Everything about Pere Ubu Band totally explained
» For other uses, see Pere Ubu (disambiguation).
Pere Ubu are a
rock music group formed in
Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975. Despite many long-term band members, singer
David Thomas is the only constant. The group is named after Père Ubu ("father Ubu"), the
protagonist of
Ubu Roi ("Ubu, the King"), a
play by
Frenchman Alfred Jarry.
While Pere Ubu have never been widely popular—usually categorized as "
underground rock"—they have a devoted
following, have been hugely influential on several generations of avant-garde musicians and are a critically acclaimed American musical group.
Critical opinions of Pere Ubu include: "the most original and important of the
new wave bands" ; "the world's only
expressionist Rock 'n' Roll band" and: "Pere Ubu will be looked back on as the most important group to have come out of
America in the last decade and a half. Either that or that'll be entirely forgotten".
Pere Ubu refuses to discuss or explain their enigmatic music, forgoing press interviews. They have compiled a list of guidelines for touring, live performances and the like: "Lighting should be
theatrical rather than rockist. We are interested in atmosphere,
mood,
drama, energy, subtlety,
imagination—not rock cliché. The
Danish Broadcasting Corporation is one of the few organizations they trust to record live performances, "solely on the basis of the King of Denmark's
defense of the Jews in
WWII" .
To define their music, Pere Ubu coined the term
Avant Garage to reflect interest in both experimental
avant-garde music (especially
Musique concrète) and raw, direct
blues-influenced
garage rock. Thomas has stated "Avant Garage" is "a
joke invented to have something to give
journalists when they yelp for a neat
sound bite or
pigeonhole".
History
1970s
Rocket From The Tombs was a Cleveland-based group that eventually fragmented: some members formed
The Dead Boys, while
David Thomas and
guitarist
Peter Laughner joined with guitarist
Tom Herman,
bass guitarist
Tim Wright,
drummer Scott Krauss and
synthesist Allen Ravenstine to form Pere Ubu in 1975. At the time the band formed, Herman, Krauss, and Ravenstine lived in a house owned by Ravenstine.
Pere Ubu's debut single was "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" (inspired by the "
Doolittle Raid" and named after a film depicting the raid), backed with "Heart of Darkness"; followed by "Final Solution" in 1976. One review noted that "30 Seconds" "was clearly the work of a
garage band, yet its arty dissonance and weird
experimentalism were startlingly unique."
Of their second single, "Final Solution" (backed with "Cloud 149"), one scribe writes that Ubu's "call for a 'final solution' was the cry of teen
angst run down in the decaying rust belt of America, and unlike the British punks who were looking around England the same year, seeing no future, and hating what they saw, Ubu reveled in it." (They would rarely perform this song after some listeners misinterpreted it as being associated with the
Nazi final solution.)
From these first recordings, Pere Ubu sounded like little else. Their propulsive
rhythmic pulse was similar to
Krautrock, but Thomas's yelping, howling, desperate singing was and still is peculiar when compared to most other rock and roll singers.
In their songs, Pere Ubu imagined 1950s and 1960s
garage rock and
surf music archetypes as seen in a distorting funhouse mirror, emphasising the music's
angst, loneliness and
lyrical paranoia. Sometimes sounding like a demented
nursery rhyme sing-along, this already bizarre blend was overlaid with Ravenstine's ominous EML synthesizer effects and
tape looped sounds of mundane conversation, ringing
telephones or steam whistles.
After "Street Waves", their third single, Pere Ubu signed to
Blank Records, an imprint of
Mercury Records.
Laughner left the group after their first two singles, and died soon afterwards after a struggle with
drug addiction.
Tony Maimone signed on as bassist after Tim Wright left to join
DNA.
Their debut album,
The Modern Dance (1978), sold poorly, but has proven influential. Musicians of many types, including
prog rock,
punk rock,
post punk and
New Wave, were influenced by the dark, abstract record. With the song "Sentimental Journey," the debut also introduced the practice of re-appropriating titles from well-known popular songs: Pere Ubu's "Sentimental Journey" has no obvious relation to the
Doris Day hit song of the same name; "Drinking Wine Spodyody" has no apparent connection to the
Jerry Lee Lewis song. This practice has continued through 2006's
Why I Hate Women, which has a song called "Blue Velvet" (again, no relation to the
1963 hit song by
Bobby Vinton).
