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Past Events

Here are the most recent UK tour dates we had listed for Pere Ubu. Were you there?

• Fri 2 Jun London, Rich Mix Pere Ubu
• Fri 8 Apr London, Cafe Oto Pere Ubu Zyggurat

February 2022

• Fri 11 Feb Canterbury, Colyer-Fergusson Hall Pere Ubu

October 2020

• Fri 30 Oct London, St Pancras New Church Pere Ubu
• Fri 1 May London, St Pancras New Church Pere Ubu

September 2019

• Fri 13 Sep London, Bush Hall Pere Ubu, Rattle
• Sat 19 May London, Orange Yard Pere Ubu, Henry Blacker

August 2017

• Thu 24 Aug London, The Lexington Pere Ubu, Vanishing

August 2016

• Thu 25 Aug London, Corsica Studios Pere Ubu, David Thomas & The Two Pale Boys
• Thu 24 Mar London, The Dome Pere Ubu, Rats On Rafts
• Wed 23 Mar Ramsgate Music Hall Pere Ubu
• Tue 22 Mar Manchester, The Ruby Lounge Pere Ubu
• Fri 24 Jul → Sat 25 Jul Kirkcudbright, East Kirkcarswell Farm Wickerman Festival The Waterboys, Squeeze, Lulu, Stereo MCs, Julian Cope…
• Thu 23 Jul Leicester, The Musician Pere Ubu
• Fri 17 Jul London, Nell's Pere Ubu
• Fri 17 Jul → Sun 19 Jul Calbourne, Three Gates Farm Rhythmtree Festival Dreadzone, Paprika, The Moulettes, Diabel Cissokho, Duveaux…
• Thu 16 Jul → Sun 19 Jul Southwold, Henham Park Latitude Festival 2015 alt-j, Caribou, Wild Beasts, Santigold, Femi Kuti and The Positive Force…
• Thu 16 Jul Brighton, Komedia Pere Ubu

November 2014

• Mon 24 Nov Gateshead, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music Pere Ubu
• Sat 22 Nov London, ICA Pere Ubu
• Fri 21 Nov Leeds, Brudenell Social Club Pere Ubu
• Thu 20 Nov New Brighton, Floral Pavilion Theatre & Blue Lounge Pere Ubu
• Wed 19 Nov Glasgow, Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) Pere Ubu
• Tue 18 Nov Edinburgh, The Voodoo Rooms Pere Ubu
• Mon 17 Nov Cambridge Junction Pere Ubu
• Sun 16 Nov Bristol, The Fleece Pere Ubu
• Sat 15 Nov Manchester, Band On The Wall Pere Ubu
• Thu 13 Nov Swansea, Hangar 18 Music Venue Pere Ubu
• Wed 12 Nov Leicester, The Musician Pere Ubu

November 2013

• Sun 17 Nov Cardiff, The Globe Pere Ubu
• Mon 11 Nov London, 100 Club Pere Ubu
• Sun 10 Nov Preston, The Continental Pere Ubu
• Sat 9 Nov Aberdeen, Lemon Tree Pere Ubu
• Fri 8 Nov Edinburgh, Liquid Rooms Pere Ubu
• Thu 7 Nov Sheffield, Queens Social Club Pere Ubu
• Sat 13 Jul London, St John On Bethnal Green Pere Ubu, Bob Constant & The Goodbye Horses
• Fri 21 Jun → Sun 23 Jun Nr. Rye, Pontins Camber Sands Holiday Park All Tomorrow's Parties - Weekend 2 Deerhunter, Atlas Sound, Avey Tare, Bill Nace, Black Dice (2)…
• Sun 16 Jun London, Scala Uhuhboo Project, Pere Ubu
• Tue 23 Apr London, Bush Hall Pere Ubu, Gagarin, Variety Lights
• Mon 22 Apr Eric's Liverpool Pere Ubu
• Sun 21 Apr Wolverhampton, Robin 2 Pere Ubu, David Thomas (1)
• Sat 20 Apr Nottingham, The Rescue Rooms Pere Ubu, Gagarin, Variety Lights
• Fri 19 Apr Bristol, Thekla Pere Ubu, Gagarin, Variety Lights
• Thu 18 Apr Manchester, Band On The Wall Pere Ubu
• Wed 17 Apr Glasgow, Mono Pere Ubu
• Tue 16 Apr York, Fibbers Pere Ubu
• Mon 15 Apr Gateshead, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music Pere Ubu
• Sat 13 Apr Brighton, Chalk Pere Ubu, Special Guests

