“That has been our one significant success to this date: we are the longest-lasting, most disastrous commercial outfit to ever appear in rock ‘n’ roll. No one can come close to matching our loss to longevity ratio.” – David Thomas
It’s a fun exercise when listening to a band to put oneself in the context of its time, but try as I might I still can’t picture what the hell people must of thought when Dub Housing came out in 1978. It was punk, but everything was skewed. The synthesizers were too dancey to be cool, the music was too weird and aggressive to be pop, and beyond anything was the absolutely booming presence of David Thomas who comes off as more opera singer than punk rocker.
That quote from Thomas above is particularly poignant, because even if it may be true, Pere Ubu are disastrous in the most grandiose way. That spirit still rings true from their peers (especially Talking Heads) in the 70s to bands now like of Montreal who make theatricality their business. That was what they did best and it reminds me every single time I put “Navvy” on and hear Thomas shouting (with a voice big enough to match his formidable size) “I HAVE DESIRE.” They embrace the disaster to the point of transcending it. Boy! That sounds swell.