Poll Ubu! (See What I Did There?) The Modern Dance

so would it be totally hyperbolic of me to describe this album as a fine work of art. i mean, i'd put it on the same artistic level as any movie or painting or book that might have come out that same year (not that i can think of any at the moment). or even that decade. it feels complete to me too in the same way a good movie or book might. it has such a wonderful flow. it starts out strange and gets stranger and then ends on some sort of doomed grace note.

thinking of final solution, it's hard for me to think of a more genius expression of male adolescent masturbatory fury. and it makes me wonder how many female fans this band has ever had. maria likes them! but she's a geek from way back.

okay, after much mulling over, I've decided on "Sentimental Journey", simply because the tension it builds and releases is incredible. Absolutely remarkable.

similarly remarkable: piano/Dave duo that closes out "Chinese Radiation" ...

This is really hard but reading the 'Humor Me' lyrics just now tipped the scales in its favor for me. Scott what you said is not hyperbolic, it's OTFM.

Silly story time:

One time I was at a charity football match hosted by our local radio station.

At the disco afterwards, the DJ was handing out spot prizes to dancers. Usually they do this to get rid off the stuff they're not going to play (again) and can't sell off. Usually disco-lite and easy listening stuff. Except I noticed that this time he had "Modern Dance" Pere Ubu and I was like "Ooh" and threw a few moves. But this got handed to a little girl who ran back to her Mum and Dad who cooed "Ooh, lovely, I like disco music!"

Peter Laughner lives!

xpost: I have the original Hearthan 7" single of "The Modern Dance"! And the original vinyl LP! And Datapanik In The Year Zero! I shall play all three versions of "TMD" when I get home this evening.

(Wiki says that only the original 7" has the recurring "doll squeak" noise, but my memory says that the 7" and LP versions were identical. Well, perhaps they were only near-identical.)

that early version of TMD was on the Max's Kansas City compilation album and it is great. same album also has a demo version of Suicide's "Rocket USA".

This is between Street Waves and Chinese Radiation for me.

^ this but I voted "Street Waves" because it's one of the Top 10 rock songs of all time

went with Street Waves for similar reasons

Oh yeah I totally voted street waves. Last time they played in my town, David said "maybe we should play street waves?" almost rhetorically, between songs, which elicited a healthy "YEEESSSS!" from me in the audience. They complied, of course.

Ah, the Hearpen single A-sides for Street Waves and Modern Dance are not on "Terminal Tower"

http://www.ubuprojex.net/historical.html#tt

have to be boring and go with "Non-Alignment Pact"

Re Terminal Tower: iirc, the rationale was that since those songs appeared on The Modern Dance (LP), there wasn't any reason to include them on the clean-up comp.

The bit about the "Datapanik" CD box admits that Street Waves is a remix on the "Modern Dance" album.

Yeah, that's mentioned on the notes to The Modern Dance as well. Huh. Just listened to the Hearpen Box and album versions back to back and they sound absolutely identical. If the mix is different, it's too subtle for me to pick up on (esp through the haze generated by bad MP3s and earbuds).

Well, the one on Terminal Tower lacks the background vocal chant (what the hell is he saying, "Maker Maker"?) and is clearly a different performance.

It's "mantra mantra" or something, right?

It's "merdre merdre" - a corruption of "merde", as used by Jarry's original Ubu Roi.

I always thought he was saying "murdra", like a corruption of "murder". [shrug]

And do you mean the one on Datapanik? Cuz it ain't on Terminal Tower, right?

I don't have Datapanik. I have Terminal Tower. And the chant is missing.
I've always thought it was a demo version. I like the album version more fwiw.

It's called "Untitled" on Terminal Tower.

It WAS on the original vinyl release of Terminal Tower, which I bought on Twin/Tone in the 80s. And that was not the same version as on the Singles Box, cause I remember when I bought the singles box and played it I was all "wha--???"

But maybe the whole difference is just the absence or presence of the merdre-merdres?

oops xpost

street waves

No, I just listened to the "untitled" Terminal Tower version (which I'd forgotten about -- it's been years since I owned a copy of that record). It's entirely different. Suppose it could be a remix of the same basic tracks, but I dunno. Bass part is the onlyt thing that sounds unchanged. Anyway, still dunno which version was originally released on the 7".

On the opening night of Ubu Roi (December 10, 1896), with traditionalists and the avant-garde in the audience, King Ubu (played by Firmin Gémier) stepped forward and intoned the opening word, "Merdre!" ("Shittr!"). A quarter of an hour of pandemonium ensued: outraged cries, booing, and whistling by the offended parties, countered by cheers and applause by the more forward-thinking contingent. Such interruptions continued through the evening. At the time, only the dress rehearsal and opening night performance were held, and the play was not revived until 1907.

http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Merdre%21

(I've also seen "merdre!" translated as "Pschitt!")

Yeah, now that I know what yr. referring to, I think that must be it.

OK I am wrong, kind of:

"when commissioned to provide a track for a second Max's volume, Ubu came up with an early version of "The Modern Dance" which was rejected as totally unintelligible."

(Clinton Heylin in From The Velvets To The Voidoids)

he also notes: "Terminal Tower includes the original version of The Modern Dance, previously only available on Datapanik In The Year Zero."

also, where the hell can I buy a copy of 390 Degrees???

^^^ I think only by buying the box set?

Bought a nice copy of the 390 LP for less than ten bucks earlier this year. For whatever reason, there were cheap copies in used bins all over Seattle for a little while?

BTW, my 2 cents worth as to worthwhile post-Dub Housing Ubu records:

--The Tenement Year. They really came back inspired. And this has actual genuine Allen Ravenstine all over it instead of a dude being Ravenstine-y. The only later Ubu record I can say for sure belongs up there with singles/Modern Dance/Dub Housing.