February 2010

• Sat 27 Feb London, Blackheath Halls Pere Ubu
• Thu 25 Feb London, The Garage Pere Ubu
• Wed 24 Feb Leamington Spa, The Assembly Pere Ubu
• Tue 23 Feb Bath, Komedia Pere Ubu
• Sat 20 Feb Glasgow, The Classic Grand Pere Ubu

September 2009

• Fri 25 Sep London, ICA Pere Ubu

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Friday 02 June 2023

Discover more in London

Bethnal Green Rd E1 6LA London, UK 0207 613 7498 www.richmix.org.uk/

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Doors open: 19:30

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Devastating Blows

Pere ubu and ubu projex headlines, john thompson dies, gagarin dies, paul hamann (1955-2017), what is the 'pere ubu moon unit'.

"Here comes trouble on Big Beat Street," David Thomas says. "The beginning of the next Pere Ubu adventure. The Pere Ubu Moon Unit makes songs that never existed before and will never exist again, songs orchestrated by the subconscious, and liberated from the cult of personality."

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Pere Ubu Announce UK Tour

Live dates revealed for later this year

Pere Ubu have announced details of a UK tour to take place later this year.

The Cleveland band, who released their latest album Long Live Pere Ubu in September last year, will play the following dates:

February 20 The Classic Grand, Glasgow

February 23 Komedia, Bath

February 24 Assembly Rooms, Leamington Spa

February 25 The Garage, London

February 27 Blackheath Concert Hall, London

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Pere ubu tickets.

COED JAIL! 2016

(Full details here:  http://www.ubuprojex.com/coedjail.html )

Pere Ubu launch 'Coed Jail!,' a tour drawing on the music from the two recent box set releases, Architecture Of Language, 1979-1982 and Elitism For The People, 1975-1978.

Guitarist Tom Herman plays in the band for the third time since 1975. The rest of the line-up is David Thomas, Robert Wheeler, Michele Temple and Steve Mehlman. Wheeler and Temple have been in Pere Ubu since 1994, Mehlman since 1995. 

This isn't a reunion. It isn't a greatest hits tour. 

"We don't promote chaos, we preserve it," Thomas explained. "Now more than ever - just like Nixon said - you need the sort of utterly gratuitous mess that only men of conviction can provide." 

Early in 1977, after refining the doctrine of Datapanik, Thomas came downstairs in the house he shared with junk conceptualist / designer Johnny Dromette. There, in the living room, in the midst of a life-size reproduction of a Hollywood TV game show set that he'd constructed overnight, Johnny, exhausted, pronounced in portentous tones, "Coed Jail!" 

Herman, Ubu guitarist from 1975 to 1979 and 1995 to 2002, chose the songs for the tour, four from each of the first five albums and the collection of early singles. He coined the Ubu Rule that became known as the Herman Doctrine, "The best guitar part is the one that requires you to move your fingers the least." 

The tour coincides with the release of the second Pere Ubu box set 'Architecture Of Language, 1979-1982' on Fire Records 18th March 2016.

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We've been going over Allen's synths with a fine tooth comb. Mike Rippe replaced the capacitors in both of the power supplies and the 200 is chirping away happily. The 101 is getting additional TLC. I cleaned and lubricated all the keys which were sticking, now most of them are restored. The 200 is one of the few synths out there that do not have a keyboard. If you want sounds from it you have to patch the various modules together with patch cords (which you see laying on top of the 101.) These synths have a totally unique sound. Not Moog, not Roland not Sequential Circuits. Super special. Tony Maimone

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• Category: Punk / Garage Rock

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About pere ubu.

