by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Pere Ubu - "414 Seconds" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Pere Ubu - "Free White" (MP3)

Pere Ubu at Le Poisson Rouge in 2010 (more by Ryan Muir)

After David Thomas teamed back up with Rocket from the Tombs for a new album in 2011, he returned to his position as leader of art punk veterans Pere Ubu for a new album, Lady From Shanghai, which came out earlier this year via Fire records (their first since 2009's Long Live Pere Ubu). If you haven't been keeping up with the band's recent material, David Thomas is the only original member remaining, but they still sound genuinely great. There's nothing as instantly classic as say, "The Modern Dance," on the new record, but it's terrifically weird and underproduced for any band, let alone one 30+ years into their career. You can purchase the album at the Fire Records webstore, listen on Spotify, and download two tracks from it above or stream them below.

The band were recently announced for Raleigh's Hopscotch Festival, and it's since been revealed that they will be touring North America around that time. The tour brings them to NYC for a show on September 12 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (5/3) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (5/1) at noon.

All currently known dates are listed, along with the song streams, below...

Continue reading "Pere Ubu released 'Lady from Shanghai,' touring (dates/MP3s)"

by Andrew Frisicano

David Thomas & Sarah Jane Morris (as Père & Mère Ubu)...

On Wednesday, December 2nd (tonight), Pere Ubu's David Thomas will be appearing at at New School's Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall (66 West 12th St, room 510; 6:30-8pm). The event will be part performance of material from Thomas's spoken word Ghost Line Diaries, part Q&A moderated by Greil Marcus, who's teaching an "Old Weird America" course at the school. The event is open to the public, and to quote from Thomas's UbuProjex site: "Supposedly $5 for non-New Schoolers but no one has ever seen it collected, we are told."

Greil Marcus appeared an an event at Columbia University in November. According to that university's paper, "over 100 people from everywhere on the spectrum of age, music taste, and knowledge of rock gathered to hear Marcus perform the play that was the basis for his book 'Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century.'"

Last year, David Thomas finally got around to adapting Ubu Roi, the 1896 surrealist play that he named his long-running post-punk band, Pere Ubu, after. His stage-show version of the play Bring Me The Head Of Ubu Roi, debuted in London 2008, and a studio release of the songs, dubbed "Long Live Père Ubu!," arrived in CD form this September. There's also a "Radio Play" version, the first half of which is streaming for free. The show had a European run in fall 2009 (a clip from a Paris stop is below) but still hasn't visited the North America. The only currently scheduled date is in Reims, France, on December 16th.

The show is accompanied by stop-motion animation from Brothers Quay. Their video of the hilarious, catchy, scene-setting "Song of the Grocery Police" and dystopic "March of Greed" are posted below...

Continue reading "New School professor Greil Marcus speaks to David Thomas of Pere Ubu who released 'Long Live Père Ubu!' "