I don't remember anyone talking about these bands, or Rocket from the Tombs, around here. Any fans? I've only heard a few clips and have liked what I've heard. I think I'd like to check out some more. Any suggestions?

Rocket From The Tombs were one of those bands that were hugely important to a scene (Cleveland, in this case) but didn't get anything recorded to preserve their moment. The only original artifact (to my knowledge) is a live album that was recorded in a barn (and sounds like it).

RFTT's best-known members were Peter Laughner, Cheetah Chrome, and David Thomas. When the band broke up, Chrome joined Stiv Bators to form Frankenstein and Thomas formed Pere Ubu. Laughner tried to join Television, got turned down, then recorded a handful of barely-produced demos (that you can hear on Take The Guitar Player For A Ride), and then tragically died.

Pere Ubu came out of the gate with a classic The Modern Dance, which featured a few RFTT holdovers (most notably "30 Seconds Over Tokyo"). Right from the start, however, Pere Ubu weren't very interested in conventional song structures. Modern Dance is probably the best place to start, and the second album Dub Housing is pretty awesome - but it's got very little to do with what one would normally call rock music, or even punk. Their later stuff stayed fairly firmly in the strange as well.

In the meantime, Frankenstein noticed the up and coming punk explosion, cut their hair, and moved to NYC just in time for the Sire Records signing frenzy. They rechristened themselves the more punk-approved Dead Boys - and their first album Young, Loud, & Snotty was produced by hardass rock chick Genya Ravan (whose '78 album Urban Desire is worth searching for). There's a more raw version of the debut floating around called Younger, Louder, & Snottier. The 2nd, more polished album was We Have Come For Your Children. It's worth noting that the two best Dead Boys songs are easily "Sonic Reducer" and "Ain't It Fun", and both songs were RFTT leftovers. Personally, I've always found the Dead Boys to be pretty substandard punk, but if you like 'em there's a live album called Night of the Living Dead Boys that the faithful swear by.

And last year (or the year before), the surviving members of RFTT reconvened for Rocket Redux, on which they brought Television's Richard Lloyd along and finally recorded all the old RFTT tracks. It's surprisingly good, considering that 30 years had elapsed since the songs were written. And it sounds a lot like a throwback to the '70s, with every song featuring a guitar solo (or two).

I think that's all I can tell you. I'm probably not the best person for the task, though - seeing as I'm not much of a Dead Boys fan.

Appreciate the help, Rads. I figured if anyone would have an opinion, it would be you. I think I'm going to check out those first two Pere Ubu albums. I've only heard those two Dead Boys tracks myself (Sonic Reducer and Ain't It Fun), both of which I liked.

I had heard of RFTT pleny, but hadn't realized that they hadn't properly released an album in their existence. Crazy.

In Magnet a couple years ago they did a nice feature on Cleveland bands called Urban Legends and covered Rocket From The Tombs, Electric Eels, Mirrors and Pere Ubu (along with Dead Boys and Styrenes and some others to a lesser extent) and then had a page within the article, as they often do, listing some of the top albums of this scene and critiquing them. And at the end of talking about the Pere Ubu Terminal Tower collection (which I have and for the most part really like, although it certainly has a couple tunes that aren't tuneful at all) the writer says: Critic Simon Reynolds delineated early Ubu's off-kilter appeal perfectly: "They kicked ass, but at an oblique angle."

Anyway, I always liked that quote, and that early singles and b-sides collection, or one like it, is probably the way to go for a taste of what it was like. But like Rads says, the The Modern Dance is kind of a classic album. They were really a fresh sound back then. Still hard to pin down cause they were almost like punk art rock, which is a bit of a contradiction. But lots of early new wave music mixed conflicting elements. And David Thomas has always had a very unique voice and vision. Kind of like the Pixies at times, but not as melodic as they often were. And more synths. Maybe mixed with Can? The late 80s/early 90s albums are completely different with more of a brit-pop sound, but still pretty quirky cool. I like Worlds in Collision a lot, and have remarked in the past how much British Sea Power reminds me of these guys, which is a good thing for me and explains why I like them so much.

Don't overlook Ubu's late 80's/early 90's output. "Cloudland", "World's In Collision", "Story Of My Life", and "The Tenement Year" are excellent. If you can find a copy of the "Waiting For Mary" single, the b-side "Wine Dark Sparks" is phenomenal.

Yeah, Pere Ubu is one of those bands that falls by the wayside because so many bands copped their style of music. While I don't celebrate their catalog like I probably should, I appreciate what they did for indie music.

