Pere Ubu: Classic Or Dud

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