idea :(

i posted this link on the jackie leven thread but i should put it here too. best interview.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/23/pere-ubu-david-thomas-music-interview

Why have you started singing from a chair?

Because my legs don’t work any more. To sing the way I want to sing, you have to get right in there and I noticed I was spending a lot of mental energy worrying about falling over into the drums.

Found a recent photo accompanying this review of one of this week's shows.

http://m.theargus.co.uk/news/13440077.Pere_Ubu__Komedia__Gardner_Street__Brighton__Thursday__July_16/

I see what you mean, fizzles.

With early Ubu, the fact that you can’t quite hear the words and your voice is almost one of the instruments gives it a tremendous mystery and power.

I used to say that the bass player is actually the band’s guitarist, the guitarist is the bassist, the synthesiser is the vocal and I’m the horn section. Then I changed my vocal approach and it became more extreme, almost hysterical. Lately I’ve been going for legibility.

You’ve written hundreds of songs, but hardly any of them follow the pop convention of confessional lyrics: “I met Mary and fell in love” etc.

Self-expression is evil, so we don’t do confessionals. I use the first-person narrative almost exclusively, but that’s not because I’m talking about myself. I find the singer-songwriter confessional crap truly irritating. What do I care what you think about something? I don’t care about your [spits] feelings. I want ideas. I want to see how things look. We use the first person in the same way Picasso drew flowers. The point of the painting was not the damned flower. It was Picasso’s state of mind.

I used to say that the bass player is actually the band’s guitarist, the guitarist is the bassist, the synthesiser is the vocal and I’m the horn section.

^^^ I actually hear this

yep

/ And he did "Final Solution." The only contribution I had to that was the moment in there where it says 'guitar's gonna sound like a nuclear destruction' and he (Taylor) had a great big explosion there and I said 'no, that should be the opposite. It should be a vacuum.' And so they made the sound suck itself up and that's my contribution to "Final Solution." That's the only thing I did.

PSF: You played that part on the record?

No, I didn't. I just told them that was what they needed to do at the moment. That's all I did for that song. But then they dumped Dave (Taylor) and then I was back. /

man i had NO IDEA ravenstine didn't play on "Solution"

(and some great synth work too)

That Guardian interview is entertaining:

Hi David! What’s happening in Hove? (1)

It’s sunny at the moment, by the sea. I stay in my flat, go down to the local pub. That’s about it.

I hear you don’t do much on the road either – no reading or watching television. Is it important to clear your head?

My head is usually damned clear, but the whole day is focused on the performance. That’s why we forbid radio, TV, noise or talking. You’re allowed to say “Toilet!” and we will stop the bus.

Thomas has been diabetic for years - not a surprise that he's having problems at his age.

He's a great interview; I did a cover story on him for The Wire in 2006 or so and was scared as hell going in, because of the hostility factor, but he turned out to be really interesting to talk to. We had a long discussion about the whole anti-confessional thing; his attitude is that he's a performer, he's there to perform for you, not to read to you from his diary, so if you take a first-person lyric as a confession, you're the idiot. It's theater.

I used to say that the bass player is actually the band’s guitarist, the guitarist is the bassist, the synthesiser is the vocal and I’m the horn section.

at the risk of sounding (too) literal-minded, when i saw pere ubu in '79 tom herman and tony maimone would trade gtr/bass at times so yeah

DT sounded more like a flute/clarinet/bassoon than sax or trumpet though

Sometimes when I listen to early Ubu I think it's the coolest music ever made, totally aligned with my tastes, but fortunately (ironically?) I don't listen to it that often, so that when I do listen to it it remains fresh and inspires the same reaction.

That's what I posted a couple of weeks back, anyway. They are one of my Platonic ideals.

Listening to monster walks... this morning for the first time in ages. A lot of its tracks are up there with the most breathtaking stuff in the Ubu universe. "Bicycle" gave me cosmic chills. It's such a great ravenstine showcase album too.

Xposts

Yeah he is definitely a reed instrument and not brass.

Ok a casual perusal of and comment in this thread has sent me off digging back into my copies of the box and Tenement Year, scrounging what's available on Spotify and begging friends to share copies of the OOP and hard-to-find entries in their catalogue. It's not really healthy.

A few observations:

These guys have next to no duds in their catalogue. Everything is interesting in its own right – the difficult, downtown-y post-Dub Housing records w Mayo, the pop era, the aughts records w Wheeler and the reed player. I still have some gaps, but it seems that all of it is at least worth digging through.

