Unlike many great or once-great bands that have been around for 15 years or more, Pere Ubu isn`t out to recapture past glories.
”The point of Ubu always was that once you did `Final Solution,` you didn`t have to do it again, or anything like it,” says singer David Thomas, referring to one of the Cleveland group`s classic early singles, which has since been covered by numerous bands, most recently Living Colour.
”We are obsessed with the idea of not repeating ourselves, of finding new problems to solve. I think this is one significant reason why we`re still around, why we still can play rock music with great intensity and why we haven`t mellowed out to `Lite-Rock 105` or become new-age jazzbos.”
That intensity manifested itself in visionary singles such as ”Final Solution,” ”Non-Alignment Pact” and ”Heart of Darkness” and the albums
”Dub Housing” (1980) and ”The Art of Walking” (1981). Because of Allen Ravenstine`s otherworldly synthesizer squiggles and Thomas` voice, which ranged from whimsical squeaks to existential howls, the band was often categorized as ”art-rock,” much to its commercial detriment.
Ubu broke up in 1982, the members scattering to do various solo projects, then reassembled in 1987. On two subsequent albums, ”The Tenement Year” and ”Cloudland,” the band began to simplify its approach with more direct melodies and lyrics.
The recent ”Worlds in Collision” (Fontana) makes complete the transition to ”pop” production values (a more emphatic snare-drum, digitally opaque sound, conventional verse-chorus song structures) while retaining the essence of Ubu.
Producer Gil Norton ”summed it up the best when he told us he wanted to make a record that would emphasize the voice of Ubu-not my singing, but the poetry, the vision, the emotional language,” Thomas says.
”His contention was that we had a wonderful message, but that the medium tended to obscure it. Ubu`s music has always been heavily emotional, but it`s something that we thought hadn`t necessarily been emphasized enough, and we wanted to do a work that was very simply moving on that level, without embellishment.”
The best example of this approach is the album`s opening track, ”Oh Catherine,” a ravishing acoustic ballad.
Guitar player Jim Jones brought in the melody and ”the prospect was that it would become electrified and turned into a rock song,” Thomas says. ”But we were wise enough and to some degree courageous enough to say this is perfect as it is, let`s not turn back from the beautiful thing it is and scuzz it up. Obviously it was a great departure from our normal approach, but it was so beautiful that it had to be.”
Although the record sounds friendlier, more accessible, it retains a strong sense of place, a peculiar vision that is Pere Ubu`s alone.
”We developed out of an isolated urban pioneer community in Cleveland and we`ve always tried to maintain that isolation,” Thomas says. ”The point of art is to communicate and share hopes and dreams and fears with other people, but I believe the way you do that is by keeping your accent and keeping your local tie and your roots. I`m not sure there`s as much to share when you obliterate your roots.”
Thomas says the band clings to the belief that ”rock had incredible potential to be the language and poetry of the human experience.
”We are part of that generation that figuratively said to its forbears,
`Well done, esteemed forbears, people of the 1965-to-`70 realm, we will now build the roads, towns and villages of this land you`ve discovered.`
”If that was the revolution, then we`re deep into the Stalinist period now. But we`re rather naively holding on to the original idea.”
Pere Ubu-bassist Tony Maimone, keyboardist Eric Drew Feldman, drummer Scott Krauss, Jones and Thomas-will play the late show Saturday at Cabaret Metro, 3730 N. Clark St., with the Posies and 13 Engines.
– Elvis Costello rips into one of his heroes on ”The Other Side of Summer,” the opening track of his new album, ”Mighty Like a Rose.”
In the midst of a satiric Beach Boys-style ”summer fun” tune, Costello makes a clear reference to John Lennon`s 1971 song ”Imagine” when he sings, ”Was it a millionaire who said `imagine no possessions`?/A poor little schoolboy who said `we don`t need no lessons`?”
”I think `Imagine` is a dumb song,” Costello said from Los Angeles a few days ago, where he was preparing for appearances Friday at Alpine Valley and Saturday at the World Music Theatre.
”I don`t have any other startling insights to make. I think the problem is there are too many insights-everybody`s got a bloody opinion about everything, everybody`s got a solution. I`m just making fun of it all.
”Heaven knows you can hear it on a lot of other things I`ve done how much I love and respect Lennon. His work was great, but that particular song I don`t think he thought it out. Or maybe he did, but I`m entitled to my opinion.
”When you have nothing, you can say that you imagine nothing, and when you`ve got the opportunity to learn, then you`ve got the luxury or the privilege to say you don`t need education. I`m not saying education is perfect, but it`s such an inane statement, a slogan for idiocy.
”Rock `n` roll has this inherent rebellion, but it also confuses freedom for license a lot, which is dangerous. It doesn`t have any responsibility to itself. These attitudes are self-perpetuating myths and some of them are quite destructive.”
– Mea culpa: Singer-guitarist Mike Reilly, recently added to the lineup of the Drovers, continues to rock with the Ikes, formerly the Eisenhowers, contrary to what was reported in this column May 23.
– Prince is planning his first U.S. tour in three years to follow the release of a new album, ”Diamonds and Pearls,” on Aug. 27. A single,
”Cream,” is scheduled for release in mid-July.
