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Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com
An opening song being called ‘Nonalignment Pact’,
and, as Julian Cope described it, “a classic ‘girl’ song
with the most Stooged-out riff”, just says it all. Thomas’s
voice could shriek and whisper, the bursting
guitars sounded like M16 gunfire and the cover looked
like utopian propaganda created in Lenin’s Russia.
Follow up album, the just as inventive Dub Housing
(1978), loosened up the extremes, slowed down the delivery;
but equally sounded as though recorded between
Cleveland’s skidrow and the volcanoes of Java and is
widely regarded as their masterpiece. They continued
in the following decades to release challenging records,
all soaked in that American underground experience
that makes them a great, almost undiscovered band
and a perfect medicine against the corporate crap of
mainstream music.
David Thomas is still lead singer in Pere Ubu, and in
recent times he’s additionally created three albums and
plays live with a band he calls David Thomas and Two
Pale Boys. Still crossing boundaries and staying true to
his art with the stance that originally set the band apart,
I managed to ask him a few questions that I’ve always
wanted to find answers for. Important things, trivial
things. Here’s what I found out about his work, his attitude
and other stimulating or meaningless details.
I’ve been reading the Pere Ubu manifesto which
I find interesting. Things like ‘Don’t seek success’.
What’s the idea behind messages like that?
BUY Pere Ubu music online from and
We have always concentrated on making good music.
If you make good music people will search you
out. Maybe not lots of them. But some. As well we
have always been laissez-faire perfectionists. Seeking
success distracts from the principal function of a musical
group. It offers up temptations to deviate from
a proper course. I have nothing against ‘success’ – I
love the process of the market in fact – but not at the
cost of vision.
You’re playing in London with members of Sun
Ra Arkestra and Wayne Kramer. What’s your involvement
with the event?
Wayne is a friend and played a show as a member of
Pere Ubu a few years ago. I suppose he is ‘repaying’ the
compliment. He asked me to guest with the MC5 and
Arkestra. I am doing ‘Starship. It’s a great honour and
I am excited to do it.
Why the transition from Rocket From The Tombs
to Pere Ubu?
Because RFTT flew apart and I had ideas I wanted
to pursue.
When I hear 60s garage hits, I hear some kinda
semblance of the Ubu style. What US punk bands of
the 60s were you inspired by?
We were always into the American garage punk of
the 60s. You have to remember we grew up listening
to all that stuff on the radio. That was what was on
the radio. All that stuff was hits. Very big influence
514
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