The "pop" records—Cloudland, Worlds in Collision (or, as Letterman called it when they performed in '91, Worlds in Collusion) and Story of My Life, are incredibly solid. I still don't have a copy of the former but these records are like a model for what art bands should do when they try to reach the masses. Ubu had always been catchy, even at their most abstract, but in some ways it took this era to reveal the extent of it.

Even after having records by them for 20 years, I still feel like I am only scratching the surface of Ubu and Thomas.

I am feeling totally overwhelmed at the moment.

And yet...

I really want Monster.

One question after reading the Guardian piece:
Is Thomas' distaste for self-expression related at all to his background as a Jehovah's Witness?

listening to the Manhattan Max's recording from 1977 that comes w/ the new box set. killer, but why isn't the whole thing included? you gotta download the rest over here: http://www.hearpen.com/hr169.html

Naive Teen Idol have you ever heard A Warning To All Strangers by Tom hermans power trio Tripod Jimmie? A totally essential piece of ubu-satellite debris

The recent live BBC radio appearance was both funny in the interview segments and on point musically.

Thomas is about the most magnetic front person I've ever seen.

Naive Teen Idol have you ever heard A Warning To All Strangers by Tom hermans power trio Tripod Jimmie? A totally essential piece of ubu-satellite debris

The only thing I know by TJ is "Autumn Leaves" on the box rarities disc – but Herman is really fantastic. See it's available on Hearpen. Hmmm...

(PS, "Autumn Leaves" is fantastic)

I go to the dances almost every friday night
I do the dances that everybody likes
OH, MISS?!?

Ok Jon, now you gotta make a playlist called "Ubu Satellite Debris" containing the best non-Ubu/Thomas material.

I don't really know the other satellite stuff, sadly. Have never heard jim jones band or the ravenstine wheeler thing. Or that band two pale boys come from. Was Michele Temple in something notable before Ubu?

I desperately wish more of this stuff were on Spotify.

I find Rocket From The Tombs pretty essential but then i do like a lotof early 70s hard rock/heavy psych. & that has guitars where Ubu has synths.

When the remastered again reissue of the Datapanik cd boxset came out a couple of years back Amazon had it for about £12. Not seen what it is now though. Has all of the preretirement Ubu apart from live stuff.

I noticed there was a cd of the band live at Longbranch Saloon in 77 or 78 available from Ubuprojex. Haven't heard it but its a very good era.
& Shapes Of Things from Cleveland in 76 is a great gig too.

I quite like those two Rocket from the Tombs reunion CDs they did early in the 2000s.

My band has done a few gigs with Craig Bell, he's a cool dude. Bell lives in Indy and has a couple bands called The Down Fi and Deezen while still doing shows with David Thomas and sometimes Cheetah Chrome in the Rocket from the Tombs, playing shows with the reformed Mirrors and also playing with the reformed 70s Bloomington punk band The Gizmos. It's definitely worth exploring if you are a fan of the old Cleveland punk bands like Ubu, Dead Boys, Peter Laughner etc. Fyi.

man I love The Gizmos

those Tripod Jimmie records are great

the backward guitar riff on "street waves" is something i have yet to get over all these years later

Do you mean the solo? Was trying to figure out if that was backwards or just played that way. Either way, amazing song and performance.

Do you mean the solo? Was trying to figure out if that was backwards or just played that way. Either way, amazing song and performance.

Why I still kind of love youtube - watch enough Pere Ubu clips and it eventually links you to this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQIJiIQjoRU

Oh wow!!!!

I saw a really fantastic local production of Ubu Roi a few years ago. Right before the lights went down, they played "Final Solution" in full over the soundsystem.

Hey Jon, I finally got around to hearing the two Tripod Jimmie albums, fantastic weirdness in the tradition of early Ubu. These desperately need to be reissued!!

I've actually never heard the first one.

Death is not the end:
Pere Ubu: The David Thomas Death Protocols

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Pere Ubu: The David Thomas Death Protocols

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JUST NOW

the Classical 11 minutes ago
THE DAVID THOMAS DEATH PROTOCOLS

Members of the Ubu Projex bands shall be informed three months after the event, not before, and will at that time receive an instruction pack. No one else is to be informed, including record company and agents.
David will continue to 'answer' his email and all social media will be regularly updated - if anything there should be an uptick in posting frequency. All interviews shall be by email - since the questions rarely change there is a sufficient backlog of answers that can be cut and pasted.
A Pere Ubu album shall be produced. Keith Moline is to be in charge of assembling lyrics and vocal performances from pre-existing material. A tour will be booked to coincide with the album release. At an appropriate point a band photo with David's replacement shall be released.
Someone is bound to ask, 'Where's David?'
The response shall be 'Oh, he died two years ago.'
Q. 'What happened?'
A. His body stopped working.
Q. 'What was the cause?'
A. 'Death.'
Q. Why didn't you say anything?'
A. 'It's none of your damn business.'

lol
pretty strange to think of someone replacing Thomas

<3 and everything, but yeah that's not ever going to work, is it?