Pere Ubu is a rock group formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975. Despite a variety of long-term band members, singer David Thomas is the only constant. Describing their sound as "avant-garage," Pere Ubu's work drew inspiration from sources such as rock music, musique concrète, performance art, and the derelict industrial environments of the American midwest. The group's name is a reference to Ubu Roi, an avant-garde play by French writer Alfred Jarry. They are usually categorized as "underground rock", having rarely achieved commercial success.

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• Datapanik in the Year Zero EP (UK Radar) 1978 
• Dub Housing (Chrysalis) 1978  (Rough Trade) 1989 
• The Modern Dance (Blank) 1978  (Rough Trade) 1981  (UK Fontana) 1987 
• New Picnic Time (UK Chrysalis) 1979  (Rough Trade) 1989 
• U-Men Live at Interstate Mall (TriCity) 1979 
• The Art of Walking (Rough Trade) 1980 + 1989 
• 390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo (Rough Trade) 1981 + 1989 
• Song of the Bailing Man (Rough Trade) 1982 + 1989 
• Terminal Tower: An Archival Collection (TwinTone) 1985  (Rough Trade) 1989 
• The Tenement Year (Enigma) 1988 
• Cloudland (Fontana) 1989 
• One Man Drives While the Other Man Screams (Rough Trade) 1989 
• Worlds in Collision (Fontana) 1991 
• Story of My Life (Imago) 1993 
• Folly of Youth See Dee + EP (Tim/Kerr) 1995 
• Ray Gun Suitcase (Tim/Kerr) 1995 
• The Hearpen Singles EP7 (Tim/Kerr) 1995 
• Datapanik in the Year Zero (DGC) 1996 
• Pennsylvania (Tim/Kerr) 1998 
• Why I Hate Women (Hearpen / Smog Veil) 2006 
• David Thomas and the Pedestrians
• The Sound of the Sand and Other Songs of the Pedestrians (Rough Trade) 1981 
• Vocal Performances EP (UK Rough Trade) 1982 
• Variations on a Theme (Sixth Int'l) 1983 
• More Places Forever (TwinTone) 1985 
• David Thomas & His Legs
• Winter Comes Home (UK Re) 1982 
• David Thomas and the Wooden Birds
• Monster Walks the Winter Lake (TwinTone) 1985 
• Blame the Messenger (TwinTone) 1987 
• David Thomas & two pale boys
• 18 Monkeys on a Dead Man's Chest (Hearthan / Smog Veil) 2004 
• Tripod Jimmie
• Long Walk Off a Short Pier (Do Speak) 1982 
• A Warning to All Strangers (All Ball) 1986 
• Peter Laughner
• Peter Laughner (Koolie) 1982 
• Take the Guitar Player for a Ride (Tim/Kerr) 1994 
• Peter Laughner (Smog Veil) 2019 
• Rocket From the Tombs
• Life Stinks (Jack Slack) 1990 
• The Day the Earth Met the...Rocket From the Tombs: Live From Punk Ground Zero, Cleveland 1975 (Smog Veil) 2002 
• Rocket Redux (Hearpen / Smog Veil) 2004 
• Easter Monkeys
• The Splendor of Sorrow (Hit & Run) 1992 

Although New York and London are generally credited with spawning what came to be known as punk rock, this Cleveland contingent has a fairly good claim to planting many of its seeds in the early ’70s. Born from the ashes of Rocket From the Tombs (a band that also produced the Dead Boys), the nascent six-piece Pere Ubu began tinkering with its avant-garage sound — a polyhedral hybrid of Detroit- styled guitar squall, kraut-rock drone and, perhaps most important, the death knells of Cleveland’s collapsing industrial infrastructure — in the summer of 1975, self-releasing “30 Seconds Over Tokyo,” one of the first indie singles of the punk era, by year’s end.

