since I am an Ubu fan, though be advised he had a persnickety personality and had a penchant for venting weird, sour opinions like his idea that women in rock bands can’t hide that they’re outsiders (despite having Michele Temple play bass for Ubu for many years), or that the idea that rock music is something anyone can do is a big lie (prompting Mike D at this board many years ago to say “Pere Ubu are about as punk as Ayn fucking Rand”) or the liner notes to Ray Gun Suitcase where he gives a long-winded, boring anecdote about how Elvis people are nicer than people who make fun of Elvis people.

He started as a rock critic and had some sort of Jehovah’s Witness association for awhile too. He was an odd guy. I think he did stage work as an actor in Cleveland, too (Ubu’s name is taken from a French play.) I have no idea who the hell has even really been listening to Ubu these last two or three decades–I think Pennsylvania topped one of those silly Pazz & Jop polls that barely anybody pays attention to, but aside from maybe a few rock critics remarking on their work, there really didn’t seem to be much of any Ubu fans left, and God knows how many there even were to begin with! (They always made a habit of remarking on their miserable eternal lack of commercial success, with Thomas putting “FILE UNDER: POPULAR” in the Pennsylvania liner notes and remarking “It’s the best! It’ll sell a million!” when interviewed about one of their other albums…or maybe that was Pennsylvania, too.)

Pere Ubu always sounded to me like something meant to evoke the American highway, not just the Rust Belt where they were from (which is what those dessicated synthesizers they used always evoked) but any roads to anywhere in this country. A soundtrack for a wacky drive across America. And Thomas’ goofy voice matched his physical appearance completely, he sounded like he looked.

Here’s my breakdown of their discography:

Terminal Tower (1985): This collects their 1975-76 indie/proto-punk singles as well as other stuff from prior to 1981, and the 1975-76 stuff (“Heart Of Darkness,” “Final Solution,” “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” and “My Dark Ages”) is all pretty crucial stuff, hauntingly weird art-rock with a bleak message to it, the bleak message being the closest thing about the band to “punk”–Pere Ubu’s connection to “punk” is pretty tenuous at best, the mentality behind these songs is far more art-rock (not prog) than punk. The other stuff is mostly weird and cutesy, though you do get their best song (“Humor Me”) live.

The Modern Dance (1978): A masterpiece. I listen to this album every year for the last 20 years and will do so for the remainder of my life.

Dub Housing (1978): This is not “goth rock” as you said, it’s avant-garde late-70s stuff meant to evoke bleak cityscapes like the album cover, a great cover that totally fits the mood. I hated this album the first time I heard it after becoming a Modern Dance fan, because it sounded so goofy and strange and unpleasant (lots of synths, too), but after awhile you realize most songs have a genuine melodic pattern in them, you just have to get past the presentation. “Goths” might have liked the title track and the closer “Codex,” one of the gloomiest, emptiest songs ever written, which evokes a guy dying alone in an abandoned Cleveland hospital somewhere, or something. (I don’t think a Wire comparison is very merited, but you’re correct about Wire going “goth” on 154. Nothing Ubu did is much like that, though) As with the previous album, I listen to this every year, a classic.

New Picnic Time (1979): Aaaaand....kind of a nosedive here. A couple tracks, like “Jehovah’s Kingdom Come” at the end, work, but here the band’s darkness just turns into weird forgettable ugly art crap, for the most part.

The Art Of Walking (1980): This is even worse, one of the worst albums I’ve ever heard by a band I like, and it was in their friggin’ PRIME! At least the previous album had a couple songs I like, this has jack fucking shit. Icky weird floopity bloop art-rock crap with barely any listenable melodies whatsoever. I’m not even going to do it in a “relistens” post, I KNOW I hate this album.

Song Of The Bailing Man (1982): This album is no great shakes but “Use Of A Dog” is a cool song, as are a couple of others, so it’s a step up from the shite they’d been doing. I did relisten to this after having completely forgotten every note of it for years, so there’s that. Not really a failure but try it at your own risk.

The Tenement Year (1987): Can’t find this anywhere, just individual songs from it. They reformed to make this album, having broken up in 1982.

Cloudland (1989): I’ll have to give this some relistens to be sure, but I know it’s got a great three song stretch in “Bus Called Happiness,” “Ice Cream Man” and “Waiting For Mary,” the latter of which even had a goofy TMBG-style MTV video (and yes, there’s a TMBG-Ubu connection–Tony Maimone played bass for both bands.) They were actually given some money to make this one to try and make a commercial pop-rock album and they actually kind of did–some of these songs are legitimately catchy!

Worlds In Collision (1991): See Tenement Year, can’t find this.

Story Of My Life (1993): Just listened to this (I’m trying to do the rest of their albums that I haven’t heard this year, after years of putting off finishing their discography.) It’s okay. Nothing groundbreaking but good plain old Ubu rock. “Kathleen” is the best song.

Ray Gun Suitcase (1995): I impulse-bought this in 2004 after reading George’s review of it (he skipped most of their discography to get to it.) The cover art was really striking. This is actually one of my favorite albums, one of the most underrated albums ever made IMO. It’s very Pixies-derived (I think they opened for the Pixies?) but not a bad case of the master imitating the apprentice. “Folly Of Youth,” “Electricity,” “Beach Boys,” “Ray Gun Suitcase” and “Down The The River II” are all wonderful straight ahead Ubu rockers and

Pennsylvania (1998): I have some fond memories of getting this for Christmas in 2004, though it’s not a great album. “Sad.TXT” is another great straight-ahead pop-rocker and you get the weird little folk song “Highwaterville,” the goofy obscuro “Mr. Wheeler” and the driving “Drive” too. If you want creepy songs there’s “Silent Spring,” and a decent barn-burner rocker at the end “Wheelhouse.” This is the Ubu I like, evoking American byways and road life. Trouble is, most of the rest of it’s messy arty crap, including a hidden track at the end that’s voices muttering “my name is…ellipses” over an electronic bass groove for a really long time, after a blank space where you can hear a guy muttering “no Farfisa....no Farfisa” over and over again if you turn the volume all the way up. Overall, this is a mediocre album with some good stuff on it.

St. Arkansas (2002): They got some consistency back for this one. The first half is really good stuff–the wonderful atmospheric synth piece “Hell,” and fun mundane pop rockers like “Slow Walking Daddy,” “333” and “The Adventures Of De Soto.” Second half is darker rock including the nine minute Tom Waits-ish “Dark.” Not a bad album to pick up!

Everything since 2002–I haven’t heard it. I’m trying to fix that this year, though. Mod Lang is incorrect, I only heard that last one from post-2000.

RIP to David Thomas, I’m glad to see his death is getting notice, too bad his albums didn’t sell better (and he had a friggin’ SOLO career on top of all these poorly selling Ubu albums!)