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Last updated 6/17/09 David, to the band, "What if I were to ask you to..." The indefatigable R. Stevie Moore has recorded his version of Non-alignment Pact which can be heard here. Podcast The podcast series of 8 episodes from Pere Ubu's ground-breaking project "Bring Me The Head Of Ubu Roi" is up and running at www.hearpen.com, the band's own audio download web site. It can be subscribed to thru iTunes. A direct link to the podcast can be reached thru here. It bypasses the hearpen.com page which we assumed ubuprojex.net readers have visited numerous times already... The series of eight podcasts covers the first three acts of the six act radio play that was inspired by the songs on Pere Ubu's forthcoming Cooking Vinyl and Hearpen cd "Long Live Père Ubu!" (Release date: September 14). The idea to record a "radio play" was conceived as a way of managing the "silence" between songs in a concert set so that the spoken word is manipulated and mixed with electronic ambience and transformed into a unique musical style of its own. The script for the radio play, adapted by David Thomas from Alfred Jarry's "Ubu Roi" (King Ubu), is Version 2 of a theatrical production also called "Bring Me The Head Of Ubu Roi" that premiered in its original version at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, April 25 and 26 2008.
Embedded in the podcasts are songs from "Long Live Père Ubu!, as well as dialog and electronic ambience. Sarah Jane Morris (ex-Communards, Happy End) performs the role of Mère Ubu, partnering Thomas who performs as Père Ubu. Other members of the band supply the voices of other characters.
Jarry's proto-Absurdist stage play that gave the band its name, and supplied the inspiration for the songs on "Long Live Père Ubu!," had its premiere in Paris in 1896, provoking riots in the theatre and a national scandal. A vicious and satiric re-telling of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," Jarry's work lambastes do-gooder monsters and the survival of the Unfit.
Sez Bob Holman:
The UBU radio play is sheer genius! Who is Mere? She is up to you. And Bladdergas or whatever his name is -- outrageous. But it's youyouyou all over and under, the music farts and belches along the greasy path to belchpoland... Congratz... Sez Zouba:
"Long Live Père Ubu!"and i can't stop playing it over and over. Just - brilliant. I can't find superlatives enough and am intrigued and eager to hear the next episode. Cooking Vinyl will release the album September 14 in the UK, Europe and elsewhere. A US release has yet to be determined. The album is studio versions of the songs from Bring Me The Head Of Ubu Roi. The album was recorded at Suma over the period of January to September 2008. David Thomas produced and the augmented version of Pere Ubu recorded it: Keith Moliné, Robert Wheeler, Michele Temple, Steve Mehlman, Sarah Jane Morris and Gagarin.
The Quay Brothers animation that accompanied "March Of Greed" for "Bring Me The Head Of Ubu Roi" can be seen online at www.revver.com. Also viewable on www.vimeo.com. (The quality is better on either of these sites than on YouTube. www.revver.com allows an easy option for download.) The animation by The Brothers Quay was projected wide-screen, and impressively large, on the back wall of the stage as Pere Ubu performed "March Of Greed" and action took place on stage. Sarah Jane Morris is the featured singer.
The cd "Long Live Père Ubu!" can be pre-ordered.
As well a radio play version of the theatrical production has been completed, a massive effort that consumed vast quantities of time.In North America click here (tba soon). For the UK: Cooking Vinyl Store Play.com - best deal HMV - almost the best deal Amazon UK Ubu Spotting There is a rather startling incident reported by Charles Williams that comes from Grange Hill, a long-running UK TV drama series, broadcast in January 1979. Find it at the Ubu Spotting page. London Tickets On Sale The first tour date in support of "Long Live Père Ubu!" is at London's ICA on Friday, Sept 25. Tickets are on sale. Dates in europe are now starting to come in. Alexandre Horn, one of our French hyper-fans has heard LLPU and reports back:
From the early days..."The space of the sound seems to be infinite,(the localisation of the vocals appearence tends to be always a surprise), giving the listeners a real magical audio playground... another land of sounds, maybe bigger than before, a new UBU world sound." Miriam Linna, proto-Cle fixture and early member of The Cramps, has started a blog about the early days in Cle at http://www.kicksville66.blogspot.com. More from Charlie Dontsurf Charlie has updated the exhaustively complete www.ubudance.com with a new section called "Documents" that posts pdf files of historical Ubu press-kits, flyers, promo postcards, etc. Evidently, in France, citizens may commission vanity postage stamps that are good for sending letters. Charlie has commissioned a David Thomas stamp. And it works!!!!