In its first incarnation, Ubu combined disorienting, often dissonant, rock and urban blues in a stunningly original and outlandish mix, but never lost an urgent, joyous party atmosphere. Lead singer David Thomas’ plebeian warble, the band’s most noticeable sonic feature, colors all of Ubu’s proceedings in a bizarre light; casual listeners might, as a result, overlook the powerful, polished musicianship. One of the most innovative American musical forces, Pere Ubu is to Devo what Arnold Schoenberg was to Irving Berlin.

With its debut album, The Modern Dance , Pere Ubu engineered a dauntingly seamless coupling of arty introspection and old-school garage-rock squall. Frontman David Thomas uses his bizarro-world warble to yelp out fusillades of angst (“Life Stinks”) and spin dreamworld visions (“Sentimental Journey”) that ultimately proved far darker and more challenging than any three-chord ranters operating at the time. It includes two songs remade from early 45s that Pere Ubu had released on its Hearthan label (when Thomas was calling himself Crocus Behemoth and the late Peter Laughner was one of the sextet’s guitarists and main songwriters). The British Datapanik in the Year Zero catching-up compilation is more successful, collecting five of the original Hearthan (aka Hearpen) tracks, including the dynamic, paranoiac “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” and the Seeds-gone-dada “Cloud 149.” Dark, challenging material.

The spectacular Dub Housing accentuates the more amorphous qualities of the band’s sound, drawing heavily on synthesizer player Allen Ravenstine’s utterly original soundscaping ability. Songs like “Codex,” “Caligari’s Mirror” and the ominous title track conjure up images straight out of art-house psychological horror films like Carnival of Souls . Simply one of the most important post-punk recordings. New Picnic Time is significantly less riveting: guitarist Tom Herman, who was largely responsible for the foreboding atmospherics of the band’s earlier albums, strafes against the whimsical, lighthearted structures of songs like “The Fabulous Sequel” and “Small Was Fast,” while Thomas’ increasingly eschatological observations (reflecting his longtime faith as a Jehovah’s Witness) grow more and more unsettling. The lack of communication between members was reflected in Herman’s subsequent departure (to form the more aggro Tripod Jimmie) and the recruitment of dada-minded instigator Mayo Thompson (with whose Red Crayola a few Ubu-ites had recorded) as a replacement.

Ubu shifted to a brighter, more open sound and a deformed blues ethic on New Picnic Time . Still bearing an air of disaster, Thomas’ lyrics develop story-songs that increasingly focus on common elements of everyday life, drawing more in line with his strong religious (Jehovah’s Witness) beliefs. A bizarre album that is more than a little reminiscent of Captain Beefheart. In 1979, Herman left and Red Crayola guitarist/leader Mayo Thompson joined.

It didn’t take Thomas and Thompson long to develop a common language, as evidenced by the ditzy-but-compelling aura of The Art of Walking , rife as it is with hymns of praise to life’s mundane moments. Like a fourth- dimensional doppelgänger for Jonathan Richman, Thomas warbles his thoughts on “Birdies” and “Arabia” (with hastily scribbled lyrics appended to what was originally intended to be an instrumental), while Thompson paints the landscapes in dazzlingly shiny — if occasionally unnatural — colors. The live 390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo (recorded in Cleveland, London and Brussels) doesn’t document this lineup — it dates mostly from the band’s earliest days and features spellbinding, brutal versions of classics like “30 Seconds Over Tokyo,” “The Modern Dance,” “My Dark Ages” and “Heart of Darkness.”

Drummer Scott Krauss, er, bailed before the release of Song of the Bailing Man , and his replacement, Anton Fier (the Cleveland native had briefly played in an early incarnation of Ubu, concurrent with his tenure in confrontational art combo X-Blank-X). Fier’s lighter, jazzier playing sets the tone for an album that, for all its Euro-prog iconoclasm, never quite ignites. After a disastrous US tour, the band fell apart, with Krauss and bassist Tony Maimone focusing their energies on Home and Garden (a studio aggregation, led by guitarist Jim Jones, that was invested with rustic Anglophilia) and Thomas actively embarked on a solo career. The first chapter in the Ubu story is neatly summarized on Terminal Tower , an annotated collection of eleven essential tracks, highlighted by the hard-to-find “Lonesome Cowboy Dave” and “Untitled” (an alternate take on “The Modern Dance”).

