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Biography
other usesAbout|Tom Herman of Pere Ubu||Tom Herman (disambiguation)!Tom HermanInfobox musical artist| name = Pere Ubu| image = Pere_Ubu_Live__Vienna_2009.jpg| caption = Pere Ubu performing in Vienna, 2009.| image_size =| landscape = yes| background = group_or_band| alias =| origin = Cleveland, Ohio , USA| genre = Experimental rock , art punk , New Wave music|New Wave , industrial rock , post-punk "Pere Ubu" in the Encyclopædia Britannica .cite web|last=Ankeny |first=Jason |url= http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p5128/biography |title=Pere Ubu |publisher=AllMusic |date=1999-12-23 |accessdate=2011-07-17| years_active = 1975& ndash;1982, 1987& ndash;present| label = Hearthan (their own label), Blank, Mercury Records|Mercury , Radar Records|Radar , Chrysalis Records|Chrysalis , Rough Trade Records|Rough Trade , Fontana Records|Fontana , Imago Records|Imago , Tim/Kerr Records|Tim/Kerr , Cooking Vinyl Records|Cooking Vinyl , DGC Records|DGC , Thirsty Ear Records|Thirsty Ear , Smog Veil Records|Smog Veil | associated_acts = Rocket from the Tombs , Red Krayola|The Red Krayola , Home and Garden | website = URL| http://ubuprojex.net/| current_members = David Thomas (musician)|David Thomas Keith Moliné Michele Temple Robert Wheeler Steve Mehlman| past_members = Peter Laughner Allen Ravenstine Tony Maimone Jim Jones (guitarist)|Jim Jones Scott Krauss Eric Drew Feldman Tim Wright (bassist)|Tim Wright Mayo Thompson Anton Fier Chris Cutler Garo Yellin Tom Herman Pere Ubu is an experimental rock music group formed in Cleveland, Ohio , in 1975. Despite many long-term band members, singer David Thomas (musician)|David Thomas is the only constant. The group is named after Père Ubu ("father Ubu"), the protagonist of Ubu Roi ("Ubu, the King"), a play by French writer Alfred Jarry .cite web|url= http://www.ubuprojex.net/pereubu.html |title=Pere Ubu Biography |publisher=Ubuprojex.net |date= |accessdate=2011-07-17
While Pere Ubu have never been widely popular& mdash;usually categorized as " underground rock "& mdash;they have a cult following|devoted following and are an influential and critically acclaimed band.
Critical opinions of Pere Ubu include, "the most original and important of the New Wave music|new wave bands",cite web|url= http://www.scaruffi.com/vol4/pereubu.html |title=The History of Rock Music. Pere Ubu: history, discography, reviews, links |publisher=Scaruffi.com |date=1975-05-05 |accessdate=2011-07-17 "the world's only expressionist Rock 'n' Roll band", http://www.projex.demon.co.uk/stark.html dead link|date=July 2011 and "Pere Ubu will be looked back on as the most important group to have come out of America in the last decade and a half. Either that or they will be entirely forgotten". http://www.projex.demon.co.uk/historical.html dead link|date=July 2011
Pere Ubu have compiled a list of guidelines for touring, live performances and the like: "Lighting should be theatre|theatrical rather than rockist. We are interested in atmosphere, Mood (psychology)|mood , drama , energy, subtlety, imagination —not rock cliché." http://www.ubuprojex.net/protocols.html The Danmarks Radio|Danish Broadcasting Corporation is one of the few organizations they trust to record live performances, "solely on the basis of the King of Denmark's Rescue of the Danish Jews|defense of the Jews in World War II|WWII ".
