PERE UBU

How about a quiz to begin with: Of the three which artist most influenced Pere Ubu? a) Abba; b) The Monkees; c) Captain Beefheart. To give you a clue - most of this album is based upon angular, fractured guitar riffs; stream-of-consciousness lyrics incoherently garbled out; and it also contains the odd screaming free jazz saxophone solo. Of course Beefheart wasn't the only influence (and neither were Abba or the Monkees) but I've heard few albums quite so deliberately inaccessible as this one. In that respect, Suicide were also obvious influences. Not least in the fact that, as well as the saxophone, nightmarish industrial synthesisers are often used to embellish the tracks with bursts of screeching white noise. Furthermore, vocalist David Thomas even sings like he looks. Well, I don't know how fat he was at the time but now he actually resembles the beached whale he sounds like. Indeed, you're doing well if you can make out more than a few sentences on the entire album - "Sentimental Journey" literally sounds like a man mumbling to himself in his sleep. I'm no masochist but I do still rate highly much of this album. On the other hand, I am not going to fall into the trap of trying to look clever by raving about how great this album is. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some people do genuinely love it but there really is not enough classic material for me to go along wholeheartedly with its cult audience. The first four songs are all an excellent fusion of punk and avant-garde art-rock and if the album continued in much the same vein I'm sure I could properly appreciate it as a pioneering art-punk classic. However, much of the rest of the album appears to get bogged down in pedestrian and overly contorted arrangements. I also don't understand the need to insert sound-effects (on top of the synthesisers) into many of the songs. I guess the crowd effects (cf. "The Modern Dance", "Chinese Radiation") are meant to illustrate Thomas' sort of industrial preacher role but they do not particularly add to either song. And, gosh, the breaking glass effects on the dreary "Sentimental Journey" don't half grate with me. In general, I just get the feeling that they over-did the avant-garde angle to the detriment of the actual songs. For instance "Laughing", half squealing saxophone and half energetic rock song, is a perfect synthesis of their two approaches and, although borrowing substantially from Trout Mask Replica, remains a stand-out moment on the album. "Non-Alignment Pact" (although opening the album with piercing synthesiser feedback), "The Modern Dance" and "Street Waves" are all essentially punk songs but with enough avant-garde leanings to distance themselves from the typical, rudimentary punk rockers. And whereas the eerie chants of "Chinese Radiation" and "Over My Head" are at least atmospheric (I particularly like the lead guitar in the latter) the rushed blurt of "Life Stinks" and the dominant contorted, dub-influenced bass of "Real World" do nothing for me. And as I've already made clear, "Sentimental Journey" is nothing but a waste of six minutes. In fact, the real highlight of the second half is the off-kilter "Humor Me" that ends the album. Thomas' faux-Jamaican accent ("it's just a joke, mon") perfectly complements the mock-reggae rhythms and the guitar solo helps to build it up into a satisfyingly climatic ending. The non-serious nature of it also comes as a welcome relief and off-sets some of the seriousness, not to mention pretentiousness, of the second half. And if you like your history lessons (Sting need not apply) you'll be absolutely fascinated to learn that Pere Ubu were associates of the Dead Boys, as both originated from the same Cleveland scene. Indeed, I believe some members of both were originally in the same band. Peter Laughner, who wrote the Dead Boys' "Ain't it Fun", was also an original member of Pere Ubu, although he left before this album was recorded. Now wasn't that interesting? Next week I'll talk you through why Hitler was actually a genius and that the holocaust didn't really happen. I'd show you the proof but those pesky New World Order keep kidnapping my cat.

From: Edwin D. Oslan

David Thomas and Peter Laughner from Pere Ubu were in Rocket From The Tombs with Cheetah Chrome, Johnny Blitz and Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys. Thomas, a critic and underground DJ nicknamed Crocus Behemoth formed Rocket From The Tomb in 1974 and later that year formed a lineup including Gene O'Conor (aka Cheetah Chrome) and John "Madman" Madansky (aka Johnny Blitz) plus Peter Laughner on guitar and Craig Bell from The Mirrors, another local Cle Punk band, on bass. Blitz quit in 75, and Stiv lator joined on vocals while Thomas moved to organ and sax, then the group broke up into Pere Ubu and Dead Boys (originally named Frankenstein). Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs cd chronicals early demo and live stuff the group recorded in 75. The group reformed in 03 with Richard Lloyd taking the place of Laughner and some young punk taking the place of Johnny Blitz, they recently released an official album called Rocket Redux. Pere Ubu's "Final Solution", "Life Stinks" and "30 Seconds over Tokio" and Dead Boys "Sonic Reducer", "What Love Is", "Caught...", "Down in Flames" and "Ain't it Fun" were all played in Rocket before the individual bands used them. I wasted fifteen minutes writing this.

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Email me at: jackfeeny@yahoo.co.uk