TS: Pere Ubu v. Roxy Music

Pere Ubu.

WOO HOO!

I'm not Dave Q, John, but that's exactly what it was like in the Seventies. For this Bowie and Eno freak at least. Wheareas liking Pere Ubu was a breeze.

UBU WINS!!!!

Ubu meanwhile are great because they found a way to advance that artform, admittedly by making it more esoteric though that was probably inevitable (it's like Siegbrand's posts about the evolution of metal, with an ever-shrinking band of initiates even able to 'get', let alone like, the next step - the form endures and develops but at what cost?).

The only post-1980 Ubu record I've heard was really rubbish, by the way.

I got into Ubu first, mind you. The first couple of singles are monumental. But eventually I've ended up preferring Roxy cos so much of the pop music I like is post-Roxy whereas the Ubu trail results in post-rock (ha ha, not even true but I liked the pun).

Pere Ubu - early PU anyway - is one of the few musics where it's remained impossible to imagine it being a hit, apropos of little.

Mind you, 'The Bogus Man' is enough to put anyone off RM, British music, or life itself.

Thomas: this is Roxy Music, it's British and therefore rubbish.

The Wire: Oh? But you used to like Roxy Music and singled them out for praise.

Thomas: yes but I was wrong [explains why British music is rubbish])

herman > manzanera BUT (eno + mckay) > ravenstein
the bob (medley) = new picnic time (= my fave ubu)
simon puxley's sleevenotes on RTM = thomas's on 390° in simulated stereo
first side of manifesto = the art of walking

ts: ferry solo vs thomas solo

"Didn't think through what he was talking about" = "doesn't agree with my own opinion"

total genius

One could just as easily say this of the Stones/Beatles, who were copying music from the 30s-50s (and, especially in the former's case, weren't much more sincere about it than Roxy (but really, we're only talking about early Roxy aren't we?)). The far away place=America.

I do think, like David Thomas, that rock and roll is a "native" American tradition. But I don't think that that means that other people can't use it too.

richard hamilton was ferry's tutor at art college, but he did a beatles sleeve and so did peter blake (sgt pepper is also roxy-esque in approach and conception, come to think of it => but NOT in respect of ROCK, maybe, which the beatles never did very competently... ringo is the wrong sort of drummer, for one thing, and harrison the wrong sort of guitarist for another)

useful "moment of linkage", the drinks clinking and partychat at the end of their satanic majesties segue EXACTLY into the opening moments of Roxy Music the lp, whereas the barnyard noises etc on pepper segue EXACTLY into thomas's abiding obsession w.birdies and dinosaurs and stuff (also ravenstein's syynth esp on new picnic time)

which ps is a portrait of the life to come, npt i mean

A stronger way of putting this would be to note that, post-19th century, all the greatest English literature was written by authors of non-English origin....

No doubt about that

Peru Ubu wins by KO in the first round

Hasta!

ubu became "famous" too late (via punk) to be glam the way they originally intended, or even neo-glam (punk = glam w.added fear of success, heh)

No but its ironic that so many art students end up in bands that try so hard to be wierd,Pere Ubu being an example.Though I don't really see any glam connections in Ubu's music.

(it's on the second page)

roxy for me but jeez it's close - pretty hard to pick a winner from the first three roxy albums and the singles against the first two ubu albums and the terminal tower comp.

http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/vcs3.jpg vs. http://www.vintagesynth.com/eml/eml101.jpg

Or, Eno's VCS3 vs. Allen Ravenstine's EML 101