Ubu are generally regarded as the missing link between the Velvets and punk. From the beginning they obviously understood the nuts and bolts of popular music, and then loosened them. -- Joe Cushley, Mojo Are there any Pere Ubu fans here? For those of you unfamiliar with the band, here is some information from Ubu Projex: Pere Ubu burst upon the scene in 1975 and changed the face of music. For over 27 years they've defined the art of cult; refined the voice of the outsider; and influenced the likes of Joy Division, Pixies, Husker Du, Henry Rollins, REM, the Sisters of Mercy, Thomas Dolby, Bauhaus, Julian Cope and countless others. Pere Ubu make a music that is a disorienting mix of midwestern riff rock, "found" sound, analog synthesizers, falling-apart song structures and careening vocals. It is a mix that has mesmerized critics, other musicians and fans ever since. Singer David Thomas named the band after the protagonist of Ubu Roi, a play by Frenchman Alfred Jarry. The single, "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" b/w "Heart of Darkness", released in 1975, was the first of four independent releases on Hearpen Records and, along with Television's "Little Johnny Jewel," signaled the beginning of the New Wave. In the early to mid-70s Pere Ubu was part of a fertile rock scene that also produced 15-60-75, Mirrors, The Electric Eels, Rocket From The Tombs, Tin Huey, Styrene Money and Devo. The group's first album, The Modern Dance, sold only 15,000 copies initially but it was a startling work that influenced an entire generation of bands. Its follow-up, Dub Housing, was the masterpiece, "an incomparable work of American genius." Pere Ubu toured Europe extensively in 1978. Late in 1979 Tom Herman left and was replaced by Mayo Thompson, the guitarist from 60's Texas psychedelic-rock legends The Red Crayola. The Art Of Walking followed, a challenging stew of inside-out song structures. The band stopped playing in early 1982 just as the progressive-sounding Song Of The Bailing Man was released. In 1981, Thomas recorded the first of two albums with British folk-rock guitarist Richard Thompson. Three more solo albums kept the nucleus of Ubu alive and working together. The last of these, 1987's Ubu-like Blame The Messenger, led to the reanimation of the Pere Ubu projex. The line-up had been Thomas, Allen Ravenstine, Tony Maimone, Chris Cutler and Jim Jones, a stalwart on the Cleveland scene and member of nearly every good band to come from it at one time or another. The clattering Tenement Year, recorded for a British label (Fontana) headed by Ubu fanatic Dave Bates, introduced a two drummers lineup of Scott Krauss and English prog-rocker (and long-time fan) Cutler, of Henry Cow, Art Bears, and Cassiber lineage. Teamed with another Ubu fan, producer Stephen Hague (Pet Shop Boys, New Order), Ubu shifted gears for 1989's Cloudland. Tired of touring and the grind of it all Ravenstine retired to take up a career as an airline pilot for Northwest. He was replaced by Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart, Snakefinger) who appeared on Stereo Review's Record of The Year for 1992, Worlds In Collision, produced by Gil Norton (The Pixies). Cutler, unable to juggle all the demands of his many musical projects, had to leave. Feldman followed, joining Frank Black's projects. The last Fontana album, Story Of My Life, produced by Al Clay, marked the end of the period of experimentation with "outside" producers. (This last fling, recorded in Stoughton MA, was a happy time-- the working title had been "Johnny Rivers Live At The Whiskey A Go Go.") In 1993 Garo Yellin, playing an electrified cello, and veteran of The Ordinaires and several of Thomas' solo projects, was recruited to fill the "synthesizer" slot. During rehearsals for the Story of My Life tour Maimone left to work in the They Might Be Giants band. He was replaced by Michele Temple who had previously replaced him in the Jones/Krauss 80s side project, Home & Garden. In January 1994, again without a major label, the band recorded demos for a projected album, Songs From The Lost LP, intended to be a tribute to Smile. Krauss left... again. Yellin, busy with his quartet in NYC, was replaced by Robert Wheeler, organic farmer, Ravenstine protege, and president of the Edison Birthplace Foundation. Thomas announced that he was now ready to become the producer for Pere Ubu and that was what he was going to do. Raygun Suitcase, awarded CD Review's Editors' Choice Award for 1995, was recorded to a click track in the hope that Krauss would change his mind. Scott Benedict, the drummer in Temple's group, The Vivians, came in over a weekend and recorded all the parts. The next week he retired to take up landscape gardening. Steve Mehlman, Benedict's replacement in The Vivians, replaced him in Ubu. In August 1995 Jones retired from the road on health grounds. Herman rejoined the group for the Raygun Suitcase tours, and together with Jim Jones recorded 1998's Pennsylvania, a highly acclaimed album nominated by America's preeminent rock critic, Greil Marcus, as the best of 1998. In 1999 the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame promoted a special event, "55 Years of Pain," honoring Pere Ubu and the grandaddies of the scene, 15-60-75. The event was repeated at the Royal Festival Hall in London later in the year, and at the "Fall of The Magnetic Empire Festival," curated by Thomas and staged at NYC's Knitting Factory, Wayne Kramer joined the group as guitarist for one show. in 2002 the release of St Arkansas was celebrated by The Mighty Road Tour of the South, followed by a live soundtrack performance to a rare 3-D screening of Ray Bradbury's "It Came From Outer Space" at the Royal Festival Hall, London.
As water_baby would say, "you people wouldn't know good experimental post-punk if it jumped up and bit you in the balls!!!!111"
it was a documentary made in about 1981 which was like a bands festival i think held both in america and the uk and had a whole lot of bands from that time.
That sounds something I'd like to see. I'm not sure how I'd get my hands on it, though. I'm going home next weekend; perhaps I'll look for it there.
in australia it gets shown on foxtel every now and then. i dont know if its something available these days on video or not. But its got bands like The Police, Cramps, Pere Ubu, The Go-Gos, Echo and Bunnymen, Dead Kennedies, XTC and others i cant remember.
I love Pere Ubu--though I only have the first few albums (plus Terminal Tower, the collection of early singles). but both The Modern Dance and Dub Housing are amazing. like a group of kids who listened to german electronic music (and Captain Beefheart) who decided to start a punk band.
