Modern Dance – Pere Ubu (1978)
As David Thomas’ otherworldly voice is now yelping in the next world, the ‘avant-garage’ sound of Modern Dance gets an outing on WIS.
Well, I promised something more unusual this week and they don’t come more unusual than Ohio band Pere Ubu. Named after a character in a play by absurdist French writer Alfred Jarry (of course they were!), the band was formed in Cleveland in 1975 by singer David Thomas and guitarist Peter Laughner. They had previously been in a band called Rocket from the Tombs where the large-framed Thomas adopted the name Crocus Behemoth – yes, you read that right. He jokingly described the new band’s style as ‘avant-garage’ and if you haven’t heard them before, you’ll quickly get what he meant. Thomas was the only consistent member of the band through their nearly fifty-year career and he died a couple of weeks ago, aged 71 from complications with a long-term kidney disease. His passing would have got Pere Ubu a slot on the old six-song playlist and, although they are very much an acquired taste, I don’t see any reason to not give them a single song post all to themselves.
Although I was vaguely aware of the band’s name and reputation for experimental music from reading the music papers in the late 1970s, my first real encounter with their sound came belatedly via the oft-referenced NME cassette tapes. The paper’s first (and probably definitive) release was a 1981 collection of achingly hip and happening indie tunes named C81. Sending away your two cut-out vouchers (and a postal order for £1.50!) got you 24 tracks recorded when indie really meant indie, by bands on labels like Mute, Postcard, Go-Feet, 2-Tone, Stiff, Inevitable and Oddball.
Pere Ubu appeared courtesy of Rough Trade Records who had released their fourth LP The Art Of Walking in 1980. The track they gave the NME was a live version of Misery Goats which had appeared on the album, but arguably the performance taken from a hometown gig in Cleveland was even slightly weirder than the original, if that was possible! The first few bars sound like any other indie band as drums crash and arpeggios ring out. Then this voice appears, shrieking and yelping over a muted guitar figure and strange synth wooshes. The lyric was pretty much indecipherable until it breaks into a bass-driven chorus (of sorts) with a shout of “Don’t be no misery goats!” I’d never heard anything like it. And nothing quite prepared me for the break with Thomas barking over a sighing synth and someone repetitively whistling on the off-beat. A true WTF moment long before they became a thing.
I discovered that a guy I knew at Uni had a copy of the band’s 1978 debut album The Modern Dance and when I got to hear it I discovered that Misery Goats was no accident – they really did make music like this all the time. One review described the record as “harsh and willfully ugly” and I found some of it was just too much like hard work for my young ears. Sentimental Journey consists of six minutes of background studio noise and interference slowly joined by wailing atonal saxophone improvisation and then random drum fills and discordant guitars with someone – presumably Thomas – mumbling and smashing bottles! But the LP opened with two more ‘accessible’ tracks; the terrific punky Pixies-influencing Non-Alignment Pact and the more post-punk sounding title track which I guess Gang of Four and Joy Division must have listened to.
Modern Dance was released as a single and is actually almost danceable. It’s driven by a pulsing guitar and bass line and Thomas’ idiosyncratic tenor vocal where, after each vibrato-infused line, he chants what I’ve always taken to be “mantra mantra” – but it could be anything! Before you reach for your dancing shoes, be warned that the song has no chorus with each verse dropping into a strange, beat-less section that sounds like it was recorded in a crowded public space as people talk and laugh with just a guitar strumming in the background. The first break lasts for 30 seconds but the second one extends into a crazy, synth-inflected guitar solo which has a couple of points where it stutters and drops a beat – or maybe the tape in the studio got jammed. Who knows? We then get a final half verse and then this unconventional song ends in the most conventional way possible. It’s exhilarating stuff!
Despite developing a love for this track, I chose not to follow what turned out to be a very long career for the band with an ever-changing line-up of musicians backing Thomas on multiple albums of intense and chaotic art-rock. The band split for a short while in the 80s but reformed and got themselves a deal at Fontana Records and their quasi-major status gave the band a media push. For a time, their sound became less experimental although the vocals remained resolutely peculiar. They began to sell more records and even found themselves with a couple of minor MTV ‘hits’ with the videos for their 1989 singles Love Love Love and Waiting For Mary. I found this fantastic clip of the latter being performed by (a hoarse) Thomas and the band on a US music show hosted by saxophonist David Sanborn where he plays and Debbie Harry does some brilliant backing vocals!
Thomas and his band carried on recording and playing over the next thirty years. He continued to push his voice to its limit, whooping and muttering, barking and yelling his way through his cryptic lyrics. A true original in a world of many charlatans, Crocus died this month in Brighton which he had made his home over his later years, attracted by the vibrant cultural, music and arts scene.
On the basis of this post, I’ve listened to The Modern Dance LP several times over the last week – including Sentimental Journey and its glass smashing! I’ve really enjoyed these songs of alienation and madness and, yes, its ‘willful ugliness’. But maybe that’s just what old age brings..?
Last Word
So if moving to the the single song format hasn’t chased the readership away, selecting the anarchic Pere Ubu as my third post will surely have tried the patience of the blog’s loyal but small group of followers! But I suppose that’s the way the musical cookie crumbles – some bits fall on the floor…
I am still hoping that a non-Friday post will drop in the week ahead but don’t hold me to it.
WeekInSoundMaster remains the playlist for sunny days.
AR
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