Pere Ubu - Datapanik in the Year Zero (1975-82) (5cd box)

Pere Ubu  - Datapanik in the Year Zero (1975-82)

avantgarde, rock | 5cd box set | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 2150MB

Geffen | released: 1996

Allmusic:
Pere Ubu's troubles with record companies are legendary within certain underground rock circles. In perhaps the most bizarre turn of events, the group's collected works of 1978-1982 -- after being out of print for nearly a decade -- were reissued by Geffen as a five-disc box set, Datapanik in the Year Zero. Named after the group's 1978 EP, the set is arranged chronologically and occasionally substitutes live versions for studio tracks, but that hardly matters -- nearly every song the band recorded during the five-year time span is included. In addition to the official Pere Ubu material, the box includes a disc of rare singles from early incarnations of Ubu and other Cleveland-area punk rockers like Rocket from the Tombs, 15-60-75, and Mirrors, which were released on David Thomas' independent record label. With this much material, it's safe to say that the set is a definitive retrospective. However, if you're simply interested in Pere Ubu, consider the set carefully before investing. Pere Ubu were indeed one of the most innovative and challenging bands of their era, which means that their music is an acquired taste. However, those willing to invest in the box will find a wealth of inventive, hard-edged avant rock & roll.

The box contains:
1975 - "Datapanik In The Year Zero EP"
1978 - "The Modern Dance"
1978 - "Dub Housing"
1979 - "New Picnic Time"
1980 - "Art Of Walking"
1982 - "Song Of The Bailing Man"
 & live recordings,  rarities and unreleased pre-Ubu material

Disc 1: 1975-1977
1. "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" – 6:21
2. "Heart of Darkness" – 4:44
3. "Final Solution" – 4:58
4. "Cloud 149" – 2:37
5. "Untitled" – 3:32
6. "My Dark Ages" – 4:00
7. "Heaven" – 3:04
8. "Nonalignment Pact" – 3:18
9. "The Modern Dance" – 3:28 (album mix)
10. "Laughing" – 4:35
11. "Street Waves" – 3:04
12. "Chinese Radiation" – 3:27
13. "Life Stinks" – 1:52
14. "Real World" – 4:00
15. "Over My Head" – 3:49
16. "Sentimental Journey" – 6:06
17. "Humor Me" – 2:43
18. "The Book Is On The Table" – 4:02

Disc 2: 1978-1979
1. "Navvy" – 2:40
2. "On The Surface" – 2:35
3. "Dub Housing" – 3:40
4. "Caligari's Mirror" – 3:49
5. "Thriller!" – 4:36
6. "I, Will Wait" – 1:46
7. "Drinking Wine Spodyody" – 2:44
8. "Ubu Dance Party" – 4:46
9. "Blow Daddy O" – 3:38
10. "Codex" – 4:54
11. "The Fabulous Sequel" – 3:07
12. "49 Guitars & One Girl" – 2:51
13. "A Small Dark Cloud" – 5:49
14. "Small Was Fast" – 3:30
15. "All The Dogs Are Barking" – 3:02
16. "One Less Worry" – 3:46
17. "Make Hay" – 4:02
18. "Goodbye" – 5:17
19. "Voice of The Sand" – 1:27
20. "Kingdom Come" – 3:15

Disc 3: 1980-1982
1. "Go" – 3:35
2. "Rhapsody In Pink" – 3:34
3. "Arabia" – 4:59
4. "Young Miles In The Basement" – 4:20
5. "Misery Goats" – 2:38
6. "Loop" – 3:15
7. "Rounder" – 3:24
8. "Birdies" – 2:27
9. "Lost In Art" – 5:12
10. "Horses" – 2:35
11. "Crush This Horn" – 3:00
12. "The Long Walk Home" – 2:35
13. "Petrified" – 2:16
14. "Stormy Weather" – 3:18
15. "West Side Story" – 2:46
16. "Thoughts That Go By Steam" – 3:47
17. "Big Ed's Used Farms" – 2:24
18. "A Day Such As This" – 7:16
19. "The Vulgar Boatman Bird" – 2:49
20. "My Hat" – 1:19
21. "Horns Are A Dilemma" – 4:21