He's said that he already has his replacement identified...

haha, really? does his replacement know? is it ME?

Pretty sure the replacement is Steve Mehlman the drummer for Ubu & RFTTT, at least that seems to be what was hinted it at.

This is all very strange and very Ubu and I'll be very sad if he is dead

ha, i actually didn't even consider that he might be really dead ... thought this was just one of his weird pranks

I didn't either and now I'm worried

At first I was like, huh funny, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought maybe he was really dead.

Who knows! I've really loved like every record he's ever made basically, I'll be gutted.

There is a spring European tour scheduled with tom herman in the lineup and a career retrospective set list. Assuming dt is still with us that sounds like it will be amazing. NB I do not live in Europe :(

he also just played last week in london ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDdrJAu_xfM

Yeah the Herman tour! I was just day dreaming those dates the other day...

Was just listening to "Bay City" his solo record with the Foreigners from the 90s.

Dead or alive I legit love this weirdo and his amazing voice.

amen

Enjoying "Carnival Of Souls" this evening. Any word from the world of Ubu regarding their next project?

They are getting ready to tour the US and they got some vinyl box sets of the original albums coming out was the two communiques I remember seeing from Ubu Central.

The North American Coed Jail! tour of a concert set featuring songs from 1975 to 1982 is scheduled for June 16 to July 2. Dates are announced.
• 'Pere Ubu, The Scrapbook 1975-1982' is a 158-page, A4-sized book produced by Communex. It will be on sale at the merch table at Coed Jail! concerts.

I'd be interested to know what the contents of the book are.
Would also really love somebody discovering some early footage of the band that's been sitting in the back of a cupboard for 30 years. I think the earliest stuff in circulation is that Urgh A Music War version of Birdies.
Hope somebody can come forward and tell me I'm wrong though.

Tripod Jimmie's "Unclaimed Freight", a CD of outtakes and leftovers, is kicking my ass tonight.

Where does one get that and did the studio albums come out on CDs?

I got it cheaply from Amazon. The studio albums have only been given a digital reissue from the Ubu store.

I have one Tripod Jimmy cd I picked up in the 90s. Got it without cover. & not seen it in a while.

A long walk off a short pier was the cd title . I thought I remembered the word pier being in it.
& the spelling is jimmIE which I couldn't see from the writing opage my phone takes me to. Looks like there was a Tripod JimmY too

To be honest, I''m still trying to understand them. I came up with a good best-of, I think, caveats included.

good list, over tokyo

great list although I think Dub Housing is their best and most accessible 'classic' album

you figure the classic period runs up through song of the bailing man in '82? whatever the case, it'll always be the modern dance afacic. and that only cuz the datapanik collection was originally incomplete (& not properly an album besides).

I do, yeah.

I'd say Cloudland is their most accessible, by some distance.

do correct "30 seconds over tokyo" tho

I think David Thomas refers to 78-82 as the classic era, 88-93 as the Fontana or major label era and 94-present as the modern era. And stylistically they work well when compiled as such.

Album peaks after modern dance and dub housing are, for me, the tenement year, cloudland, st Arkansas, and Thomas' monster walks the winter lake

New Picnic Time is still pretty great. Getting abstract and arty but not as much as the Mayo Thompson era that follows it.

Found some of my live sets since I mentioned losing them. Wish there was more available.
& really wish there was video before Birdies on Urgh A Music War. Would have been great if the early arty scene in Cleveland included film makers. Would love mid 70s footage of all the bands on that scene.

the tenement year, cloudland, st Arkansas, and Thomas' monster walks the winter lake

love the former two, guess i need to track down the latter

Wasn't there a These or Recommended box of the Thomas solo mid 80s stuff? Think I saw it in listings.
Had interesting sidemen like Richard Thompson and Chris Cutler on too didn't it. The latter's in late 80s PU too.

Yes, the "Monster" box: https://www.discogs.com/David-Thomas-Monster/master/425902

I find it very inconsistent but the high points (as discussed upthread) are terrific.

Monster is well worth having for More Places Forever, Monster Walks..., Blame the Messenger, and the bonus Pale Boys Live disc.