Special note should be made of Ravenstine's contributions to Pere Ubu. While most synthesizer players tended to play the instrument as they'd a
piano or
organ, Ravenstine generally opted instead to make sounds that were reminiscent of spooky
sound effects from 1950s
science fiction films, or perhaps
electronic music and
musique concrète. One critic writes that Ravenstine "may be one of the all-time great synth players" and his playing has been called "utterly original" .
Dub Housing and
New Picnic Time followed, with much the same reaction.
Dub Housing is notable as one of the earliest rock albums to use recordings of enigmatic
shortwave radio number stations on "Ubu Dance Party".
The group briefly disbanded in 1979, but reformed soon afterwards with Herman replaced by
Mayo Thompson (of
Red Krayola).
1980s
The Art of Walking (1980) featured
Red Krayola's
Mayo Thompson on guitar. For the next original album,
Song of the Bailing Man (1982), Krauss was replaced by
Anton Fier.
The group disbanded again soon afterwards; Krauss and Maimone formed
Home and Garden, while Thomas worked on a solo career, notably with
Richard Thompson and with members of
Henry Cow.
By the late 1980s, one of Thomas's solo projects eventually featured much of Pere Ubu. The band was reformed again in 1987, with
Jim Jones and
Chris Cutler joining for the release of
The Tenement Year (
1988), a far more pop-oriented album than ever before. The following year, "Waiting for Mary" (off
Cloudland) appeared on
MTV briefly. After the recording of
Cloudland, Ravenstine left the group (although he made a guest appearance on
Worlds in Collision) and later became an airline pilot.
Eric Drew Feldman joined the band in time for the Cloudland tour and the recording of
Worlds in Collision but left afterwards, joining
Frank Black.
1990s and beyond
Story of My Life (1993) was released on Imago Records; Maimone left (once again) to join
They Might Be Giants, and Michele Temple and Garo Yellin joined the band for the
Story of My Life tour and feature on Ubu's 1995 album,
Ray Gun Suitcase. Robert Wheeler has played
synthesizer and
theremin with Pere Ubu since 1994. Krauss left the band during the
Ray Gun Suitcase sessions. For the
Ray Gun Suitcase tour, guitarist Jim Jones departed as a
touring member (although he continued to contribute to recordings), founding guitarist Tom Herman replaced him for the tour.
Concurrent with the 1996 release of the
Datapanik in Year Zero box set, Jim Jones retired due to health problems.
Tom Herman returned to the band after a twenty year absence to tour with the band in 1995, and went on to record
Pennsylvania (1998) and
St. Arkansas in 2002. Jim Jones contributed guitar tracks to each album as well. Herman left again in 2005, being replaced by
Keith Moliné, of David Thomas's "solo" group
Two Pale Boys. The new lineup completed an album entitled
Why I Hate Women, which was released on
19 September 2006.
On
18 February 2008, Jim Jones passed away at his Cleveland residence.
Quotes
- "Pere Ubu isn't now nor has it ever been a viable commercial venture. We won't sleep on floors, we won't tour endlessly and we're embarrassed by self-promotion. Add to that a laissez-faire attitude to the mechanics of career advancement and a demanding artistic agenda and you've got a recipe for real failure. That has been our one significant success to this date: we're the longest-lasting, most disastrous commercial outfit to ever appear in rock 'n' roll. No one can come close to matching our loss to longevity ratio." – David Thomas
"Rock music is mostly about moving big black boxes from one side of town to the other in the back of your car."
Discography
Albums:
(1978) The Modern Dance
(1978) Dub Housing
(1979) New Picnic Time
(1980) The Art of Walking
(1981) 390° of Simulated Stereo (live)
(1982) Song of the Bailing Man
(1985) Terminal Tower (collection of singles and b-sides)
(1988) The Tenement Year
(1989) Cloudland
(1989) One Man Drives While the Other Man Screams (live)
(1991) Worlds in Collision
(1993] Story of My Life
(1995) Ray Gun Suitcase
(1996) Folly of Youth (enhanced EP)
(1996) B Each B Oys See Dee Plus (enhanced EP)
(1996) Datapanik in Year Zero (boxed set)
(1998) Pennsylvania
(1999) Apocalypse Now (live)
(2000) The Shape of Things (live)
(2002) St. Arkansas
(2006) Why I Hate Women
Charting singles
Further Information
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