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 journalist s when they yelp for a neat sound bite or pigeonhole ".cite web|url= http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id502/pg2 |title=disinformation & #124; pere ubu: datapanik in the year 00 |publisher=Disinfo.com |date= |accessdate=2011-07-17
History
1970s
Rocket from the Tombs was a Cleveland-based group that eventually fragmented: some members formed The Dead Boys , while David Thomas (musician)|David Thomas and guitar ist Peter Laughner joined with guitarist Tom Herman, bass guitar ist Tim Wright (bassist)|Tim Wright , drummer Scott Krauss and synthesizer|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.cite web|author=kirsten hively www.bitfarm.net |url= http://www.wburg.com/0103/context/maimone.html |title=(Tony Maimone) context / w b u r g |publisher=Wburg.com |date= |accessdate=2011-07-17
Pere Ubu's debut single (their first four records were singles on their own "Hearthan" 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. One review noted that "30 Seconds" "was clearly the work of a garage band , yet its arty dissonance and weird experimental music|experimentalism were startlingly unique."cite web|url= http://www.allmusic.com/song/t3128186 |title=30 Seconds Over Tokyo |publisher=AllMusic |date= |accessdate=2011-07-17
Final Solution
Of their second single, "Final Solution" (backed with "Cloud 149"), one scribe writes that Ubu's "call for a 'final solution' was the cry of teen angst run down in the decaying rust belt of America, and unlike the British punks who were looking around England the same year, seeing no future, and hating what they saw, Ubu reveled in it." http://www.secraterri.com/final.html Final Solution, By Pere Ubudead link|date=July 2011
The Teenage Wasteland|teenage-wasteland theme of the song has nothing to do with the Nazism|Nazi use of " final solution ": Indeed, Pere Ubu has consistently denounced Nazism and neo-Nazi movements, and praised resistance to Nazism and rescues of Jews in WWII. Pere Ubu stopped playing "Final Solution" for many years to avoid association with Nazism. The band's FAQ contains the following question and answer:
Question: "Why did "Final Solution" disappear for years? "
Answer: "Because of the title. A Sherlock Holmes story called "The Final Problem" was the inspiration for the song. If there's a final problem there's got to be a final solution. Didn't think about it very much until the punk movement came along with its nazi tokenism. The band decided to drop the song rather than risk association."
From these first recordings, Pere Ubu sounded like little else. Their propulsive rhythm ic 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.
In their songs, Pere Ubu imagined 1950s and 1960s garage rock and surf music archetypes as seen in a distorting funhouse mirror, emphasising the music's angst , loneliness and lyrics|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 loop ed sounds of mundane conversation, ringing telephone s or steam whistles.
Other recordings of the 1970s
"Street Waves" b/w "My Dark Ages (I Don't Get Around)" was their third single, and after their fourth single, "The Modern Dance" b/w 'Heaven" (which was pressed in very small quantities and contained a completely different version of "Dance"), Pere Ubu signed to Blank Records , a short-lived imprint of Mercury Records .
Laughner left the group after their first two singles, and died soon afterwards after a struggle with drug addiction . Tony Maimone signed on as bassist after Tim Wright left to join DNA (band)|DNA .
Their debut album, The Modern Dance (1978), contained a remix of "The Modern Dance" and the original mix of "Street Waves", sold poorly, but has proven influential. Musicians of many types, including progressive rock , punk rock , post punk and New Wave music|New Wave , were influenced by the dark, abstract record. With the song "Sentimental Journey," the debut also introduced the practice of re-appropriating titles from well-known popular songs: Pere Ubu's "Sentimental Journey" has no obvious relation to the Doris Day Sentimental Journey (song)|hit song of the same name ; "Drinking Wine Spodyody" has no apparent connection to the Sticks McGhee song (later revived by Jerry Lee Lewis ). This practice has continued through 2006's Why I Hate Women , which has a song called "Blue Velvet" (again, no relation to the Blue Velvet (song)|1963 hit song by Bobby Vinton ).
Special note should be made of Ravenstine's contributions to Pere Ubu. While most synthesizer players tended to play the instrument as they would a piano or organ (music)|organ , Ravenstine generally opted instead to make sounds that were reminiscent of spooky sound effects from 1950s science fiction films, or perhaps electronic music and musique concrète . One critic writes that Ravenstine "may be one of the all-time great synth players" cite web|last=Dougan |first=John |url= http://www.allmusic.com/album/r15032/review |title=Dub Housing - Pere Ubu |publisher=AllMusic |date= |accessdate=2011-07-17 and his playing has been called "utterly original".cite web | last =| first =| title = Pere Ubu| publisher = TrouserPress.com | url = http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php? a=pere_ubu | accessdate = 2007-01-07
Pere Ubu's second and third albums, Dub Housing and New Picnic Time , followed with much the same reaction.
The group briefly disbanded in 1979, but reformed soon afterwards with Herman replaced by Mayo Thompson (of Red Krayola ).
The group disbanded again soon afterwards; Krauss and Maimone formed Home and Garden , while Thomas worked on a solo career, notably with Richard Thompson (musician)|Richard Thompson and with members of Henry Cow .
By the late 1980s, one of Thomas's solo projects eventually featured much of Pere Ubu. The band was reformed again in 1987, with Jim Jones (guitarist)|Jim Jones and Chris Cutler joining for the release of The Tenement Year ( 1988 ), a far more pop-oriented album than ever before. The following year, "Waiting for Mary" (off Cloudland (album)|Cloudland ) appeared on MTV briefly. After the recording of Cloudland (album)|Cloudland , Ravenstine left the group (although he made a guest appearance on Worlds in Collision (album)|Worlds in Collision ) and later became an airline pilot. Eric Drew Feldman joined the band in time for the Cloudland tour and the recording of Worlds in Collision but left afterwards, joining Frank Black .
