Pere Ubu
| Pere Ubu | |
|---|---|
 Pere Ubu (2009) |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Cleveland , United States |
| Genre (s) | Post-punk , experimental , art-rock , new wave , alternative rock , art-punk |
| founding | 1975 |
| Website | ubuprojex.com |
| Founding members | |
| David Thomas | |
| Peter Laughner | |
| Tom Herman | |
| Tim Wright | |
| Allen Ravenstine | |
| Scott Krauss | |
| Current occupation | |
singing |
David Thomas |
guitar |
Keith Moliné |
bass |
Michelle Temple |
Synthesizer, theremin
|
Robert Wheeler |
Drums |
Steve Mehlman |
| former members | |
guitar |
Mayo Thompson |
guitar |
Jim Jones |
bass |
Tony Maimone |
Drums |
Chris Cutler |
Pere Ubu [pɛːr yby] is an American rock band formed in 1975 in Cleveland , Ohio . Her French name is Ubu roi (English: King Ubu ), borrowed from Alfred Jarry's absurd play , and its main character, Père Ubu (English: Father Ubu). The name underlines the artistic claim of the band, so Pere Ubu combines experimental rock music with elements from punk , musique concrète , krautrock or free jazz . The band describes their music as "Avant-Garage", a mixture of avant-garde and garage rock .
history
In 1974 David Thomas formed the band Rocket from the Tombs . After artistic differences between the members, the band broke up in 1975. Thomas and Peter Laughner founded Pere Ubu, while the other members of Rocket from the Tombs later became known as the Dead Boys .
Pere Ubu grew by more members and recorded their first single 30 Seconds over Tokyo in September 1975 . The single Final Solution followed in early 1976 . In the absence of their own compositions, the band initially played many cover versions in live performances , including songs from MC5 , The Stooges and The Velvet Underground . The single releases were followed by appearances at Max's Kansas City Club in New York and a few clubs in Cleveland. After a few line-up changes in the band, the third single Street Waves was released in mid-1976 .
It was this single that brought the band's attention to Cliff Burnstein, an A&R man from the Mercury Records record company . However, Burnstein did not think his company was the right label , but assured the band of his support in a conversation with Thomas. Two weeks later, Chrysalis Records also showed interest in Pere Ubu. Put under pressure, Burnstein created the Blank Records label especially for the band , which was then operated as a sub-label of Mercury. Thereupon appeared in February 1978 the first album The Modern Dance . After a tour through the USA and Europe , the album Dub Housing was released in the same year . The following year the band toured Europe with Nico and The Red Crayola . After the third album New Picnic Time was released in 1979 and the band had a performance in San Diego in front of only five listeners, guitarist Tom Herman left the band and was replaced by Mayo Thompson of The Red Crayola. Basically, The Red Crayola was more Thompson's project with constantly changing members, so the next release that Pere Ubu was fully involved in was the Soldier Talk album under the band name The Red Crayola .
Pere Ubu released two more albums that received critical acclaim. But there were increasing tensions within the band. David Thomas realized himself on a total of six albums between 1982 and 1987, all of which were a continuation of the Ubu sound. Because many former Pere-Ubu members worked on Thomas' changing solo projects. Band members Scott Krauss and Tony Maimone formed a new band called Home & Garden . Pere Ubu himself seemed dissolved without anyone announcing it.
The band woke up again in 1987 with the album The Tenement Year . For the following album Cloudlands you worked with Stephen Hague as a producer. His experiences with the Pet Shop Boys and New Order gave the band the catchiest and most pop songs. More studio and live albums followed, but much of the band's earlier phases were also re-released.
The only constant in the band's history has remained David Thomas to this day. Other members left the band to return later. Alan Greenblatt e.g. B. only had a short guest appearance. The band's release practice seems inconsistent: While the first album was released under the care of the Mercury label, the second one was switched to Chrysalis. This was followed by the contractual obligation with Rough Trade Records , which lasted the longest, to then sign again with Fontana Records . There were also intermediate stops at other companies. The band's current label is Fire Records .
