There isn't a
Pere Ubu
recording you can imagine living without.
The Modern Dance
remains the essential
Ubu
purchase (as does the follow-up,
Dub Housing
). For sure,
Mercury
had no idea what they had on their hands when they released this as part of their
punk rock
offshoot label
Blank
, but it remains a classic slice of art-
punk
. It announces itself quite boldly: the first sound you hear is a painfully high-pitched whine of feedback, but then
Tom Herman
's postmodern
Chuck Berry
riffing kicks off the brilliant
"Non-Alignment Pact,"
and you soon realize that this is
unlike any you've ever heard.
David Thomas
' caterwauling is funny and moving,
Scott Krauss
(drums) and
Tony Maimone
(bass) are one of the great unheralded rhythm sections in all of
rock
, and the "difficult" tracks like
"Street Waves,"
"Chinese Radiation,"
and the terrifying
"Humor Me"
are revelatory, and way ahead of their time.
is the signature sound of the avant-garage:
art rock
,
, and
garage rock
mixing together joyously and fearlessly. ~ John Dougan