--Raygun Suitcase. Not thoroughly awesome but a nice return to a charging straightahead attack with Non-Alignment wailing.

--St. Arkansas. Marred by 2 or 3 duds but there are some superb O.G. Ubu style tracks on here. Also you get Tom Herman all by himself (no Jim Jones) sounding very much like himself. And this record has a really interesting band-in-a-room sound. There's a dirge tune on here that goes on way too long but worked nicely live.

(after reading Greil Marcus on the Pennsylvania album I really tried to like it but it just gave me a case of the blahs. Something about the sound. I heard this got remixed lately?)

not ubu, but i was stunned by how much i loved that 18 monkeys album by david thomas and two pale boys (2004, i think). stunned i tell you! such a cool record. definitely one of the best ubu-ian things i've heard in years.

but then we should also mention "surf's up" the other david thomas and two pale boys album. imagine the beach boys at a winter's night in cleveland. great stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UQsqFiyw9k

Humor Me for me, with Non-Alignment Pact a close second. I haven't heard this album in ages, need to give it spin as soon as I can find it. It's really rather good.

very consistent album, there is not one song i could drop. i think i'll go for laughing as it has got this little improv jazz vibe. it sounds a little like music which has been imprisoned for many years and has just been liberated.

something i always wanted to talk about but i never found the occasion. what about david thomas as a jehovah's witnes? did this ever show in his music or his lyrics? the jehovah's witnesses are totally crazy. much more so than scientology. they really believe in evangelization. something opposite of tolerance. i can't stand them at all. why can't they all turn into buddhists? why can't they just shut the fuck up and stop their pseudo-discussions.

i am torn between laughing, sentimental journey and humor me. it feels like a torture in the middle ages. there are three horses which gallop into three different directions and i am in the middle, attached to each of them by a strip.

This thread has inspired me to make the Datapanik box today's soundtrack. (My wife has retreated to the living room.)

xpost

is DT still a witness? he "got religion" sometime after peter laughner's death and from what I've read/heard this had a lot to do w/the breakup of the classic UBU lineup that produced modern dance, dub housing and new picnic time. there's a song on NPT called jehovah's kingdom comes but other than that I couldn't say where else religion surfaces in his work. it's an interesting question: in all the horsecock that greil marcus has written about david thomas is there any discussion of this?

xpost haha, i was thinking about doing the same thing, and then thought: "my wife would not be pleased with that." as noted upthread, does Pere Ubu have any female fans?

well, isn't all that "horsecock" that marcus has written positing that Thomas is kinda like an old testament prophet lost in the wilderness of the modern world? dunno if it references jehovah's witness stuff, but ...

I put "heart of darkness" on a mix tape for an old girlfriend years back and she liked it but calling her a fan would be a stretch. Betcha Ubu have more female fans than the MC5.

keep in mind their last album was called Why I Hate Women.

haha yeah. but of course the current incarnation has a woman in the band, right?

My GF likes Pere Ubu more than most of the stuff I play around the house. As in actively likes. And I know at least one other woman who's a fan.

My buddy got a female caller when he played Ubu on the college radio station and that led to a date. They were together for a few years.

As far as the Witness thing, I know that Thomas refused to perform "Final Solution" for quite a while but the last time I saw Ubu they played it and I was thrilled.

yeah, and he sure played the hell out of it with the reunited Rocket From the Tombs ...

I've just played the original 1977 Hearthan 7" version of "The Modern Dance" (recorded on August 7th 1977, according to the label) back to back with the LP version (from the original UK Mercury/Phonogram release). There's only one difference that I can immediately make out: the LP version omits the high pitched "doll squeak" noise (as Wiki aptly terms it), which runs steadily and rhythmically all the way through the 7" version (excepting the two solo guitar/vocal FX breakdowns), before gathering speed in the final bars. Personally, I prefer the squeaky 7" version, but it's no biggie. (I didn't pull out the UK Radar 12" Datapanik EP, as it would have involved shifting furniture around.)

Yeah I'm a huge fan of the "Long Live" album but I've heard the live version is a bit lacking. Maybe they've honed it a bit? Here's hoping.

Shame there wasn't much love for Chinese Radiation, it's just so sad and the crowd noises are just so unexpected.

If Thomas was telling the truth, those audience sounds were recorded at a legitimate Grand Funk concert.

God now all I want to hear is Chinese Radiation.

U.S. dates expected at all?

final solution is one of the greatest songs of the 20th century.

This should be repeated.

word.

final solution is one of the greatest songs of the 20th century.

― scott seward, Friday, 22 January 2010 17:08 (2 hours ago)

They played Final Solution last night!

This was an amazing gig - just the songs from the excellent audio of Bring Me the Head of Ubu Roi, and Modern Dance. David Thomas on fine form.

Makes up for the dreadful play of Ubu Roi I saw them do a year or so ago.

Took the girls to/from Swimming, was playing "The Modern Dance" album..

Alice: Is is supposed to have that noise?

By the time we came back, Chinese Radiation was just starting, and Amber decided it sounded like The Killers' "All these things that I've done". Then David Thomas started singing, and they both decided it sounded a lot like it.

Just the start-off, mind.

The applause in "Chinese Radiation" just gets to me every time I hear it

(or rather, David Thomas' unhinged yelping as he's swept away in the round of applause)

I've been singing "Laughing" all day every day for the past 2.5 weeks but I still think I'd prob vote for CR

So, unless someone has the original single, I believe they well may be the same version anyway.

I do now.

It is a different noise. "Twiww" as opposed to "Dink"

tried to see them play last weekend but waited too long to show up at the venue... no advance ticket sales. heard they were pretty great, too. ah well.

"Street Waves" owns