Pere Ubu return
with their first new studio album for over three years in January 2013,
the thirty-fifth anniversary of the group’s debut (The Modern Dance). Lady From Shanghai will be released on Fire Records (home to Guided by Voices, Mission of Burma, Giant Sand, Bailterspace, Josephine Foster
and many others). The album ushers in a new era in the history of Pere
Ubu, with David Thomas and band continuing to provoke and shock
listeners, further establishing them as one of the most innovative,
progressive and important bands of all time.
Lady from Shanghai is an album of dance music – it is the Ubu Dance Party.
“The
dancer is the puppet of the dance,” says singer David Thomas. “It’s
long past time somebody puts an end to this abomination. Lady From Shanghai has fixed the problem.
“What is the problem? Dance encourages the body to move without permission.”
An accompanying book ‘Chinese Whispers: The Making of Lady From Shanghai‘ will be launched around the same time, extensively exploring the ideas and methods behind the recording.
The
Pere Ubu project was supposed to be an end, not a beginning. Assembled
in August 1975 to be the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young of the
Cleveland music underground, the plan was to record one, maybe two
singles and exist no more. Within months, however, those first
self-produced records were being snapped up in London, Paris,
Manchester, New York and Minneapolis. Pere Ubu was changing the face of
rock music. Over the next 34 years they defined the art of cult;
refined the voice of the outsider; and inspired the likes of Joy
Division, Pixies, Husker Du, Henry Rollins, REM, Sisters of Mercy, Thomas Dolby, Bauhaus, Julian Cope and countless others.
Pere
Ubu make a music that is a disorienting mix of midwestern groove rock,
“found” sound, analog synthesizers, falling-apart song structures and
careening vocals. It is a mix that has mesmerized critics, musicians
and fans for decades.
Previous Press:
“Yet
by 1978 they had achieved what no other group would even attempt,
before or since, they had become the world’s only expressionist
Rock‘n’Roll band, harnessing a range of rock and musique concrete
elements together in a sound which drew its power from, and worked on,
levels of consciousness previously untouched by popular music. The
music Ubu made in 1978 was heart and soul, body and mind, in one.” Andy Gill – NME
“Ubu
are generally regarded as the missing link between the Velvets and
punk. From the beginning they obviously understood the nuts and bolts
of popular music, and then loosened them.” Joe Cushley – Mojo
“They’re the greatest out-rock ‘n’ roll group of this millennium, and probably the next.” Edwin Pouncey – The Wire
Production Notes:
Produced by David Thomas.
Engineered by Paul Hamann.
Recorded at Suma (Painesville OH) and also at Nuke India Now (Hove) and Urban Iguana (NYC) studios.
Band:
David Thomas – vocals, piano, xiosynth, Korg iMS-20, Monotron, Roland 303, organ
Keith Moliné – guitar, bass
Robert Wheeler – EML synthesizer, Grendel Drone Commander, Korg iMS-20, SNM Cacophonator II
Gagarin – digital electronica, piano, organ
Michele Temple – bass, guitar, bells
Steve Mehlman – drums, vocals, organ
Darryl Boon – clarinet
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