The band could not achieve success in the charts . Nevertheless, her publications always received a lot of attention.
music
To classify the music of Pere Ubu in a style is almost impossible. On the band's website, she simply describes herself as a "rock band". In its early days, the band was also categorized as a punk band against the background of the punk movement, and later as a representative of the New Wave . The difficulty of categorizing could be justified by the fact that the band processed an enormous number of influences. But that alone is not enough. The way in which the structures, the structure and the arrangement of the songs are dealt with creates additional confusion. A stylistic device of the band is z. E.g. the use of an analog synthesizer that seems to follow the logic of submitting to everything but not the will of the band. This creates a deliberate disturbance / destruction of the songs on the basis of an apparent chaos. Furthermore, the band looks at compositions like a puzzle that can always be put together differently because each part fits the other. The dissolving of conventional song structures is a central aspect in Pere Ubu's music. The production of organized chaos is supported by the peculiar, very emotional and therefore less disciplined singing style and the high but voluminous voice of David Thomas. Within a song, he can switch from aggressiveness to pitiful whimpering, interrupted by wobbling chuckles. All of this moves in all the possibilities that rock and pop have to offer. There is no encroachment on improvisational structures such as jazz has to offer.
When Alan Bangs was allowed to do a second radio show on BFBS in the late 1970s alongside the established Nightflight , in which "other" music should be played, he named it after Pere Ubu's first album The Modern Dance for lack of a really appropriate category .
Even if a categorization of the music is not possible, the band can be assigned to musical epochs in which something similar happened; On the one hand, the psychedelic phase of garage rock of the 1960s and the transition to progressive rock of the 1970s, and also the time of punk and the experimental avant-garde bands that came about with it. The band works as a link from The Velvet Underground , the early Pink Floyd , The Fugs and The Red Crayola to Faust , Soft Machine and Captain Beefheart to Brian Eno and This Heat . “30 Seconds over Tokyo” was added to The Wire's “100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)” wirelist .
Discography
Rocket from the Tombs
- A Night of Heavy Music ( Tape , 1975)
- The Day the Earth Met the… (Anthology, 2002)
- Rocket Redux (2004)
Pere Ubu
- The Modern Dance (1978)
- Dub Housing (1978)
- New Picnic Time (1979)
- Datapanik in the Year Zero ( EP , 1978)
- The Art of Walking (1980)
- 390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo (live recordings, 1981)
- Song of the Bailing Man (1982)
- Terminal Tower (singles compilation, 1985)
- The Tenement Year (1988)
- Cloudland (1989)
- One Man Drives While the Other Man Screams (Recorded Live, 1989)
- Worlds in Collision (1991)
- Story of My Life (1992)
- Raygun Suitcase (1995)
- Datapanik in the Year Zero (anthology, CD box, 1996)
- Pennsylvania (1998)
- Apocalypse Now (recorded live, 1999)
- The Shape of Things (live recordings, 2000)
- St Arkansas (2002)
- Why I Hate Women (2006)
- Why I Remix Women (Tour-only Remixes by Why I Hate Women , 2006)
- Long Live Pere Ubu! (2009)
- Lady from Shanghai (2013)
- Carnival Of Souls (2014)
- Drive, he Said 1994-2002 (anthology, 2017)
- 20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo (2017)
- The Long Goodbye (2019)
Solo projects
- David Thomas & The Pedestrians (1981–1985)
- David Thomas & His Legs (1982-1983)
- David Thomas & The Accordion Club (1985)
- David Thomas & The Wooden Birds (1986-1987)
- David Thomas & Two Pale Boys (1996-2004)
- David Thomas & The Pale Orchestra (1999-2001)
- Peter Laughner (–1977; posthumous publications)
- Home & Garden (1982–1986)
- Easter Monkeys (1982-1983)
- Tripod Jimmy (1996)
literature
- Albrecht Pilz: Pere Ubu . In: Klaus Humann, Carl-Ludwig Reichert (Ed.): Rock Session 4 . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1980, ISBN 3-499-17358-1 , pp. 381-383.
- Diedrich Diederichsen: Pere Ubu / Red Crayola . In: Sounds . 4/1981. Sounds Verlag, pp. 32-35.
- Steven Grant, Ira Robbins, David Sprague: Pere Ubu . In: Trouser Press . TrouserPress.com - Pere Ubu