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Pere Ubu

Pere Ubu is an American rock group formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975. The band had a variety of long-term and recurring band members, with singer David Thomas being the only member staying throughout the band's lifetime. They released their debut album The Modern Dance in 1978 and followed with several more LPs before disbanding in 1982. Thomas reformed the group in 1987, continuing to record and tour.

For other uses, see Pere Ubu (disambiguation).

Pere Ubu

Cleveland, Ohio, United States

1975–1982, 1987–present

David Thomas
Keith Moliné
Gagarin
Michele Temple
Alex Ward
Andy Diagram
Jack Jones

Scott Krauss
Allen Ravenstine
Tom Herman
Tim Wright
Peter Laughner
Dave Taylor
Alan Greenblatt
Tony Maimone
Anton Fier
Mayo Thompson
Jim Jones
Chris Cutler
Eric Drew Feldman
Garo Yellin
Paul Hamann
Scott Benedict
Wayne Kramer
Darryl Boon
Steve Mehlman
David Cintron
Gary Siperko
Kristoph Hahn
Robert Wheeler
P.O. Jørgens

Describing their sound as "avant-garage," Pere Ubu's work drew inspiration from sources such as musique concrète, 60s rock, performance art, and the industrial environments of the American Midwest.[8][9] While the band achieved little commercial success, they have exerted a wide influence on subsequent underground music.[1]

History[edit]

1970s[edit]

Rocket from the Tombs was a Cleveland-based group that eventually fragmented: some members formed the Dead Boys, and others The Saucers, 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.[10] The group's name is a reference to Ubu Roi, an avant-garde play by French writer Alfred Jarry.[1]


Pere Ubu's debut single (their first four records were singles on their own "Hearpen" label) 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.[11] One review noted that "30 Seconds" "was clearly the work of a garage band, yet its arty dissonance and weird experimentalism were startlingly unique."[12] Laughner left the group after their first two singles,[11] and died soon afterwards of acute pancreatic failure.

Style[edit]

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 the term is "a joke invented to have something to give journalists when they yelp for a neat sound bite or pigeonhole".[28] Their music has been called art punk and post-punk.[1][29] Their songs 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. 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.[30]

– lead vocals, keyboards, melodeon, musette, theremin (1975–82, 1987–present)

David Thomas

– guitar (2002, 2005–16, 2016–present)

Keith Moliné

Gagarin (Graham Dowdall) – synthesizer, electronics (2007–16, 2016–present)

– drums, electronics (1987–90, 2004, 2019–present)

Chris Cutler

Alex Ward - guitar, clarinet (2022-present)

(1978)

The Modern Dance

(1978)

Dub Housing

(1979)

New Picnic Time

(1980)

The Art of Walking

(1982)

Song of the Bailing Man

(1988)

The Tenement Year

(1989)

Cloudland

(1991)

Worlds in Collision

(1993)

Story of My Life

(1995)

Ray Gun Suitcase

(1998)

Pennsylvania

(2002)

St. Arkansas

(2006)

Why I Hate Women

(2009, with Sarah Jane Morris)

Long Live Père Ubu!

(2013)

Lady from Shanghai

(2014)

Carnival of Souls

(2017)[32]

20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo

The Long Goodbye (2019)[34]

[33]

(2023)

Trouble On Big Beat Street

Further reading[edit]

Wolff, Carlo (2006). Cleveland Rock and Roll Memories. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers. ISBN 978-1-886228-99-3

Official website

Ubu Web: Pere Ubu's Avant Garage Online

The story of Pere Ubu

Ubu Projex Bandcamp – official download site for digital-only live albums

Ubu Dance Party – French website devoted to Pere Ubu, approved by the band

Pere Ubu on Chicago Public Radio

David Thomas interviews about Pere Ubu on Outsight Radio Hours