Pere Ubu pushed the boundries of their dark and demented garage rock with the funky twitch of this avante-garde cry from the abyss. After their debut 'The Modern Dance', the group left Mercury Records and were signed to Chrysalis. As with their first album, the sessions for 'Dub Housing' were produced by the band with Ken Hamann and featured David Thomas on vocals and organ; Tom Herman on guitar, bass guitar, and organ; Tony Maimone on bass guitar, guitar, and piano; Allen Ravenstine on EML synthesizers, and saxophone; and Scott Krauss on drums.
Ravinstine reveals: "'Dub Housing' was the one that we had to come up with stuff. And now actually 'Dub Housing' is my favorite record. Everybody else likes 'The Modern Dance' ... I think that a lot of that we wrote in the studio. And I don't know what it was and right now, I can't remember anything that was on that record but I really, really liked that record...And the whole breaking of the bottles and all that stuff, that's what I think. I wanted that undercurrent- there's chaos here. That kind of thing always appealed to me so I was always interested in it if there was an element of subversion, darkness. You know, I was a very dark kid when I was a young man. I think I'm less so now but I was very much so when I was a kid. And I was a kid when we were making this music! I was in my 20's. My God, that was 40 years ago! We were angry kids 'cause kids are angry. So we're making this noise and we were poking fun at things and I was interested in that subversion."
Thomas: "If I said that the next album, 'Dub Housing', was what I would call an ‘original masterpiece’…'The Modern Dance' was first. The sound of the band was so startling and so different; our approach to music was so different from anything else going on, that album created the impact. It’s like 'Rubber Soul' or something, it was like, ‘Whoa, what the hell’, you know?...The cross that we bear is that you know… we are a pop band. We’re not an experimental, avant-garde anything, we’re a pop band. We’re trained and schooled in pop music. We love pop music. It’s just that we don’t see any point in doing…there are all sorts of other people doing pop music better than we can do it and with more dedication. We would get bored with it because if we can do something, we don’t like doing it; what’s the point of doing something you already know how to do? Among the art types, they can’t really embrace us because every album we’ve ever done references pop music and comments on pop music and uses pop music idioms and connections and resonances. The pop people can’t embrace us either because we’re too “weird” about the whole thing! It’s really been the bane of our existence, but the fact is, that’s fundamental to the understanding of what we do. ... [Rocket From The Tombs] was always doomed. Everything from Cleveland was doomed. RFTT is totally inconsequential and irrelevant. Pere Ubu is totally inconsequential and irrelevant. That is the power of Cleveland. Embrace, my brothers, the utter futility of ambition and desire. Your only reward is a genuine shot at being the best. The caveat is that no one but your brothers will ever know it. That’s the deal we agreed to."
Herman would leave the group during the recording of their next album; but the seeds were planted during 'Dub Housing': "A couple things were going on to point me out of Ubu. For one, I liked touring and everyone else seemed to hate it. Ironic, since I never went on tour again until I rejoined the band. For another, David was going thru a religious phase that I resented having my name associated with. Remember, back then it was publicly seen as a band, not DT and the Ubus. Those were side issues, really. The big thing was 'New Picnic Time'. I felt we'd made certain mistakes on 'Modern Dance', certain other mistakes on 'Dub Housing', and 'New Picnic Time' would put it all together in the definitive Rock album. Instead, it was a new thing. I was Very disappointed. If it didn't happen then, it wasn't going to happen. So, I went off to do it myself. And failed, obviously. Ubu is an entirely different entity now. Amazing, since it's still very much Ubu. People think it's David's band now, but it's not. David serves Ubu, as we all do. Back in the day, it was anarchy. Now it's very much under David's direction. I may be the only one who thinks so, but to me, the musicianship in the band is at it's highest level ever. Then, I was, probably, the most accomplished musician in the band. Now, I'm probably the least. I'm speaking strictly about the ability to have technique available to serve inspiration. Everyone who ever played in Ubu had lots of creativity. No-one in their right mind would try to rate, or quantify creativity in Ubu. The process is different now. Most importantly, no one has any notions of popularity or monetary reward. While this can be frustrating, it's also liberating."
'Dub Housing'
full album:
All songs written by David Thomas, Tom Herman, Tony Maimone, Allen Ravenstine and Scott Krauss.
"Navvy" – 2:40
"On the Surface" – 2:35
"Dub Housing" – 3:39
"Caligari's Mirror" – 3:49
"Thriller!" – 4:36
"I, Will Wait" – 1:45
"Drinking Wine Spodyody" – 2:44
"(Pa) Ubu Dance Party" – 4:46
"Blow Daddy-O" – 3:38
"Codex" – 4:55