As a solo artist, Thomas is a song stylist in the truest sense of the word. On his first solo album, his lyrics and unusual compositions bring strangeness out of the mundane — imparting magic to everyday objects and activities — aided by an eclectic bunch: Richard Thompson, Anton Fier, Chris Cutler, Eddie Thornton, Philip Moxham and others. Each demonstrates hitherto unimagined aspects of their talents, and Thomas’ otherworldly voice — animal noises transmuted into human speech — has never been more expressive. A high point of Thomas’ avant-garde folk-blues-jazz-rock cultural synthesis.

Variations on a Theme , which prominently features Richard Thompson, again mixes a bit of everything — including country, jazz and blues — into Thomas’ own unique style. Only two tracks on this musically sedate, almost “normal”-sounding record recall Pere Ubu’s general looniness. Throughout, Thomas demonstrates genuine fascination with his subject matter, as well as an invariably novel perspective. A good follow-up, and one indicative of enormous artistic reach.

Winter Comes Home — which gives front cover billing to ex-Henry Cows Cutler and Lindsay Cooper — mixes intellectual stand-up comedy with winning performances, all recorded live in Munich in 1982. Cooper’s bassoon perfectly suits Thomas’ tastefully strident vocal excursions. Most notable is the title track, essentially a shaggy-dog story.

Thomas reunited with Ubu bassist Tony Maimone for More Places Forever . Along with Cutler’s drums and Cooper’s one-woman woodwind section, Thomas has all the backdrop he needs to gather us into his little world and cast his spell. He displays his love for things like insects and sunshine, and in “New Broom” follows some dust on its journey. Ubu fans finally get to hear the track for which Song of the Bailing Man was titled.

The new band (re)assembled for Monster Walks the Winter Lake is almost an Ubu reunion, with Maimone joined by Allen Ravenstine on synths and Paul Hamann producing. The low-key music moves more slowly than usual, with cello and strangely played accordion often the predominant instruments; the increasingly philosophical lyrics containing recurring monster metaphors. The four-part eleven-minute title track is a real treat.

Blame the Messenger was recorded with much the same lineup that reformed Pere Ubu. One listen confirms that they must have been itching to get back together; the sound and arrangements are more a throwback to the band’s earlier recordings than any of Thomas’ previous solo work, thanks especially to Ravenstine’s electronic keyboards. The lyrical fascination this time is mostly with nature, particularly ironic when juxtaposed with such beautifully unnatural sounds. A great record.

Pere Ubu formally reformed in late 1987, but all that actually meant was a name change and inclusion of Scott Krauss in the lineup of Thomas’ most recent solo support band, the Wooden Birds. In July 1988, Thomas, Krauss, bassist Tony Maimone, synthesist Allen Ravenstine, prog-rock stalwart drummer Chris Cutler and Jim Jones released Ubu’s first new LP in six years. Sounding vital — and as futuristic as ever — The Tenement Year is a surprisingly edgy set that integrates Thomas’ loopy digressions into a noise-pop context not all that far from the band’s original concept. Although Krauss and Cutler occasionally trip over one another in mixes that tend towards muddle, tracks like the pulsing “George Had a Hat” and the cyber-romantic “We Have the Technology” resonate with Ubu’s still-potent clatter. If not entirely successful (two drummers is one too many; Ravenstine’s noise doodles now seem extraneous and dated), The Tenement Year builds a solid rock structure around Thomas’ whimsical fascinations.

