Pere Ubu: Too cool for a star rating

It's a shame that the Herald disposed of its star-ratings, because this box set would have wrung all five stars out of me. Its material has been unavailable or unreleased for too long, but now providence and the persistence of Ubu leader David Thomas have finally given us this five-CD set.

Pere Ubu came out of Cleveland in the mid-'70s, going through several incarnations even before recording anything. Containing early singles and their debut, The Modern Dance, the first disc is seminal, drawing inspiration from the Velvets' rock orthodoxy and Captain Beefheart's arty dissonance. The music is spiked with analog synthesizer shrieks, tempered by angular guitar and melodic bass. Their first single, "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" b/w "Heart of Darkness," staked out virgin territory for garage bands. Both songs create loud, pulsing soundscapes over which Thomas chants, moans, and yells his way through dark, surreal lyrics.

Datapanik in the Year Zero

Allowing for the quasi-rockabilly "Nonalignment Pact," The Modern Dance also contains such bizarre excursions as "Laughing," which wraps chord shards around an endless soprano sax solo, and "Sentimental Journey," six minutes of glass-smashing and stream-of-consciousness nightmare lyrics. But the songs are actually likable, even catchy, their rawness and dissonance harrowingly sculpted with equal doses of cynicism and humor.

Self-conscious artiness begins to intrude on Dub Housing, which replaces much of the "rock" with heaping tablespoons of "art." The production is cleaner and more atmospheric, while the songs tend to be short cacophonous blasts like "Navvy," or slow, seething epics like the spectacular "Codex." Less famous and less accessible than the first album, but nearly as impressive.

The delicate balance between listenability and innovation that Ubu had maintained collapsed on New Picnic Time. Thomas' increased control of the band and creeping pretentiousness resulted in an album that sounds remarkably like Beefheart sans inspiration.

Guitarist Tom Herman and drummer Scott Krauss do their best to ground the herky-jerky rhythms and amelodic abandon, but can't outdo the flighty Thomas, who contributes Jello Biafra-like vocals and new-and-improved lyrics reflecting his new-and-improved Jehovah's Witness beliefs. Accompanied by The Art of Walking and Song of the Bailing Man, this is the only disposable disc of the set, with new guitarist Mayo Thompson doing nothing to temper Thomas's wacky indulgences.

The set also includes a live album containing two concerts from '78 and '81--unrevelatory but energetic radio broadcasts. The real find here is the last disc, entitled Terminal Drive: Pere Ubu Rarities. Since Ubu actually had only one rarity, a flexi of the Seeds' "Pushin' Too Hard," the record is actually a collection of obscure material from Cleveland bands of the same era, most featuring erstwhile Ubu members. Especially dazzling are two live cuts by Rocket From the Tombs, Thomas and the late Peter Laughner's band before Ubu; an early, rockier "30 Seconds Over Tokyo," and an amazing recording of Laughner's "Amphetamine," of which no copies were thought to exist. Proof that mid-'70s Cleveland was on a par with the brilliant New York scene, this disc alone is enough to justify the set.

Ubu was revived in 1987 and has continued to make albums, with no one left from the original lineup but Thomas. I recommend these albums with reservations, but all that you ever need to hear by Ubu is in this box. The production values are somewhat shoddy (no original cover art!), but the remastered sound is incredible. For musical as well as historical value, no one claiming to be versed in "alternative music" can go without hearing this set. I recommend it to everyone.

--David Auerbach