I forgot to list More Places Forever in my peak albums list, if anything it's even better than Monster Walks... Art Bears + Ubu I mean come on!

listening to the datapanik cd box for the first time. someone brought in a copy for trade. does anyone know why there is no laughner solo stuff on the terminal drive disc of ubu-related stuff?

not sure about the specifics for that box, but laughner material is in all kinds of weird legal limbo — there's been an archival reissue project in the works for almost a decade that's been postponed over and over.

just seemed like a pretty glaring omission.

they do have a Friction track on there that is on the take the guitar player for a ride collection.

it's a great box though. filled with essentialness that is essential. every home should have one. in the basement next to the batteries and flashlights and jugs of water.

THere wasa great cd compilation I bought called Take The Guitar Player For A ride, but i think it was OOP when I last bought it.

Is there a book on the Cleveland scene yet beyond the section of From The Velvets TO The Voidoids?

Was 'Those Were Different Times' a book or a magazine article?

the guitar player comp is out of print which is why you should grab it if you see a cd or vinyl version in a store.

and it is likewise essential, but it always bums me out when some vital piece of history has to be left off of a project like the datapanik box for extra-musical reasons. he was a founding father.

Those Were Different Times = fanzine article i think

at least that's where i read it (tho where my copy of said fanzine currently is in my flat i could not tell you)

I wish I still had the datapanik box. I went through hard times when I sold so many things.

I mean I have all those albums 'digitally' but that was such a great roundup.

Grabbed the 2nd version when it was cheap on Amazon. 1st version had been falling apart on me for ages by then.

I've always been intrigued by this weirdness ever since the Comsat Angels first few albums got reissued in the early 2000s. In the liner notes for those reissues, Steve Fellows and Mik Glaisher had nothing but totally glowing things to say about Mr. Thomas and his band. Always kept that in the back of my mind, as anything that was as influential as they claimed Pere Ubu to have been on them was surely significant.

Got a few of the early things —the `75-`77 singles comp, The Modern Dance, and New Picnic Time— and have given them each one go `round so far. The very early stuff is so absurdly out of step with everything else around it, it's actually totally refreshing music. Really dazzling stuff.

At this point, I'm less of a fan of the whole schtick of New Picnic Time; wherein, band creates seemingly just on the edge of freeform madness while Dave rants squeals about over top of it all. But, who knows, a little time may do the trick.

Dub Housing > New Picnic Time. Try that one.

more like >>>>>>>>

Well, if it means anything, I liked the ones I got enough to search out and mail order Dub Housing. We'll see when it gets here.

New PT is still pretty good. It's the next couple of lps I have less time for. Find them too abstract.
I think the Datapanik box is pretty necessary plus Shape Of Things plus The Day The Earth Met Rocket From The Tombs. Plus any live stuff you can find up to about 78, possibly 79.
I do like the reunion stuff from the late 80s too. Not heard much more recent stuff.

Incidentally there's a new memoir by the Electric Eels' Brian McMahon out through Hozac Books. Looks interesting but pricey.

New album coming, one song previewed here.

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/monkey_bizness_music_from_pere_ubus_new_9_piece_lineup

New record out today, streaming in the usual locations, first blush is its good, def a bit different then the last couple (which I love), maybe closer in spirit to the RFFT "Black Record"? I dunno, good stuff whatever it is

Same lineup?

Same lineup plus an extra guitarist, I think. I was only half paying attention on first listen but had the exact same thought re: RFTT. Second half of the album seemed more interesting to me but I need to dig in some more.

Same line up, plus Siperko who played on the US tour last yr (and with RFFT) and Kristof Hahn from the Swans on the pedal steel. Guitar Orchestra or some such I believe they are referring to it as.

Continued, underrated Pere Ubu addition: Darryl Boon's clarinet, which is such a perfect foil for Thomas's voice

I've listened to "20 Years In A Montana Missle Silo" a couple of times and find it... inconsistent as David's vocals are often a bit rambling or hard to take. In fact, I'd compare Pere Ubu's 21st century output to The Fall - so much depends on the vocals for me. I think David Thomas has aged much better than Mark E Smith in terms of voice. But like The Fall, Pere Ubu's high points are extremely high whereas the rest is nice-if-unnecessary for me. From this album, I think I'd pick:

Monkey Bizness
Toe To Toe
Red Eye Blues
I Can Still See

What's your take, VTC?