Recorded in 1978, ’80 and ’81, One Man Drives While the Other Man Screams (its title taken from a grocery-store jingle that penetrated the collective Cleveland consciousness for years) makes a fine companion piece to the prior Ubu live set, reprising some of the finer moments from the Dub Housing era, as well as a rare rendition of the gorgeous single track, “Heaven.” A hefty portion of the 13 tracks recorded in London (1978, with Tom Herman), Cleveland (1980, with Mayo Thompson) and Germany (1981, ditto) are from Dub Housing (“Navvy,” “Ubu Dance Party,” “Codex,” etc.); the record has a relaxed feel and (on CD, at least) extremely clear sound.

Using The Tenement Year ‘s prettier tunes as a rough sketch, Ubu put itself in Pet Shop Boys/New Order producer Stephen Hague’s competent hands for half of Cloudland and delivered a big surprise: wonderful pop. Jettisoning such inconvenient sonic baggage as vocal disharmony, chaos and electronic graffiti, the album offers an ingenious subversion of classic Top 40 as run through Ubu’s unique wringer. While Hague’s wholesale deletion of the band’s more anarchic ancillary noise might disturb purists, the overall effect is mighty compelling. “Breath” and “Race the Sun” appropriate simple chord structures from such familiar sources as Buddy Holly pop and surf-rock, but unlikely bridges, tantalizing lyrics and Thomas’ moderate warble make them modern and magical. “Waiting for Mary” and “Bus Called Happiness” (Hague’s other efforts) are even better, matching catchy choruses to adventurous verse arrangements. On his tracks, longtime Ubu studio chum Paul Hamann helps steer the group back into temperate weirdness, resulting in a demento version of “Sloop John B” that surfaces in “Nevada!” and the recitation and sickly chanting of “Flat.” As unpalatable as this open-armed album may be to fans of challenging music, Cloudland is quite obviously a masterpiece.

The band underwent another sea change prior to the release of Worlds in Collision . Ravenstine left to pursue a career in aviation and was replaced by former Captain Beefheart sideman Eric Drew Feldman. Cutler also departed, and Ubu decided one drummer would suffice. Produced by Gil Norton, Worlds in Collision furthers the pop propensities of Cloudland with such unabashed singalongs as “I Hear They Smoke the Barbecue” (a single of which was actually released under the alias the Modern Solution in order to circumvent Ubu’s art-house vibe). Although wistfully pretty tracks like “Oh Catherine” impart an old-fashioned charm to the album, the less-than-inspired rock numbers show the band to be in desperate need of a recharge.

There’s considerably more creative juice flowing through Story of My Life , the most stripped-down Pere Ubu album to date. With the departure of Feldman (who joined Frank Black’s band), Jones, doing double duty on guitar and keyboards, assumes the role of primary soundscaper. He plays the part masterfully on classically disorienting songs like “Heartbreak Garage” and “Louisiana Train Wreck,” on which his serpentine, stinging guitar leads are totally enrapturing. Thomas sounds rejuvenated as well, as he navigates the whimsical waters of songs like “Postcard” (a surreal world tour taken in three-by-five snapshots). Midway through a tour supporting the album, Maimone left (to join They Might Be Giants, among other things) and was replaced by Michele Temple, a member of Cleveland’s Vivians who had played with Krauss and Jones in Home and Garden.

As Pere Ubu reached its 20th anniversary as a band — a feat in itself, given Thomas’ assertion that the band initially planned to split up after recording just one single — it returned to indie-dom for the release of Ray Gun Suitcase , a wildly eclectic, captivatingly meandering set that harks back to its early ’80s incarnation. That has something to do with the synth and theremin playing of Robert Wheeler, whose futuro-swirl approach is most evident on songs like “Red Sky” and the furious “My Friend Is a Stooge for the Media Priests,” not to mention Thomas’ most visceral performances in years. With the departure of Krauss — the new drummer is Cleveland stalwart Scott Benedict — Pere Ubu may appear to bear little resemblance to the band of old, but the spirit most assuredly remains willing. Folly of Youth See Dee + is a CD-ROM: besides the visuals, the disc contains Ray Gun Suitcase ‘s “Folly of Youth,” demos for two other songs from it and a “jam” entitled “Ball n Chain.”

