Pere Ubu

Pere Ubu ranks among the most pivotal forces in the American underground, conveying the turmoil and disorder of successive decades through cataclysmic intensity alongside unexpected compassion. David Thomas anchored the group as its frontman, his eccentric vocal delivery and wildly unhinged words shaping its character from the outset. Rising out of Cleveland’s decaying industrial landscape, the band debuted in 1975 with the single “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” on Thomas’s Hearthan imprint, unveiling the imploding melodies, erratic percussion, and abrasive mechanical textures later developed on their first album, The Modern Dance, in 1978. Subsequent releases such as Cloudland in 1989 and Story of My Life in 1993 softened the jagged art-punk edges toward greater approachability, yet repeated breaks and personnel shifts left the group’s singular aesthetic intact. Entering the new century, Pere Ubu issued uncompromising records that paid homage to earlier work without simply repeating it, among them St. Arkansas in 2002. Their trajectory extended through the 2010s and into the 2020s via Lady from Shanghai in 2013 and Trouble on Big Beat Street in 2023, both sustaining the literate volatility that has always marked the band’s output.

The name derives from Alfred Jarry’s surrealist drama Ubu Roi. Pere Ubu coalesced in 1975 from the remnants of the local cult act Rocket from the Tombs, bringing Thomas (also known as Crocus Behemoth) together again with guitarist Peter Laughner. The lineup soon expanded to include guitarist Tom Herman, bassist Tim Wright, keyboardist Allen Ravenstine, and drummer Scott Krauss; their debut single “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” appeared on Hearthan, followed in early 1976 by “Final Solution” on the newly renamed Hearpen label. Those tracks prompted a series of performances at New York’s Max’s Kansas City.

Persistent substance issues prompted Laughner’s departure in June 1976; he died within the year. The remaining quartet carried on, with bassist Tony Maimone replacing Wright after the latter relocated to New York and joined the no-wave outfit DNA. Following the third single “Street Waves,” Mercury A&R representative Cliff Burnstein persuaded the label to create Blank Records expressly to sign Pere Ubu. Their debut LP The Modern Dance, tracked at Cleveland Recording and Suma Studios (future sites for many sessions), surfaced in January 1978. Though it registered little commercial response domestically or overseas, its frantic energy and opaque atmosphere exerted lasting influence on post-punk acts across both continents. Its successor, Dub Housing, issued on Chrysalis in November 1978, intensified the otherworldly qualities. Internal tensions surfaced nonetheless, and after finishing New Picnic Time (originally titled Goodbye) in September 1979 the band dissolved. They regrouped months later, but Herman declined to rejoin and Mayo Thompson of Red Krayola took his place. The first album with Thompson, The Art of Walking from January 1980, shifted away from heavier textures; ensuing tours signaled the increasingly pop-oriented direction of later projects. A live document, 390° of Simulated Stereo, followed in March 1981. Anton Fier supplanted Krauss for Song of the Bailing Man in September 1982, yet further personal and artistic frictions led to another dissolution.

While Maimone and Krauss pursued projects in Home and Garden, Thomas advanced the solo path begun with 1981’s The Sound of the Sand (And Other Songs of the Pedestrians), a collaboration with guitarist Richard Thompson. He assembled Blame the Messenger in 1987 with the Wooden Birds, whose members included Ravenstine and Maimone; after Krauss participated in a Cleveland performance, the decision was taken to resume activity as Pere Ubu. Guitarist Jim Jones and drummer Chris Cutler joined for the March 1988 comeback The Tenement Year, a characteristically off-kilter pop record more accessible than prior work. Issued on Fontana, the Stephen Hague-produced Cloudland appeared in May 1989, further streamlining the approach; single “Waiting for Mary” reached number six on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart, and its video received MTV exposure.

After Ravenstine and Cutler departed (the former becoming a commercial pilot), Captain Beefheart alumnus Eric Drew Feldman joined for Worlds in Collision in May 1991. Produced by Gil Norton, the album sustained the mainstream trajectory. Feldman soon left to work with Frank Black; the remaining members recorded Story of My Life for Imago in April 1993. Maimone exited next, replaced by bassist Michele Temple and keyboardist Garo Yellin for the intended final statement Ray Gun Suitcase in August 1995.

During another hiatus the five-disc retrospective Datapanik in the Year Zero appeared in 1996, spotlighting the band’s broad impact. Renewed attention prompted Thomas to reconvene with Herman after two decades for Pennsylvania in March 1998, a wide-ranging set centered on cross-country journeys that also featured Jones, Temple, keyboardist Robert Wheeler, and drummer Steve Mehlman. Pere Ubu explored some of their bleakest and most dramatic material on St. Arkansas in May 2002, widely regarded among their strongest post-1980s releases.

With the band active once more, Thomas reassembled Rocket from the Tombs for limited 2003 performances, with Richard Lloyd of Television filling in for the late Laughner. Intended as a brief reunion, the project extended into an ongoing concern after an archival collection and new interpretations emerged. Thomas refocused on Pere Ubu in 2006, issuing Why I Hate Women in September—the first album featuring solely Thomas from the original roster—alongside a companion remix set. Long Live Pere Ubu! followed in November 2009, drawing songs from a theatrical adaptation of Ubu Roi and incorporating contributions from Sarah Jane Morris of the Communards and electronic artist Gagarin. Lady from Shanghai arrived in January 2013, comparably ambitious in scope; characterized as “an album of dance music fixed,” it marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of The Modern Dance through abrasive, industrial-inflected rhythms and was accompanied by the book Chinese Whispers: The Making of Pere Ubu’s Lady from Shanghai. That same year the group presented its score for the cult horror film Carnival of Souls. Portions of that music formed the foundation for Carnival of Souls, released in differing CD and vinyl editions in September 2014.

In 2015 Thomas issued a fresh Rocket from the Tombs album and revisited Pere Ubu’s catalog through two vinyl-only archival boxes, Elitism for the People 1975-1978 and Architecture of Language 1979-1982. For 20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo, members including guitarist Gary Siperko and Christoph Hahn of Swans recorded parts separately before Thomas assembled them into tracks that prompted his lyrics. The concise, abrasive collection, nodding to blues, surf, and garage styles, appeared in October 2017. Two years later Pere Ubu returned with what Thomas called the band’s “definitive destination.” Released by Cherry Red Records in July 2019, The Long Goodbye offered dense, caustic pieces inspired by Raymond Chandler’s noir classic and the commercial pop radio Thomas encountered while composing. In 2021 the group reissued 390° of Simulated Stereo and Pennsylvania; the 2022 box Nuke the Whales gathered material spanning 2006 to 2014.

May 2023 brought Trouble on Big Beat Street. Guided by Thomas’s conviction that a song reaches peak form on first performance, the pieces were captured live in single takes. Produced, mixed, and engineered by Thomas, the vinyl edition contained ten tracks while the CD presented all seventeen recorded during the sessions. At release, Pere Ubu’s ongoing activities encompassed the live-streaming program DPK-TV and Thomas’s monthly radio show Stay Sick, Turn Blue.