Pere Ubu 20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo Review

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Pere Ubu

• The Modernistic Trip the light fantastic [Blank, 1978] A-
• Dub Housing [Chrysalis, 1979] A
• New Picnic Time [Chrysalis, 1980] A-
• The Fine art of Walking [Rough Trade, 1980] B+
• Ubu Alive: Volume 1: 390 Degrees of Faux Stereo [Crude Trade, 1981] B+
• Song of the Bailing Human [Rough Trade, 1982] B+
• Terminal Tower: An Archival Collection [Twin/Tone, 1986] A-
• The Tenement Year [Antone's, 1988] A
• Cloudland [Fontana, 1989] A-
• Worlds in Collision [Fontana, 1991] ***
• Story of My Life [Imago, 1993] *
• Ray Gun Suitcase [Tim/Kerr, 1995] ***
• Folly of Youth See Dee Plus [Tim/Kerr, 1996]
• Pennsylvania [Tim/Kerr, 1998]
• Apocalypse Now [Thirsty Ear, 1999] A-
• St Arkansas [SpinArt, 2002] **
• Why I Hate Women [Smog Veil, 2006]
• Lady From Shanghai [Fire, 2013] **
• xx Years in a Montana Missile Silo [Cherry Red, 2017] A-
• The Long Goodbye [Cherry Red, 2019] B+

Consumer Guide Reviews:

The Modern Dance [Blank, 1978]
Ubu's music is nowhere near as willful equally information technology sounds at outset. Riffs emerge from the cacophony, David Thomas's shrieking suits the heterodox passion of the lyrics, and the synthesizer noise begins to cohere after a while. So even though in that location'south too much Radio Federal democratic republic of ethiopia and not plenty Redondo Beach, I'll be listening through the failed stuff--the highs are worth it, and the failed stuff ain't bad. A-

Dub Housing [Chrysalis, 1979]
Considering I trust the way Ubu's visionary humour and crackpot commitment rocks out and/or hooks in for the sheer pleasure of it, I'm willing to go with their excursions into musique concrete, and on this tape they get me somewhere. The death of Peter Laughner may well have deprived America of its greatest punk band, just the subsequent clout of synth wizard Allen Ravenstine has divers a survival-prone community capable of bridging the '60s and the '80s without acting as if the '70s never happened. Imitating randomness by tucking randomlike sounds into deep but tactfully casual structures, joyfully confusing organic and inorganic sounds, they teach us how to alive in the industrial shift--imaginatively! A

New Picnic Time [Chrysalis, 1980]
Recitative, animal noises, and industrial waste for the ear threaten their precarious (past definition) art-stone balance. "A Small Dark Cloud" is mostly vocalisation and audio effects, "The Phonation of the Sand" mostly whisper and sound effects, "All the Dogs Are Barking" barely more. Then once again "Jehovah'southward Kingdom Comes!" rocks, and "Cheerio" is as quietly hypnotic as it'southward supposed to be. When David Thomas starts off exultation "It'southward me again!" he's not really boasting--he's striking us with the very best he has to offering. A-

The Art of Walking [Rough Merchandise, 1980]
Information technology's impossible to wish these utopian singers of the industrial pastorale anything but the best. Simply between the passages of synthesizer buzz and the fond talk of birdies, fishies, and horsies (pace Patti, they exercise phone call it "Horses"), yous accept to figure that neither Red Crayola's Mayo Thompson (in for Tom Herman) nor the one true God (David is now a Jehovah'south Witness) is counseling everyone to stone out. Undestructive violence is a difficult deed to go along. B+

Ubu Live: Book 1: 390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo [Rough Trade, 1981]
Recapping the Hearthan and Blank Records period that a born-again Crocus Behemoth will never await in the eye once more, this is a detect for fans who missed the early on singles and the Datapanik EP (source of four songs, with some other previously unreleased and seven more from The Modern Trip the light fantastic toe). Material and operation are fine, with variant lyrics and new guitar and synthesizer bits mitigating (though not eliminating) the redundancy factor. But most of these recordings were intended for reference but, and that'due south how they sound--devoid of audible presence. For demo addicts, tape traders, and incorrigible cultists like me. B+

Song of the Bailing Man [Rough Merchandise, 1982]
In his Jehovah'south Witness phase--which could last the rest of his life--David Thomas is just similar any other eccentric "progressive." With Mayo Thompson and Anton Fier replacing Ubu's two committed rockers on guitar and drums, the group tin't carry him along on populist pulse anymore, which ways that although Thomas's compositional ideas may be "original" and "interesting"--and dissimilar near art-stone, this music deserves both adjectives--how compelling you find the gestalt depends on the ability of Thomas's private obsessions. Once again the man outdoes himself--some of these lyrics really read as poetry. But information technology's pocket-sized poetry for sure--his musings on the ineluctable wonder of the natural order go deeper than, say, Peter Hammill's damn fool doomsaying, but they're long on whimsy and short on tension. Equally Christian rock goes, it'south smart stuff, just every bit Christian art goes I'll take Graham Greene. B+

Final Tower: An Archival Drove [Twin/Tone, 1986]
Side one is the long unavailable Datapanik in the Year Goose egg EP, itself comprising 2 indie singles and a compilation cut and as powerful a sequence as side one of Dub Housing still. Side two collects the kind of oddments that rarely cohere on LP, however here the outtakes and B sides and stray singles come together as a record of David Thomas's slide or progress from willed optimism to blessed whimsy. In short, this is a souvenir from God--a tertiary Ubu album from the onetime Crocus Behemoth'due south pre-God period. A-