Disc 4: 390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo, Volume 2
1. "Vocal Liner Notes" 0:56
2. "Theatre 140, 5/5/78" 0:07
3. "Real World" – 4:32
4. "Laughing" – 5:19
5. "Street Waves" – 4:30
6. "Humor Me" – 3:08
7. "Over My Head" – 5:00
8. "Sentimental Journey" – 8:49
9. "Life Stinks" – 3:13
10. "My Dark Ages" – 5:30
11. "C. Teatro Medica, 3/3/81" 0:11
12. "The Modern Dance" – 3:40
13. "Codex" – 3:24
14. "Ubu Dance Party" – 3:57
15. "Big Ed's Used Farms" – 3:27
16. "Real World" – 2:46
17. "Birdies" – 2:15

Disc 5: Terminal Drive (Ubu-related rarities)
1. "Foreign Bodies : The Incredible Truth" – 2:35
2. "15-60-75 : It's In Imagination" – 4:43
3. "Syd's Dance Band : Never Again" – 2:20
4. "Carney & Thomas : Sunset In The Antipodes" – 2:26
5. "Home & Garden : (please) FIX MY HORN (my brakes don't work)" – 3:24
6. "Neptune's Car : Baking Bread" – 2:13
7. "David Thomas : Atom Mind" – 2:29
8. "Tripod Jimmie : Autumn Leaves" – 4:17
9. "Friction : Dear Richard" – 5:56
10. "Pressler-Morgan : You're Gonna Watch Me" – 1:40
11. "Rocket from the Tombs : Amphetamine" – 5:32
12. "Mirrors : She Smiled Wild" – 3:57
13. "electric eels : Jaguar Ride" – 1:46
14. "Tom Herman : Steve Canyon Blues" – 4:17
15. "Allen Ravenstine : Home Life" – 6:47
16. "Rocket From The Tombs : 30 Seconds Over Tokyo" – 7:00
17. "Proto Ubu : Heart of Darkness" – 8:47
18. "Pere Ubu : Pushin' Too Hard" – 3:54

sample & buy: Datapanik in the Year Zero

Pere Ubu - Cloudland (1989) (2007remaster) (eac-log-cover)

Pere Ubu - Cloudland (1989)

avantgarde, rock | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 505MB

Mercury | rem, expanded 2007 | rar +5% recovery

AMG:
In a press handout that accompanied the original release of Pere Ubu's Cloudland, David Thomas quipped "We'd never been asked to write a pop record before. I guess it never occurred to anyone." Given the sonic Dadaism of much of Pere Ubu's work, what's most startling is not that it took so long for someone to suggest they make a pop record but that they were able to comply so successfully. Stephen Hague, who had previously worked with the Pet Shop Boys, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and New Order, produced these sessions, and Cloudland boasts a glossy surface that was unprecedented for Pere Ubu's work; the drums sounded crisp and tight, the songs included traditional melodies and melodic keyboard lines, Allen Ravenstine's noisy punctuations were pushed to the back of the mix, and the harmonies sounded as if they were performed by actual professionals. However, beneath the hipster friendly production, Cloudland remained a Pere Ubu record -- David Thomas' yelping vocal style was as unrestrained as ever, and while the tunes here lack the sharp angles of Pere Ubu's first era, the lateral sway of the melodies is still cheerfully off kilter. Lyrically, Cloudland finds Ubu moving cautiously from their passionate defense of the Midwest's industrial wastelands to a look at the broad plains that lurked elsewhere, as if they were looking for sunnier climes like many other denizens of the Rust Belt and finding many strange, troubling and wonderful things in their new surroundings. Ultimately, Cloudland showed that however much you dressed up Pere Ubu's music, their heart and soul would show through, and that is a very good thing. [In 2007, Mercury Records reissued Cloudland in a new remastered edition created with the input of the band. The new disc includes two non-LP B-sides, "Wine Dark Sparks" and "Bang the Drum," as well as a live BBC recording of "Bus Called Happiness" and alternate mixes of "Breath" and "Love Love Love." David Stubbs' liner notes describe the circumstances behind the making of the album as well as Thomas' lyrical themes on this material.]