I can get into most of the tracks on here to some extent when I'm listening to the album as a whole, but when I try to pick out highlights afterward, not much sticks with me. I do like where it goes on the last two tracks, especially Cold Sweat. Think my picks would be pretty similar to yours:

Toe to Toe
Red Eye Blues
I Can Still See
Cold Sweat

What is his obsession with monkeys and stuff these days? Feels like cliched wackiness

I'm getting very intrigued by the bunch of Pre Ubu and Cleveland related material turning up on Smog Veil.
I need toget the Hy Maya set and maybe the Alan Ravenstine set. Think the others look interesting too.

really digging hy maya. haven't listened to the ravenstine yet but the cover is fantastic:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0075/9892/products/sv133_97336e56-3dee-4191-b3eb-b8fd3a46d75f_large.jpg?v=1493665431

little ubu listening spree this week for me
i have underrated worlds in collision (tbh i only listened to it once, upon original release)

Tripod Jimmie - A Warning to All Strangers is available as a paid download from ubuprojex site now, btw! Urgently recommended for real

'Goodnight Irene' off Worlds in Collision is one of their best songs.

The final album, "The Long Goodbye", is out in July.

UBU DUB podcast abt the new record, interesting thoughts from Thomas (as always) and he's right about "Bay City" being criminally underrated.

New stuff sounds really glitchy & weird.

UBU DUB

Also Thomas doesn't make it seem like it is the final album, just the "end of a way of doing things", though it was born out of the idea that he was on death's door post the Nov 2017 tour, sounds like he wrote everything himself on synth while he was still sick.

has thomas ever threatened to write a memoir or something? seems like he should.

write a memoir, that is, not just threaten to write one

i feel like he has written something long...?

if nothing else there needs to be an available text of his Ghoulardi lecture from EMP!

oh hey what do you know

https://www.dukeupress.edu/listen-again?viewby=author&lastname=Melendez&firstname=Benjamin&displayName=&sort=title%20duke%20university%20pres%20link%20on%20the%20book&aID=2569558

He has written a couple of book length "liner notes" "Chinese Whispers" about "Lady From Shanghai" and "Cogs" about "Carnival of Souls", neither are exactly straight forward memoirs, more like bundles of lyrics, album behind the scenes, essays, and sort of diary entries about making music.

wow where are those? just listened to 'lady' yesterday.

Was avail on the Ubu site

http://www.ubuprojex.com/ubutique.html

Looks like Chinese Whispers is sold out in the US

No ebooks? :(

First listen to "The Long Goodbye" - it's like one of David's challenging solo albums. I don't object to the electronic additions, it's just that his vocals go against the grain to such an extent that it's hard to enjoy. Can't say it does much for me.

Second listen reveals a bit more. My picks:
What I Heard On The Pop Radio - because it's just so ridiculous
Flicking Cigarettes At The Sun - reminds me of early Pere Ubu
Fortunate Son - excellent spoken word piece
The Road Ahead - another spoken word piece, long but rewarding

It is certainly the least "rock" Ubu record since the Mayo Thompson era...I knew it was going to be weird but it is even stranger than I expected, closer to the recent record he did with P. O. Jⱷrgens "Live Free or Die" and obv an extension of the "Bay City" David Thomas & Foreigners album (which Jⱷrgens also plays on, he plays on this new Ubu record as well)

"Fortunate Son" and "The Road Ahead" are both great, long, winding stories, Ravenstine might not be on the record but his vibe is all over it,ideas pop up from the DT & two pale boys records as well

"Lovely Day" is a beautiful ending.

Ymmv but this record is extremely my shit

Their album covers are often so bad these days it cheapens the music for me quite significantly

Finally got my copy yesterday and the live disc that comes with the cd of smaller quartet doing the entire album essentially in sequence (with Chris Cutler on drums no less) I think is better than the album proper. Like a lot of things in a live setting everything just seems to make more sense. It feels more like a Pere Ubu (or at least two pale boys) record vs the studio session which does feel like a weird Thomas solo record, which I still like, but the live takes just sound better.

Also, in ref to above they just announced another book for this record, 'Baptized Into The Buzz'which per the recent news letter includes 1 chapter of Thomas's autobiography, which he also notes is less exciting than Cheetah Chrome's
http://www.ubuprojex.com/ubutique.html

Ooh cutler I want that live disc

I read the book over the wknd and it was cool, I'm not sure if really changed my overall impression of the record, but it is interesting to read how Thomas see it within the larger scheme of the Ubu oeuvre, nice to have the lyrics in a handy spot.

The album is growing on me, the live record really helps bring it into focus.

And in a very Fall-esque development I went back to 20 Years In a Montana Missile Silo, which I was fine when it came out but haven't spent much time with and of course now I think it sounds great!