In a substantial expansion from the EP format, the second Ubu release to be titled Datapanik in the Year Zero is a deluxe five-CD box of the first coming of Ubu, containing The Modern Dance , Dub Housing , New Picnic Time , The Art of Walking and Song of the Bailing Man , plus an hour of previously unreleased live recordings and an entire disc of Ubu-related rarities.

As chronicler of — and prime mover in — the groundbreaking Cleveland scene in the early ’70s, Peter Laughner (who died in 1977 at the age of 24) ranks as one of underground rock’s true unsung heroes. Though Lou Reed was undeniably his major influence (particularly as a vocalist), Laughner’s work can scarcely be narrowcast as mere tribute. The self-titled album, gleaned from a brace of demos and live recordings, reveals his folkier side, with nods to Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (“Rag Baby”) and Richard Thompson (on the melancholy “Baudelaire”). The two-record Take the Guitar Player for a Ride is much more exhaustive (and exhausting): from the sorrowful epic “Amphetamine” (a line from which gives the album its title) to a hushed version of Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil Blues” (recorded the night before his death), it’s a detailed map of a one-way route down to the crossroads. The CD has three fewer songs than the vinyl.

Rocket From the Tombs, alternately “led” by Laughner, Thomas and Stiv Bators (then merely the ex-lead singer of Youngstown glitter bozos Mother Goose), kept the flames of Midwest stun-rock raging through the early ’70s. Life Stinks , taken from a local radio broadcast, showcases the band at its best, melding searing shock guitar (by Laughner and Gene O’Connor, who later copped the nom de punque Cheetah Chrome and became a Dead Boy) with spaced-out Germanic doodle on tracks like “30 Seconds Over Tokyo,” “Life Stinks” (both Laughner compositions that would grace the Ubu catalogue) and “Ain’t It Fun” (a future Dead Boys staple). The lovingly, exhaustively annotated set (which comes with a bonus 7-inch featuring “Transfusion” co-written by Laughner and his ex-wife, Cleveland poet/musician Charlotte Pressler) also includes a bevy of lesser-known tracks that attest to the band’s intuitive futurism. Anyone attempting to divine the roots of punk will certainly have their rod set awhirl here.

Prior to his stint in Ubu, Jones played with a number of seminal bands, ranging from the psychedelically inclined Mirrors (which survived from 1974 well into the ’90s, although Jones split in the first decade) to the aforementioned Home and Garden. The most inspirational, however, might have been the Easter Monkeys, a foursome that laid post-Birthday Party dementia atop gnarled Midwestern spazz-rock rhythms. The posthumous Splendor of Sorrow — released several years after the band’s implosion — is highlighted by frontman Chris Yarmock’s unhinged rants on songs like “Take Another Pill” and “Monkey See, Monkey Do.” The id’s all right.

Tripod Jimmie, an Erie, Pennsylvania trio led by former Ubu guitarist Tom Herman, inhabits a world of hypertense vocals and simple, rough, aggressive rock noise — an underground ’80s revision of the power trio concept. Recorded “live on the shore of Lake Erie,” Long Walk ‘s eleven numbers display traces of Television, Ubu and Talking Heads — all essentially similarly minded organizations. Powerful and disquieting.

With better production and playing, A Warning to All Strangers organizes the trio’s music into a concise attack that occasionally resembles the Minutemen. As diverse as it is emotionally intense, this anxiety-ridden collection (song titles are given under the heading “List of Worries”) lurches from a barking contest to a James Brown funk breakdown to gibberish without skipping a groove. Over the rhythm section’s propulsive chug, Herman’s thrusting guitar chords and edgily confident shout-singing emboldens the bizarrely fascinating lyrics, making Tripod Jimmie’s concerns seem very real and urgent.

Jim Jones died in early 2008.

See also: Frank Black , Red Crayola (Red Krayola) , They Might Be Giants , David Thomas

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Past PERE UBU Events

Fri 17 Jul 2015 Pere Ubu Nells, London