Tracks:
01-Breath (3:59)
02-Race The Sun (3:25)
03-Cry (2:34)
04-Why Go It Alone? (2:49)
05-Waiting For Mary (3:29)
06-Ice Cream Truck (2:49)
07-Bus Called Happiness (3:13)
08-Monday Night (2:12)
09-Love Love Love (3:28)
10-Lost Nation Road (2:17)
11-Fire (3:44)
12-Nevada! (3:21)
13-The Wire (3:19)
14-Flat (2:23)
15-The Waltz (3:28)
16-Pushin (2:27)
extras:
17-Breath (alt mix) (3:45)
18-Wine Dark Sparks (3:12)
19-Bang The Drum (3:54)
20-Bus Called Happiness (live) (3:22)
21-Love Love Love (Cajun House Mix) (6:19)

Pere Ubu (v.5.0):
David Thomas - vocals
Jim Jones - guitar, backing vocals
Allen Ravenstine - EML synthesizers, backing vocals
Tony Maimone - bass, backing vocals
Chris Cutler - drums
Scott Krauss - drums
Stephen Hague played keyboards.

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Pere Ubu - Story Of My Life (1993) (eac-log-cover)

Pere Ubu - Story Of My Life (1993)

avantgarde, rock | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 295MB

Fontana | rar +5% recovery

AMG:
After the grand experiments of Cloudland and Worlds in Collision failed to make Pere Ubu the darlings of America's youth, 1993's Story of My Life found them in less polished studio circumstances, though they were still in a new and different form. Pere Ubu had been pared down to a quartet when they recorded Story of My Life, and while guitarist Jim Jones, bassist Tony Maimone, and drummer Scott Krauss all manned various pieces of noisemaking equipment in the absence of Allen Ravenstine (and producer Al Clay added keyboards), this is still an uncharacteristically lean-sounding Pere Ubu album, dominated by Jones' guitars and leaving plenty of open space for Maimone and Krauss to shine through. In many respects, Story of My Life finds David Thomas sounding a great deal freer and more playful than he had on Ubu's two previous albums, but without an adversary to battle against as he had on Worlds in Collision, there aren't any moments of unexpected genius like "I Hear They Smoke the Barbecue" or "Oh Catherine," either. However, the opening track of Story of My Life -- "Wasted," which starts out as some sort of damaged sea shanty and suddenly mutates into grand-scale guitar rock -- shows that regardless of what challenges faced them in the studio, Pere Ubu never failed to deliver the goods, and the head-scratching travelogue of oddities in "Postcard," the slightly fractured folk-rock of "Kathleen," and the childhood nostalgia of the title track are superb examples of Ubu's witty side. If Story of My Life feels in retrospect like a stepping stone between Ubu's art pop period and their return to classic form with 1995's Ray Gun Suitcase, it also brings together some of the virtues of both sides of their aural personality, and it's a slightly flawed but underappreciated gem.

Tracks:

-01. "Wasted" – 2:37
-02. "Come Home" – 4:49
-03. "Louisiana Train Wreck" – 3:20
-04. "Fedora Satellite II" – 3:26
-05. "Heartbreak Garage" – 3:52
-06. "Postcard" – 2:49
-07. "Kathleen" – 4:24
-08. "Honey Moon" – 2:54
-09. "Sleep Walk" – 4:23
-10. "The Story Of My Life" – 4:06
-11. "Last Will & Testament" – 3:48

Personnel:
* David Thomas: vocals, melodeon, guitar on "Postcard"
* Jim Jones: guitar, Hammond B3, backing vox, keyboard
* Tony Maimone: bass, EML synthesizer
* Scott Krauss: drums, percussion, keyboard, shortwave
* Al Clay: vox calliope, digital keyboard, backing vocals, guitar on "Postcard".

