派瑞·尤布乐团

Pere Ubu was an American rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975. The band had a variety of lineup changes, with frontman and leader David Thomas the sole constant member. In December 1975, they released their debut single "30 Seconds Over Tokyo"; their debut album The Modern Dance followed in 1978. They disbanded in 1982, but reformed in 1987 and remained active until Thomas' death on April 23, 2025.

Their work drew inspiration from avant-garde music, garage rock, musique concrète, performance art, and the environment of the Midwestern Rust Belt. Despite their association with art punk and post-punk, Thomas rejected the punk rock label, describing the band as "avant-garage" and "just a rock band".

Their single "Waiting for Mary" peaked at number 6 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart on June 17, 1989. The music video was played on MTV. Pere Ubu have been cited as an influence by artists such as Joy Division, Pixies, Hüsker Dü, the Breeders, Henry Rollins, Guided by Voices, R.E.M., Sisters of Mercy, Thomas Dolby, Julian Cope, Six Finger Satellite, Mission of Burma and Peter Murphy.

History

1970s

After the short-lived Cleveland-based band Rocket from the Tombs disbanded in mid-1975, its members pursued separate projects. Guitarist Cheetah Chrome joined the Dead Boys, while other members joined the Saucers. Lead singer David Thomas and guitarist Peter Laughner formed a new band in September 1975 for the purpose of recording one Rocket from the Tombs song to release as a single, recruiting guitarist Tom Herman, bass guitarist Tim Wright, drummer Scott Krauss, and synthesist Allen Ravenstine. They named the band after Père Ubu, the main character in French writer Alfred Jarry's 1896 avant-garde play Ubu Roi.

The band lived at the Plaza Apartments, located at 3206 Prospect Avenue in Downtown Cleveland; then owned by Ravenstine, the Plaza was also home to many other local artists.

Pere Ubu drew influences from proto-punk and mid-1960s rock artists like the Velvet Underground, the Stooges and MC5; 1960s progressive pop such as the Beach Boys and Van Dyke Parks; early electronic artists Silver Apples and Beaver & Krause; krautrock bands Can and Neu!; English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator; and Captain Beefheart.

In December 1975, the band released the single "30 Seconds Over Tokyo", inspired by the Doolittle Raid and named after the film of the same name. The B-side was "Heart of Darkness", inspired by Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella of the same name. The single was initially supposed to be the band's only release. David Thomas said:

Rocket From the Tombs ended very badly in the summer of '75. I wasn’t going to mess with a band anymore – I just wanted to leave something behind. My ambition was to have a record in one of those Salvation Army record bins which somebody could come across in ten years’ time and say: ‘Wow, there was this band in 1975 in Cleveland…

The band first performed live on December 31, 1975. On March 18, 1976, they released the single "Final Solution"/"Cloud 149." Guitarist Peter Laughner, who had been suffering from alcoholism and abusing other substances, left the group shortly after the release of the single. He would die of acute pancreatitis on June 22, 1977, aged 24.

"Street Waves" backed with "My Dark Ages (I Don't Get Around)" was released as a single on October 12, 1976. Mercury Records A&R representative Cliff Burnstein came across the single in a record store and persuaded the band to sign to Blank Records, a short-lived imprint of Mercury he was developing. Bassist Tim Wright left the band to join the New York-based no wave band DNA, and Tony Maimone was recruited as a replacement. On November 26, 1977, music journalist Jon Savage coined the term "post-punk" in Sounds magazine, to describe Ohio bands such as Devo and Pere Ubu alongside a variety of British groups.

Pere Ubu's debut album The Modern Dance was released in February 1978. The record featured a song by Peter Laughner and was recorded over several months between the band's early Hearpen singles. Most of the songs were written before work on the album began. The album sold poorly upon release, but was critically acclaimed and became influential on early alternative rock.

By late 1978, the band began recording their second album, Dub Housing, the title being inspired by a block of identical rowhouses in Baltimore as likened to the heavy use of delay in dub music. The album was recorded with the intention of creating a set of interconnected tracks that worked together as a cohesive whole. Dub Housing was released on November 17, 1978, through Chrysalis Records; it was ranked the thirteenth best album of 1978 by Sounds and later eighth by NME.

On September 19, 1979, Pere Ubu released New Picnic Time. Guitarist Tom Herman subsequently quit and the group briefly disbanded. It soon reformed with Mayo Thompson of Red Krayola, who had previously toured with the band in England in 1978.