The return of Pere Ubu (sort of)

[mips!dce@decwrl.DEC.COM (David Elliott)]

[This article os from the Love-Hounds lost and found collection...  --
|>oug]

I've been listening to "Blame the Messenger" by David Thomas and the
Wooden Birds for about a week now, and found it to be quite enjoyable.

The group consists of David Thomas, Chris Cutler (Pedestrians),
Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu and Pedestrians), Jim Jones (?), and Allen
Ravenstine (Pere Ubu), and overall it sounds very similar to the
"Dub Housing"-era Pere Ubu. Jim Jones is either obviously a Pere Ubu
fan from way back or has been pushed into playing that way. I had to
go back to an old album just to make sure he wasn't one of the old
band members (Thom Herman played guitar in Pere Ubu). Ravenstine is
one of the best "synthesizer players" (that is, someone that makes
weird sounds with a synthesizer as opposed to a keyboard player
playing a synthesizer) ever, and really makes this record fun.

The cover almost screams "THIS BAND IS THE RETURN OF PERE UBU - Almost",
listing all of the group member names (you can't miss names like
Maimone and Ravenstine).

The music is pretty good. Thomas has lost some of the frantic edge of
the early albums, but not the wildness he exhibited with late Pere
Ubu ("Lonesome Cowboy Dave") and the Pedestrians. Chris Cutler is an
exceptional drummer, and as such overshadows Maimone's bass playing
(this is also true on the last Pedestrians album).

Some of the songs are very quiet, which is hard to get used to (much
like the opening to the Butthole Surfers "Locust Abortion Technician").
The use of distant voices in the soft parts had me looking out the
window to see who was yelling. Other songs run from silly (Thomas plays
a damn silly sounding accordian!) to slow, Ubu-style rock (a la "Humor Me"
and "Street Waves").

While this isn't one of the better albums of the year so far, it's
worth picking up.
-- 
David Elliott		{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!mips!dce