The Tenement Twelvemonth [Antone's, 1988]
Yeah, this is Ubu--four of the seven players were on Dub Housing. But before Scott Krauss was brought in--can't await much backbeat with Chris Cutler hogging the drums--it was as well the most recent edition of David Thomas's Pedestrians/Wooden Birds making a rock move. So what's astonishing isn't simply the high spirits and good faith, both rare enough on reunions, just the singleness of purpose. Information technology's not equally if Thomas'due south crotchety nature-male child mysticism has been blown away--i of these songs is an attack on zoos. But the momentum of the backbeat and the electric clamor of the whole movement straighten him out and toughen him up, while at the same fourth dimension his loving, surrealistic sarcasm dominates the music, with Allen Ravenstine reaching untold heights of kooky reintegration. This record proves non just that good-hearted eccentrics can live in the earth, just that they tin change it for the better. Every vocal stays with y'all, but the one for the ages is "We Have the Technology," which leaves you thinking that we just may and nosotros just may not. Thank you, Scott Krauss. A

Cloudland [Fontana, 1989]
"Nosotros'd never been asked to write a pop record before," David Thomas says. "I guess it never occurred to anyone." Thomas was happy to oblige. No private visions of decaying cityscape, just equally obscure (and evocative) love songs, down on their knees to rhyme with please. Produced mostly out of Ubu'southward erstwhile Ohio home, then smoothed downwardly and hooked up in London, their signature avant-garage survives with its finish-and-get effects and unsalable recitative in fine fettle. If yous're a fan, the vi Stephen Hague-produced or Daniel Miller-remixed cuts volition sound misbegotten at first. Merely if yous're actually a fan, you'll come to recognize them as the urban pastoral of Thomas's whimsical catamenia adjusted for the inexpensive seats, which deserve the attending. A-

Worlds in Collision [Fontana, 1991]
pure art-stone for art-pop people ("I Hear They Smoke the Barbecue," "Worlds in Standoff") ***

Story of My Life [Imago, 1993]
postpunk as likable litterateur, band as predictable support ("Story of My Life," "Kathleen") *

Ray Gun Suitcase [Tim/Kerr, 1995]
still rockin' (again) after all these years ("Downwards past the River II," "My Friend Is a Stooge for the Media Priests") ***

Folly of Youth Meet Dee Plus [Tim/Kerr, 1996]

Pennsylvania [Tim/Kerr, 1998]

Apocalypse At present [Thirsty Ear, 1999]
Something has happened to David Thomas since this "special acoustic evening" in 1991, and though I'm tempted to call it art, it'due south probably just the art world. Thomas has e'er fiddled with art-rock, but merely when he hitting the museum excursion in the '90s did his respectable side get the better of him. It'due south impossible to imagine him endangering an ICA performance piece with "heed-dead stone" similar "Non-Alignment Pact" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog"--for i thing, no attendee would think of requesting such a thing. And information technology's all also difficult to imagine him rocking a 1999 "acoustic evening" with such benign aggression and hang-loose cheer. "Enough fun," he announces grumpily as he cuts Iggy off at twoscore seconds--leaving u.s. to discover that "Nosotros Have the Technology" is yet to come. A-

St Arkansas [SpinArt, 2002]
there is no joy in Meadville, mighty Ubu has blooped a single to left center--but there wasn't much joy before either ("Dull Walking Daddy," "333") **

Why I Hate Women [Smog Veil, 2006]

Lady From Shanghai [Fire, 2013]
Steals a hook from Anita Ward before resuming his previously announced plan of "Smash the Hegemony of Dance/Stand up Still" ("Thanks," "Musicians Are Scum") **

20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo [Cherry Blood-red, 2017]
Every bit the nuclear Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight than it's been since 1953, David Thomas and a sizable contingent of sometime allies hunker down in a launch pad turned fallout shelter and bash out the well-nigh songful and physically powerful Pere Ubu anthology of our fraught century. Of course untoward noises abound along with the urgent tempos. Only after the searing two-infinitesimal "Ruby Eye Blues," information technology ends with iii more ruminative tracks, each a love song one way or another. First papa invites her out for a walk. And then a guest vocalist designated Roshi turns out to be female. Then begins the finale, crooned high and grainy: "Agree me close / I feel the time running out / I know you must feel it likewise." A-

The Long Goodbye [Cherry Ruddy, 2019]
Except for what might well take passed as a goodbye album--namely, 2018's xx Years in a Montana Missile Silo--parsing what ane of David Thomas's works of art "ways" has long been a superfan's game. This double-CD, ii versions of the same music with the alive-in-France one superior, is relatively engaging/engaged in its mostly recitative fashion and seems to be inspired by the Raymond Chandler novel, to what end information technology's simply entertaining enough to inspire superfans to ponder: patriotism every bit pessimism, nirvana as oblivion, feeling bluish. Information technology'due south too his farewell album until he changes his mind. My favorite track is "Fortunate Son," ready in a "Waffle House with a view of Walden Pond," where he cries about America and pays the bill of a human who plays "Fortunate Son" and "Layla" on the jukebox--simply declines to tell the guy whether he actually likes Eric Clapton. B+

See Also

• A Real New Wave Rolls Out of Ohio [1978-04-17]

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Source: http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=pere+ubu