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Pere Ubu - St. Arkansas (2002) (eac-log-cover)

Pere Ubu - St. Arkansas (2002)

rock, alternative, avantgarde | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 270MB

Glitterhouse Records  | rar +5% recovery

AMG:
No band has sustained as much alt-credibility as long as Pere Ubu. While St. Arkansas doesn't divert from the paths the bandmembers have already traveled, it's worth remembering that these guys started this trip 27 years prior to this album, and noting as well that their lyrical and musical creativity is undiminished by time. Recorded dry, with a boxlike ambience, David Thomas's vocals gnarl like a weed, repulsive yet irresistible, in a garden of broken glass. While the band scatters shards of pointed sound around him, Thomas tells cryptic, twisted tales; on "Slow Walking Daddy" his strangled bleat transplants a Willy Loman character into shadows of vague but looming doom. For the song "Hell" he switches to a smoky mumble and reflects, with odd detachment, on finding himself in perdition -- a place depicted musically by a muffled, lurching drum motif, some keyboard wheezes, and a distant out of tune piano. The closing track, "Dark," wraps up the theme of the album -- tragic self-delusion in a world filled with indifference; Thomas' delivery of the key line, a hopeless mantra to "AM radio," is a masterful bit of expression. On each track he presents himself as more of an actor or a performance artist than a singer, an assumption of identity that would challenge almost any band's approach to accompaniment. In this sense, as well as in his poetic integrity and superb connection to his musicians, and in the dark majesty of his declamation, Thomas casts a dangerous spell with St. Arkansas and reaffirms his stature as a peer of Tom Waits.

Tracks:
01 - The Fevered Dream of Hernando DeSoto
02 - Slow Walking Daddy
03 - Michele
04 - 333
05 - Hell
06 - Lisbon
07 - Steve
08 - Phone Home Jonah
09 - Where's the truth
10 - Dark

Personnel:
David Thomas - vocals
Tom Herman - guitar, organ, backing vocals
Robert Wheeler - EML synthesizer, theremin, piano
Michele Temple - bass, piano, organ
Steve Mehlman - drums, organ
with Jim Jones - organ, guitar

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Pere Ubu 2006 - Why I Hate Women

Pere Ubu 2006 - Why I Hate Women

Alternative | 1CD | EAC Rip | FLAC+CUE+LOG | cover

SmogVeil Records | RAR +5% recovery | 340MB

2006 album from David Thomas and his Ubu boys, old and new. Pere Ubu have really come out fighting with Why I Hate Women, racing towards all horizons at full tilt, pushing the experimental envelope further than ever, but also tightening up their trademark avant-punk attack. The rhythm section (Ubu's longest serving) of bassist Michele Temple and drummer Steve Mehlman is tauter and leaner than ever before. Robert Wheeler's bravura performance on vintage electronics has him coming over as rural Ohio's answer to Sun Ra, splattering analogue synth and theremin all over the music with wild, visionary abandon. Guitarist (and newest recruit) Keith Moline; veers between wayward sonic expressionism and disciplined garage thrust. At the eye of the storm is singer David Thomas, a true rock maverick at the height of his powers. His vocal approach shows a startling new melodicism, a plaintive purity of expression that cuts through his familiar repertoire of radical voicings and techniques. 11 tracks. Smog Veil. 2006.[cut]

Info CD:
Playing time: 46.52 min.
Label: Smog Veil (SV59CD)
Printed: 19 september 2006

Line Up:

David Thomas -- vocals

Keith Moline -- guitar, backing vocals, bass

Michele Temple -- bass, vocals

Robert Wheeler -- synthesizer, theremin

Steve Mehlman -- drums, clave, wood block

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