JUst came across the Pere Ubu Scrapbook cos they were advertising free small sized tshirts on Facebook. Like if you take a small sized female along to their goodies table at a gig she will be given a free tshirt. May need you to buy something too but they have a surplus of small tshirts.

So that went out on FB as a post and had a link to the Ubutique so I looked through there.
& saw thsi, not really come across books on Pere Ubu before i don't think. They do turn up in a few places, From The Velvets to the Voidoids etc but haven't heard of something dedicated to them.
Sounds like it must be a compiled reprint o fvarious articles and things on the band from 1975-82 but there isn't much said on the site. "Pere Ubu, The Scrapbook 1975-1982
Paperback, A4 size, 158 pages." plus a photo is all.
Anybody read it?

Arrived today. Seems quite interesting various reprints of press from the time plus all the lyrics fro the lps from the era.

Since there is little on the band around it is great to have this,

What is his obsession with monkeys and stuff these days? Feels like cliched wackiness

― Shat Parp (dog latin), Wednesday, October 11, 2017 3:54 AM (two years ago)

have you seen monkeys

Their in house download page Hearpen has been down for a while is slowly coming back on Ubutique, there is a new remaster of the Pirate's Cove 1977 tape, not a full show, some songs cut-off in spots but it sounds pretty great and is only 3 bucks (actually some of the incomplete songs feel like those jarring edits from the The Fall's Palace of Swords Reversed comp)

http://www.ubuprojex.com/download.html

Really forgotten how fucking good Dub Housing is, but won't ever again.

Never went beyond that so changing this...onto New Picnic Time

"The Modern Dance" is essential. The following albums ("Dub Housing" etc) are good, but I can live without them. The later period isn't bad, but somehow just not very interesting either.
― Dr. C
aww, jeez...Dub Housing is actaully "better" but i dunno how you can like one (1) and find the rest not of innerst....i still need to spend more time with disc 3 of datapanik but i already know it's got greatness (looking at you "Birdies")

― epigram addict (outdoor_miner), Thursday, 1 March 2012 bookmarkflaglink

Yeah sorry to pick on this one early post but I'm marvelling at the first five albums up to 1982. The lack of choons (or rock like riffs) gives space to lots of good stuff. And, as discussed Ravenstine was something else - lol at him becoming a pilot. Awesome after life.

That song where DThom bashes a drum randomly and says "Aw, Cmooonnnnnn....."

first era is impeccable
but i also think they did the "pop sellout" thing in the weirdest, least conventional, and cool way w/The Tenement Year and Cloudland

really got into TTY this past year

TTY is my second favorite ubu of all!

Of the first five albums, I think that The Art of Walking is definitely the weakest. The weirdness that was unselfconscious on the previous records suddenly becomes a lot more effortful. After the first two songs it becomes really tedious. "Lost in Art" has one (not very interesting) idea and drags it out for five minutes.

The sterility might be Mayo Thompson's influence, but he is also on Song of the Bailing Man and that seems quite a lot better. Maybe with Anton Fier in the group, they stuck to more uptempo and (relatively) pop formats instead of the draggy instrumentals that bring down the previous record.

I could never get into the 2 really abstract lps that lead up to their retirement. Could actually get into David Thomas live a lot more when I was eeing him in the mid 80s.

do love teh early live stuff and wish the band hadn't taken themselves off the share friendly list for Dime. Had some stuff lost opn a hardrive that messed up.
BUt the '76 Shapes of things offically released set is good.

& i think the Day The Earth Met The Rocket From The Tombs is pretty essential

"Lost In Art", that was it, yes.

such a drag that there's no footage I'm aware of pre Birdies in Urgh a Music War.
Hoping the cache of student films that's been in the back of somebody's closet for 45 odd years finally turns up this year.

I'm not particularly a fan of live albums by anyone, but the late 70s live compilation 390 Degrees Of Simulated Stereo is really a worthwhile appendix to those early albums.

I'd say you need the first three and Terminal Tower and Cloudland.

my ubu poV

terminal tower (or the hearpen singles or anything that has the early 45s on it)
modern dance
dub housing
the tenement year
st arkansas

The Tenement Year continues to grow on me, this might be my favorite Ubu record (that I've heard)

nothing like it

It's an excellent but sadly neglected quasi-commercial quasi-comeback.

Yeah, that whole string of Fontana records were kind of taken for granted and/or neglected, at least outside of cut-out bins.

quasi commercial def., like i can tell that there's the impulse to be more "commercial" without changing the fundamental strangeness of pere ubu...so you get these skewed pop songs percolating with percussion and ravenstine squiggles and thomas being thomas...might be my favorite ubu album now

Are the later remasters of the Fontana records preferable? I know they made some changes to those albums, but I wasn't sure if it was supposed to restore what they would have liked or what.

haven't heard, picked up an original vinyl. sounds really good to me

What changes did they make?