Just FYI...The Big Takeover just did a 2-issue exposure on Rocket From the Tombs, which really filled me in, exposed me to the band.

Nice...that's the kind of thing I was hoping to find. I'll check that out as well.

I have Terminal Tower/Dub Housing/The Modern Dance of Pere Ubu.
I have Young Loud and Snotty of the Dead Boys, and Stiv Bators-Disconnected. That's it. All very good.
I've been meaning to pull out the Stiv Bators recently. Worth checking out, all of it. And if you'd like I can load Stiv Bators to YSI sometime, within this week atleast, if you'd want to hear that album.

I'd love to hear that Dead Boys or Stiv Bators album, cp. Thanks!

I promise i'll get it to you, it won't be tonight and most likely won't be tomorrow because i'm working until 10 tomorrow night, but I can tell you it will be this week.

No sweat, whenever you've got the time. Thanks again.

Trivia note that everyone probably already knows: Stiv Bators was hit by a bus in Paris - but he was so coked up that he got back to his feet and walked to his apartment and died there.

http://ubuprojex.net/

info you may or may not want to check out.

I've seen Eric Drew Feldman of Pere Ubu perform live in two different incarnations of Frank Black's bands. He was hugely important in forming the sound of those first two FB solo records.

I think he also played some keys on The Pixies "Trompe Le Monde". I'm not real sure how those guys hooked up. Maybe they toured together or something?

That's all I got. I wouldnt mind hearing some good Dead Boys or Pere Ubu stuff Dump if you wanna share the links cp sends you.

I love early Pere Ubu (up through Dun Housing), and I really like two of those late '80s/early '90s albums that Billz mentioned, Tenement Year and Cloudland.

I don't like the Dead Boys at all.

I might also be able to hook some people up with some YSIs later. I have most of my Pere Ubu stuff on mp3 already. I also think I have that Dead Boys Young, Loud and Snotty thing.

Pere Ubu opened for the Pixies at a show I saw. Not sure whether it was the Doolittle Tour or the Bossanova Tour.

I didn't really know Pere Ubu at the time and didn't enjoy them live much so I've never checked out any of their records although its not unlikely that I might like their albums much more than their show.

I like that Young, Loud and Snotty album even if I basically agree with Rads that the Dead Boys are a lesser punk band from that era.

dude, same shit happened to me last night.

So in honor of this thread I pulled out the one Pere Ubu album I own, "Story of My Life" and was struck with how much Mike Watt's solo outings really emulate much of it. I got this album when my college radio station was giving away older albums, and said what the hell, spun it a few times around '98-99 and since then its sat. In the meantime, I've heard their other material, and as said above, appreciated it for what it was.

Tonight though, I really listened to the album and throughly enjoyed it. The Mike Watt thing, at least to me, was very much alive in how the lyrics were delivered (schools still out on whether Watt is emulating D.Boon's style), and the music. In any event, I'm kinda pissed off that I owned this for so long and gave it nary a glance.

I saw 'Cloudland' referenced a few times. This was their "pop" album , right?

I have the Peter Laughner demo collection -- Take the Guitar Player For a Ride -- from f4d4, I believe. (Anyone seen Paul lately?) And I love it. It's out of print, though.

And "Final Solution" just happened to come up randomly on my iTunes a couple of times last week. Awesome song.

That and Tenement Year are both pop to a large degree. I think there were videos from both albums that got some MTV airplay.

Both are very good, but they're out of print and go for up to about $30. If you're lucky (like me), though, you might just find one of them in a used bin.

*bump*

Hey, not sure if anyone is interested but was going through some old stuff and I thought I remembered picking up the "Kathleen" single from Pere Ubu waaaaaay back, and was correct. The cool thing about this, is that it is pretty much an interview disc, so it actually has stuff about PU and the Pixies/Frank Black. In fact, I think ol' Frank makes an appearance on some of the interview trax. If anyone is interested then let me know, and I'll upload it at some point.

i didn't completely forget about you. i just can't find the stiv bators album for the life of me. i'm planning on rearranging my cd collection today, so hopefully i'll find it then

No problem, I figured it was something like that. Thanks for keeping it in mind.

Kind of a side note, but I just picked up some new headphones yesterday (Beyerdynamic DT 770-80s for anyone who has ventured onto Head-Fi as I did), and the first album I tossed on was Pere Ubu's This Modern Dance on 180 gram vinyl. Let's just say it sounded pretty good .