Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu (the name came from a character in the absurdist stage
play, Uhu Roi, by Alfred Jarry) formed in Cleveland in
1975 and went through record labels at an astonishing rate,
taking in Radar, Chrysalis and Mercury en route to their liaison
with Rough Trade.
And their albums - Dub Housing, New Picnic Time
and The Art of Walking - saw them move further and
further away from the parameters of rock or pop.
Vocalist David Thomas was a former rock critic, who once
called himself Crocus Behemoth. He dropped the name and formed
Pere Ubu for the sole purpose of recording a song he had written
called 30 Seconds Over Tokyo.
The group - which at that stage included Creem writer
Peter Laughner - went on to record three more singles on its own
Hearthan label. Most of that material eventually ended up on
their debut album, The Modern Dance.
Cliff Burnstein, Mid-Western A&R man for
Mercury/Phonogram, read about the band in a fanzine and was
intrigued enough to track down their singles then the band
itself. As a result he formed a Phonogram subsidiary called
Blank Records - which he envisaged as an American equivalent to
England's Stiff Records - and signed Ubu as the first band on
the new label.
Ubu's second single - and their last with Peter Laughner - Final
Solution (1976), was a blunt and sarcastic examination of teen
outsider angst hitched to a sinuous bass line, spooky synthesizer
noises and a threatening, juddering climax that spoke of serious
intent.
The first album arrived to critical acclaim in 1978 and
provided a blueprint for post-punk and coming triumphs by PiL,
Talking Heads and fellow Ohio oddballs Devo.
Disjointed synthesizers, slashing guitars, distortion, howls
and the occasional sound of smashing glass - Pere Ubu worked
fearlessly on a planet all of their own - and provided proof
positive that the really weird American music comes from the
nowhere bit between the two coasts.
Lack of company support led to Blank's dissolution in 1978,
and despite all the critical acclaim, Pere Ubu had a hard time
getting another contract.
Anyone with suicidal tendencies would have been well-advised
to steer clear of their output. Their music was primarily about
despair and the black feeling that says life is just one big
bucket of shit.
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