I love The Tenement Year, adore Cloudland, think Story of My Life boasts several worthwhile cuts.

What changes did they make?

I only found info for the first two:

Tenement Year:

Director's Cut 2007
The original 1988 Fontana release does not seem to have been mastered. David Thomas and Paul Hamann mastered it January 22-23 2007 at Suma. An alternate mix of Dream The Moon from 1987 was substituted in the running order and five bonus tracks were added...As well, the sound of thunder that was found on the original Suma mix of the tracks was added - there was clearly some intention of including this somewhere for some reason.

Cloudland:

Director's Cut 2007
The album was originally mixed by Paul Hamann at Paisley Park Studios, Minneapolis MN. Subsequently four tracks were re-recorded in London and the others remixed for the 1989 Fontana release. This reissue substitutes in the running order the following Paisley Park mixes by Paul Hamann: Monday Night, Lost Nation Road, Nevada!, The Wire, The Waltz, and Pushin. Five bonus tracks were added.

Not a fan of revisionist history, but sometimes it does produce better (or at least interesting) results. I'm not familiar enough with the material, has anyone A'Bed those albums and evaluated the differences?

I've only heard the two versions of The Art of Walking that came out in 1980, and all those tracks are on the most recent CD. Since the alternate versions are the weaker tracks on their weakest album, it's interesting but hardly vital to hear both.

I can say that I prefer the LP mixes of some of the tracks on More Places Forever to the ones he did for the CD version in the Monster box set

But that could just be imprinting, having ‘learned’ the LP version pretty throughly first

Due to the Draconian US visa policies the line-up for the two US Pere Ubu shows this summer will be Thomas, Michelle Temple, Jack Jones plus Brother Wayne Kramer & Eric Drew Feldman and Tony Maimone and Allen Ravenstine in NYC and Mayo Thompson (!) in LA

http://www.ubuprojex.com/

Also the two new songs sound very Moon Unit-y which is very good to me, ymmv

Agh, really wish I could make it to that NYC show.

The last few albums never really clicked with me, but I'm excited about this new one. I guess Ubu has fully absorbed Two Pale Boys at this point, which is definitely what it sounds like on "Love Is Like Gravity."

Man I would like to see them on stage with maimone and ravenstine!!!

Fuck me none of them sound like bad lineups

Eric Drew Feldman, a secret secret weapon.

https://www.discogs.com/release/6592285-Pere-Ubu-The-Pere-Ubu-Moon-Unit

Sounds like this sort of thing

Per the Patreon livestream today Thomas teased "maybe a super-secret mind-blowing guest" in LA, which I'm guessing is Van Dyke Parks, he also mentioned he hasn't asked this person yet, so...

New album is even farther out there than the last one...

seeing them tonight - in fact DT has just malevolently watched me parking my bike in front of the venue - and i will pick up the album.

the musical elements are increasingly attenuated, closer to the moon unit approach than anything else you might call pere ubu. DT’s well worn symbols and tropes sit in a sparse landscape, without much propulsion or dynamic intensity around them. q a lot of wailing. *mood* as they say. i quite like it, but it doesn’t take much for it to become a bit boring or overstay its welcome. when it works it’s great.

the group seem very enthused about the album, other responses seem a bit more muted.

I listened to about half of it earlier this week after having not listened to a new Ubu album since ...Women. I liked what I heard a lot and plan to check out the second half soon.

my post above was largely nonsense, probably due to the fact that the main times i've seen David Thomas recently have been in the experimental Moon Unit format, and an utterly disastrous Pere Ubu gig in Canterbury (Chris Cutler's drumming had fallen apart from someone obscure reasons).

This gig was really good, David Thomas, looked for all the world like some sort of grizzled Gendo, his glasses reflecting the lights, leaning forward and pointing to emphasise obscure but dictatorial pronouncements. He got himself in a pother, as is frequently the case, after a very good actually version of Crocodile Smile off the latest album. He got cranky, and the gig looked like it might turn sour, but he had a cigarette, took his hat off, and suddenly seemed as benign and warm as a sort of punk GK Chesterton. Malevolent, self-destructive to sympathetic and humorous – not a terrible summary of Pere Ubu, and as theatre it was a-grade.

