The Modern Dance (1978)

The Modern Dance is the debut album by the American rock band Pere Ubu. It was released in February 1978 through Blank Records. Although commercially unsuccessful, it drew critical acclaim upon release and was later regarded as influential in the development of post-punk.

The album was ranked number 11 by NME on their list of "Best Albums of 1978", number 14 on Spin magazine's list of the "50 Most Essential Punk Records", number 31 by Fact in "The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s", number 34 in Mojo's "Top 50 Punk Albums" and number 63 on Uncut's "The 100 Greatest Debut Albums". It appears in the 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

In 2005, a 5.1-surround-sound version was released as the DVD-Audio side of a DualDisc.

Background

On October 12, 1976, Pere Ubu released "Street Waves" as a single backed with "My Dark Ages". When Cliff Burnstein, the A&R man for Mercury Records in Chicago came across the single, he told the band that Mercury was not the right fit for them. But when Chrysalis Records in the UK reached out to Pere Ubu, Burnstein quickly recontacted the band; he proposed they sign with a new Mercury imprint he was forming: Blank Records. By early 1977, Pere Ubu performed their first gigs outside Cleveland: New York's CBGB and Max's Kansas City, where they played what would appear on their debut album.

The Modern Dance was released in February 1978 through Blank Records. The release was a month later than planned, because the record label had to change its name from Dip Records, which was in use by an evangelist.

To promote the album, an American tour with labelmates the Suicide Commandos was scheduled to begin on February 18, 1978, with a show in Cleveland promoted by Johnny Dromette. Drummer Scott Krauss temporarily left the group for the first of the three times he would do so over the decades, and was briefly replaced by Anton Fier of the Feelies, though Krauss rejoined two weeks later. Fier would rejoin the band years later on Song of the Bailing Man.

Music

The music drew influences from the avant-garde, garage rock, musique concrète, performance art, and the Rust Belt of the American Midwest. The album's cover art, and the track "Chinese Radiation", were inspired by Maoism and Chinese nuclear weapons testing. David Thomas said:

It was said that Cleveland had the highest population of Maoists outside of China, an urban myth probably but that was the talk...When China tested its A-bombs, the fallout traveled in the high atmosphere to finally descend...on Cleveland.

"Life Stinks" was written by former guitarist Peter Laughner and previously performed live by Rocket from the Tombs, while "Humor Me" was written in response to his death, as a play on his last name, "Laugh-". "Street Waves" was inspired by a stack of used tires on Detroit Avenue. The track "The Modern Dance" featured field recordings made by synthesist Allen Ravenstine in Downtown Cleveland; an earlier version of the song was later released as "untitled" on the 1978 EP Datapanik in the Year Zero. Ravenstine said "Sentimental Journey" was a take on the 1945 Doris Day song of the same name, with the impromptu sounds of breaking glass bottles acting as a harsh and angry juxtaposition to the suburban lifestyle evoked by the original song.

Recording and production

Pere Ubu recorded most of their debut album in November 1977 at Suma Recording with engineer Ken Hamann, who would become a longtime collaborator of the band. Burnstein financed the sessions.

During the recording sessions, executives mistook Ravenstine's EML synthesizer for a technical error or accidental noise bleed. They were going to discard the recordings until the band assured them that it was exactly how they wanted the album to sound. Hamann detailed the recording process of the album in a 1999 interview with Tape Op:

[...] mostly close mic'd, with a pair of overheads. Snare usually was either from the top or the bottom; the bottom was good. The bass drum, the front was usually open and the mic was in the drum. And the toms frequently we mic'd from underneath. That's the floor tom. The other toms we might have done micing from the top. Generally speaking, the bottoms of the drums were all removed. It removed unwanted resonances, gave them a tighter sound. He most often used Neumann KM-56s on the toms and snare and as overheads, with a Beyer dynamic microphone on the kick drum. Neumann U-47s were common on bass and guitar amps. Allen Ravenstine's EML synthesizer went direct. I was quite taken by how he was able to provide exactly the right sound that was needed.

Some songs were recorded in October 1976 and January, August, and November 1977, while the band was touring. "Street Waves" and "The Modern Dance" were released as singles ahead of the album. Ravenstine and Thomas described the songs as being already written and easy to record. Hamann detailed the recording of the album's penultimate track, "Sentimental Journey" which featured sounds of breaking glass: