Pere Ubu

close
more_vert
Sin Agog S
Sin Agog Oct 19, 2013 15:20:37
Replying to Popel Vooje

Bah! I really like their Mayo Thompson years. Maybe that's partly because I'm a Red Krayola-fan post-freakout years (i.e. when they were Mayo's deconstructionist plaything), or maybe because I always suspected David Thomas wasn't just a bit quirky but an outright strange individual. Bailing Man and the Art of Walking can be annoying, sure, but Pere Ubu couldn't very well have ploughed the Avant-Garage furrow forever. I will admit I developed Stockholm Syndrome for arty poncing about long, long ago. I think it must have moved onto the more terminal strains of Gothenburg Syndrome, Malmo Syndrome and Lund Syndrome by now.


The Day the Earth Met the Rocket From the Tombs is my favourite ever Ubu-related release, though, mostly on account of Peter Laughner's searing geet-arr, and the palpable angst of wanting to graduate out of the shitheap that was and probably still is Cleveland. From Lester Bangs' eulogy of Laughner, he smacked more of a fatalistic rock-acolyte than an actual rock musician, but the Tombs' aural testimony, and I guess the comp Take the Guitar Player for a Ride, say otherwise.

P Popel Vooje
Popel Vooje Oct 20, 2013 13:18:18
Replying to Sin Agog

Sin Agog wrote:
Bah! I really like their Mayo Thompson years. Maybe that's partly because I'm a Red Krayola-fan post-freakout years (i.e. when they were Mayo's deconstructionist plaything), or maybe because I always suspected David Thomas wasn't just a bit quirky but an outright strange individual. Bailing Man and the Art of Walking can be annoying, sure, but Pere Ubu couldn't very well have ploughed the Avant-Garage furrow forever. I will admit I developed Stockholm Syndrome for arty poncing about long, long ago. I think it must have moved onto the more terminal strains of Gothenburg Syndrome, Malmo Syndrome and Lund Syndrome by now.
I'm not familiar with much of Red Krayola's 70s stuff apart from "Soldier Talk", which is OK, but again - to my ears at least - tries a little too hard to be weird. I'm a massive fan of the 60s stuff though, and particularly the solo album "Corky's Debt to His Father", which is a real unsung classic, IMO. For some reason though I don't think either Thomas or Thompson worked as well in collaboration as they did individually (due to clashing egos, perhaps?). I notice that on the Pere Ubu clip of Birdies" from the Secret Policeman's Ball Mayo Thompson plays the entire track with his back to the audience - wonder if that in any way reflected his feelings about his role in the project?

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.