Another Pere Ubu Thread

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I own a copy of "Tenement Year" and absolutely adore it. But I am ignorant of everything else they've done. hat other PU albums should I buy?

― MarkH, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

...and which should I avoid? Please indicate which sound most & least like TY.

― MarkH, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

just get rocket from the tombs and peter laughner's take the guitarplayah for a ride. modern dance and dub housing are of course essential.

― nathalie, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Please indicate which sound most & least like TY.
Off THe Wall

― nathalie, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Modern Dance is essential Ubu - but if you want something that sounds much like Tenement Year, get The Wooden Birds' "Blame the Messenger" .. This record was the proto-reformed-Ubu record that came out before Tenement Year. It's Pere Ubu without Scott Krauss. ...And it's one of Ubu's best records.

Next, I might recommend "Raygun Suitcase".

Those are the most accessible... But really, just buy anything - they're all equal (mostly equal.)

And I'll disagree about the Peter Laughner - It's for hardcore fans - the recordings are terrible - demos of Ubu songs really. Plus, Peter Laughner wanted to be Bruce Springsteen.

― Dave225, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm very very fond of Terminal Tower, the early singles comp, though it is not much like The Tenement Year at all, and is probably not even in print these days.

― Douglas, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Terminal Tower (assuming you can find it), The Modern Dance, and Dub Housing--utterly essential.

Tenement Years is the best of the second-wind/reformed Ubu's albums, and not that far removed from their classic stuff (see above). The follow-up, Cloudland, was sort of like Tenenment Years as produced by Mutt Lange--totally glossed-out pop with David Thomas yodeling and crabbing over the top. Assuming that sounds appealing, track down a copy.

― Lee G, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If you know where to find a copy of Cloudland on CD, sell it on eBay - it's out of print. (good if you can get it though.)

― Dave225, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

_Terminal Tower_ is in print and can be had for real cheap. At mymusic.com, they're selling it for $6.78 - new. You have no excuse!

A while ago, I was thinking of splurging and getting the boxed set, but someone told me to just get _The Modern Dance_, _Dub Housing_, and _Terminal Tower_ (which I did). Good advice or not? How does _The Art of Walking_ rate?

_The Modern Dance_ will split your head right open. At a record store, I overheard someone perusing the Pere Ubu vinyl section, talking to their friend. She picked up _The Modern Dance_ and said "Wow, this is worth like $100, and they're selling it for $12!". Of course, she was holding a *shrink-wrapped* record, and it was the relatively recent Geffen reissue. For about half a second, I considered saying something, but that would probably have been rude, and hey, more money to Pere Ubu is good!

― Ernest Paik, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Ubu box set can be easily had for under $40. Just go that route. It's fantastic. Early Tombs stuff plus all of the essential Ubu.

― Yancey, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't own any Pere Ubu records but I heard "New Picnic Time" was really good. Can anyone confirm this? I'd like to buy a Pere Ubu soon and I hesitate between the new one St. Arkansas (another thread with no real answers yet) and "New Picnic Time". I listened to clips of "Dub Housing" and "The Modern Dance" and was not very impressed. It sounded dated and quite difficult to get into somehow. As I wrote in the other thread David Thomas and the Two Pale Boys "Surf's Up" released in 2000 is a gem.

― alex in mainhattan, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i think npt is their best record after modern dance but it is not LIKE md at all: bah i must get my raygun-era GUIDE TO ALL PU up on the web somewhere

― mark s, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The rest of the "classic line-up" albums after Dub Housing have lots of good songs on them, but they don't really have the same magic, much less the same sort of great-album cohesiveness. At least for me.

― Lee G, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

BTW - I love Art of Walking... It's a bit "New Wave" in the new wave sense - not in the early 70's Cleveland new wave sense (see David Thomas's rants about New Wave and Punk.)

But if you have the cash, but the box set - because it has a fifth disc of rare CLE punk that is well worth the money.

Then , start hunting down the Home & Garden records. They're better than the David Thomas records.

― Dave225, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And I'll disagree about the Peter Laughner
you're perfectly entitled to. But that just makes your opinion wrong-oh. ;-)

― nathalie, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ha - I just meant that as a young person's guide to Pere Ubu, the Laughner disk is probably the least accessible.

― Dave225, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have their pre-MD singles on a 12" and 7" called Datapanik in the Year Zero, and these are essential. They're probably on the box set but I don't know if they're available elsewhere. And once you have a few studio LPs try 390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo, a live one with material from the early years.

― nickn, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

She picked up _The Modern Dance_ and said "Wow, this is worth like $100, and they're selling it for $12!". Of course, she was holding a *shrink-wrapped* record, and it was the relatively recent Geffen reissue. For about half a second, I considered saying something, but that would probably have been rude, and hey, more money to Pere Ubu is good!

$100?! I saw a copy of the Blank pressing for $10 Canadian a few months ago. I mean, I'm sure the vinyl reissue knocked some of the price off it, but I doubt that much. And Geffen didn't reissue it on vinyl, Get Back! out of Italy did. There was a "regular" pressing in 1999, and another 180gm pressing last year.

As pointed out, MyMusic.com has Terminal Tower really cheap, and it was just reissued on vinyl as well in early '01, so it's not terribly hard to track down.

I've only been into Pere Ubu for the last 2 years (I've been buying the vinyl reissues as they come out), so I don't have a long standing relationship with them, but Modern Dance and Terminal Tower are two albums I would consider essential, in general not just as a fan, and The Art of Walking is up there, too. The comment aboot it being more New Wave is pretty on the nose. Dub Housing and New Picnic Time are albums I really have to be in the right frame of mine to enjoy.

― Vic Funk, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I agree with a lot what's said above ('cept the comments about the Peter Laughner disc, which, aside from a few tracks like "Life Stinks", with the Beefheart parody intro that isn't in the Ubu version, and "Ain't It Fun", which is better than the Dead Boys version, I'm not into... though I'd recommend it if you're an undergrad English major and/or like Patti Smith). I'd also throw in a recommendation for the Apocalypse Now live album as a possible next purchase.

It's a very loose show from about '91. Acoustic (but it rocks) and, unlike a lot of official live Ubu records, the recording is crystal clear. Most of the songs are from the period around Tenement Year - the performances shed of a lot of the "overproduction" touches that ruin this period of the band for some people (though not me) - with some choice old stuff thrown in and about half a cover of "I Wanna Be Your Dog". It might help you figure where you wanna go next.

The only bad thing about the album is that it ends by fading out on a cover of Hawkwind's "Master of the Universe". It cuts it off right at the beginning. As an Ubu fanboy AND a Hawkwind fanboy, I find it a little frustrating.

― Oliver Kneale, Saturday, 11 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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