spacefrog's Full Review: The Modern Dance by Pere Ubu
Père Ubu is a filthy, selfish and ignorant king (Père is French and means father). Père Ubu was invented by the French author Alfred Jarry at the beginning of the 20th century. Père Ubu started as a bad joke and a parody of school teachers and ended up as an apocalyptic vision of the atrocities that human beings are capable of.
Pere Ubu is a band from Cleveland, Ohio named after the mentioned king. The band was founded in the seventies, disbanded several times, had a constantly changing line-up, and made music that has been categorized as art-punk. I would rather describe their music as mix of rock, noise and wit in various proportions. Their sound can be somewhat compared with Captain Beefheart and Wire.
November 1977, when Pere Ubu recorded their debut LP The Modern Dance the line-up was:
David Thomas (vocals, musette)
Tom Herman (guitar)
Scott Krauss (drums)
Tony Maimone (bass)
Allen Ravenstine (synthesizer, saxophone)
Pere Ubu is not a guitar band (only the songs Over My Head and Humor me have a guitar solo), the rhythm section is excellent, but in fact all instruments are important, and all songs are signed collectively by all band members, with exception of Life stinks written by the ancient band member Peter Laughner.
The songs range from almost conventional rock songs (Non-alignment pact and Life stinks) to moments of pure cacophony with the sound of bottles thrown on the floor (Sentimental Journey).
Complete track listing:
Non-alignment pact
The Modern Dance
Laughing
Street Waves
Chinese Radiation
Life Stinks
Real World
Over My Head
Sentimental Journey
Humor Me
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