1990s and beyond
Story of My Life (album)|Story of My Life (1993) was released on Imago Records; Maimone left (once again) to join They Might Be Giants , and Michele Temple and Garo Yellin joined the band for the Story of My Life (album)|Story of My Life tour and feature on Ubu's 1995 album, Ray Gun Suitcase . Robert Wheeler has played synthesizer and theremin with Pere Ubu since 1994. Krauss left the band during the Ray Gun Suitcase sessions. For the Ray Gun Suitcase tour, guitarist Jim Jones departed as a touring member (although he continued to contribute to recordings), founding guitarist Tom Herman replaced him for the tour.
Concurrent with the 1996 release of the Datapanik in Year Zero box set, Jim Jones retired due to health problems. Tom Herman returned to the band after a twenty year absence to tour with the band in 1995, and went on to record Pennsylvania (album)|Pennsylvania (1998) and St. Arkansas in 2002. Jim Jones contributed guitar tracks to each album as well, and guitarist Wayne Kramer (guitarist)|Wayne Kramer of MC5 fame joined the band for their 1998 summer tour. http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/pereubu/articles/story/5921199/wayne_kramer_joins_pere_ubu Wayne Kramer Joins Pere Ubu: Pere Ubu : Rolling Stonedead link|date=July 2011 Herman left again in 2005, being replaced by Keith Moliné , of David Thomas's "solo" group David Thomas and Two Pale Boys|Two Pale Boys . The new lineup completed an album entitled Why I Hate Women , which was released on 19 September 2006.
On 18 February 2008, Jim Jones died at his Cleveland residence.
On 24 April 2008 the Ether festival at the South Bank Centre (London, England) hosted the world premiere of Bring Me The Head of Ubu Roi .cite news| url= http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2275779,00.html | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=That Ubu that you do | first=Mike | last=Barnes | date=25 April 2008 | accessdate=22 May 2010 This adaptation by David Thomas (musician)|David Thomas of Alfred Jarry 's play Ubu Roi was accompanied by animations by the Brothers Quay . The production featured David Thomas (musician)|David Thomas as Pere Ubu and SarahJane Morris (singer)|Sarah Jane Morris as Mere Ubu.
In 2010 Pere Ubu played a series of theatrical shows in the UK including a set at the Classic Grand in Glasgow's Jamaica Street.
Quotes
"Pere Ubu is not now nor has it ever been a viable commercial venture. We won't sleep on floors, we won't tour endlessly and we're embarrassed by self-promotion. Add to that a laissez-faire attitude to the mechanics of career advancement and a demanding artistic agenda and you've got a recipe for real failure. That has been our one significant success to this date: we are the longest-lasting, most disastrous commercial outfit to ever appear in rock 'n' roll. No one can come close to matching our loss to longevity ratio." & ndash; David Thomas http://www.billions.com/artists/pereubu Pere Ubudead link|date=July 2011
"Rock music is mostly about moving Instrument amplifier|big black boxes from one side of town to the other in the back of your automobile|car ."cite web|url= http://users.rcn.com/obo/ubu/ubu_garage.html |title=Ubu Web: Pere Ubu's Avant Garage Online |publisher=Users.rcn.com |date= |accessdate=2011-07-17
Discography
(1975) 30 Seconds Over Tokyo/Heart of Darkness
(1976) Final Solution/Cloud 149
(1976) ''Street Waves/My Dark Ages (I Don't Get Around)
(1977) The Modern Dance+/Heaven
+ This single version of "The Modern Dance" is not the same mix as the subsequent album and all reissues of the track (with the railroad spike). This makes this single (with the doll squeak) the only place to find the original mix.
http://users.rcn.com/obo/ubu/ubu_story.html The Story of Pere Ubu
http://hearpen.com/ Hearpen - Label download site
http://www.soundopinions.org/archive/2006/november.html#guestpereubu Pere Ubu on Chicago Public Radio
Pere Ubu Category:American punk rock groups Category:Musical groups from Cleveland, Ohio Category:Musical groups established in 1975 Category:Art rock musical groups Category:Rough Trade Records artists Category:Protopunk groups Category:American post-punk music groups Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Chrysalis Records artists Category:Fontana Records artists Category:DGC Records artists Category:Radar Records artists