Music was as the album, and the album is really good I think. I had a bit of trouble structuring it, and I think it works best if you impose the side a/side b of the vinyl onto the cd main tracks. I haven't got to the extra tracks yet. Love, death and departure, death and eternity, US delta blues and highway symbolism are all present. It's the mood of the music that is most compelling though. The group shifts the tempo and mood of the music in strange, rich ways, never the same thing twice, recombining continually throughout tracks and through the album. It does have the sort of dynamism I'd associate with a lot of Pere Ubu, but mixed with the exploratory methods of Moon Unit, and the effect is like... well, what's it like? I've got an unhelpfully hackeneyed image in my head of a painter improvising a painting as part of the performance, with exuberant brush strokes expressive of emotional shifts in the moment, but contributing to a completed, final piece of work that captures the freedom of composition as it does the original intent. Sorry that's terrible - i'm awful at writing music.

Alex Ward's guitar and clarinet adds a *lot* imo. Full disclosure, he's a friend so i would say that wouldn't i, but it adds a substantial new element governed by his own creative wellsprings in improv and rock, and his playing. The whole group is now well used to playing pere ubu material together in more improvised scenarios now anyway, and it really comes together on the album. will repay repeated listens I think. i may not listen to enough music, but it's hard to find music - at least in the post-punk tradition - that has this level of invention to it imo.

Shame they're against tape sharing, at least on dime etc. Would love to hear this lot live. I thought Ward was pretty great with the Flying Luttenbachers when I saw them a few years ago.

though there are bits of them appearing on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83xzLp_YSsU

Will have to check out those bits, thanks.
Fizzles, your description is perfectly valid, going toward the xpost rock & improv, also jazz, ideal: "The song turning into itself," as the poet Al Young puts it.

And your report on the album is even more appealing.

Yeah good write-up Fizzles. I like the new album too. There are moments that remind me of specific elements from past Ubu/DT projects: "Love Is Like Gravity" starts off sounding exactly like something from one of the DT + Two Pale Boys albums, "Crocodile Smile" makes prominent use of an actual sample of "Drive" from Pennsylvania, the creepy whispered vocals on "Let's Pretend" make me think of Mere Ubu from Long Live Pere Ubu, and "Nyah Nyah Nyah" almost feels like a darker take on some of the goofier stuff from the early 80s Ubu and David Thomas albums, but at the same time it does seem like this is a new era of the band -- I keep thinking of it as "The Pere Ubu Big Band." In that regard it's almost the opposite of The Long Goodbye, which to me felt more like an actual solo album from David Thomas than maybe anything else he's done, with Pere Ubu or otherwise. (Pretty sure it's the only album he's been involved with where's got the sole writing credit on every song.) I wasn't really able to get into that album, so this is a welcome change-up.

Found this last night while I was trying to find the current tour footage from Rich Mix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNG4QHHvOPE

Incidentally watched the Rich MIx footage last night and does the Face in the video behind the band during Worried Man Blues morph into a load of Gerry Anderson puppet faces from Stingray and Thunderbirds or is that me? Probably a number of other notable popular culture sci fi faces too from Dr Who and Star Trek among others.

Man I would like to see them on stage with maimone and ravenstine!!!

Here's a glimpse of them at LPR in NYC covering 'Kick Out the Jams' for obvious reasons.

Don't sleep on the recent live album, "By Order Of Mayor Pawlicki (Live In Jarocin)". It's relentlessly great.

Oh yes. And highly good-natured.

Dave T is *funny*

(Always knew this)

There is a guy that's PISSED on my tl about seeing a show on their current tour and calling it "creativity bankrupt"!!

Don't sleep on the recent live album, "By Order Of Mayor Pawlicki (Live In Jarocin)". It's relentlessly great.

― Blood On The Knobs, Friday, 30 June 2023 06:14 (ten hours ago) link

Great record, greater stage banter

"I'm not yelling at you...yet"

been enjoying the album on this swampy uk morning. i’d been feeling it takes a worried man got in the way of the album, sucked the energy into a not particularly outstanding track, but this morning it worked. the bass provided the swampy feeling appropriate to the mood - the chains around the heart, ‘i asked the judge what might be my time’, death and love again, thomas’ psychic landscape overlaid onto the music and geographic spaces of the south.

in general tackling this album i’d been turning round the view that the music is better than the DT element. A precondition or implication of this is that the music is separable from the DT element, which is ofc RONG. the interplay is complicated though, it’s almost like a (very successful) extrapolation and interpretation of the DT’s mental landscape.

Anyway, good listen.

oh and the last seven tracks really add some murk and strangeness, as a sort of side 3 coda. i don’t think they’re really intended to perform that function as such, but they feel pretty essential tbh. odd, intriguing album.