GhoulardiThe NPR Ghoulardi program with a David Thomas interview is available as a stream or download at: http://studio360.org/episodes/2009/04/24. DIYZ Redux Cooking Vinyl will be releasing an updated version of the box set Datapanik In The Year Zero at some point this year. They have license rights in territories outside North America. The booklet and packaging have been redesigned by John Thompson. It is now a 4-cd set, including all songs from the studio albums from The Modern Dance to Song Of The Bailing Man. The original 2-track, quarter-inch analog mix tapes of all the albums have now been re-transferred to digital at 192khz / 24 bit resolution and re-mastered, after, of course, having been baked in the Suma oven to dry them out. A release page with complete details will appear on the site when release is imminent. Dub Housing Raves The re-mastered Cooking Vinyl reissue of Dub Housing is getting rave reviews. Cooking Vinyl released a re-mastered issue of Pere Ubu's second album on November 17 2008, the 30th anniversary of its first release. The original 2-track quarter-inch analog mix tape was baked in an oven to dry it out and re-digitized at 192hz / 24 bit resolution, the best quality resolution currently available. The detailing is significantly improved. The result was then mastered for cd audio in the control room in which it was recorded and mixed in 1978. The text "2008 Master" located on the tray card identifies the reissue. "Three decades on, the album's default setting... remains dark, twitchy and compellingly uncompromising." David Sheppard, Mojo, January 2009.
hearpen.com is the best source for MP3s of the new Dub Housing master. Nowhere on the web will you find audio quality as good."Fierce, strange... 30 years on, 'Dub Housing' still refuses to sit comfortably in any rock or punk canon." Rob Young, Uncut, January 2009. "You'll need to set some time aside to get into it, but once you have, it's never the same thing twice... the more you invest in this album the more you get out of it. Massively influential to those who must have heard it back then, the dramatic sound and proud exterior have stood the test of time." Adam Adshead, Clash, January 2009 issue. "In a 1978 dominated by the likes of Boston and a slow recovery from punk nihilism, this was just what the head doctor ordered." Tim Chester, NME, 11/15/08. "Looking backwards to see forwards, 'Dub Housing' is a telescope into the future. And we're still not there, 30 years later." Artrocker, December 2008. Selected #1 Re-release of 2008, January 2009. "'Dub Housing' still sounds extraordinary. It's like the Roxy Music who got rid of Ferry but kept Eno; it may not be glamorous but it's plentifully alluring." Steve Yates, The Word, Janury 2009. Earlier this year Cooking Vinyl issued a similarly re-digitized and mastered version of The Modern Dance, Pere Ubu's first album, released in February 1978. It can be identified by the text "2005 Master" on the tray card. Pere Ubu Facebook The web address to the Pere Ubu Facebook page is http://groups.to/pereubu/. Michael Gerzon Robert Charles Alexander has published a biography of the audio pioneer Michael Gerzon called Beyond Psychoacoustics. For an outline of Gerzon's work go to this site. hearpen.com Cooking Vinyl has kindly allowed hearpen.com to offer top quality MP3 downloads of the Dub Housing 2008 remaster (see below). It will become available in November. We prefer you buy the cd but recognize there's also a demand for the download. If you are unfamiliar with the hearpen.com site be aware that not only is it the only source for a range of live recordings, it also offers the best quality audio downloads of Pere Ubu (and related) recordings. If you are in the market for an Ubu Projex-related download this should be your first stop. Not only does your money go directly to the bands involved, but you are also assured of the best quality audio reproduction possible. There is a new release monthly (usually on the first Tuesday). Downloadable artwork is offered on all releases since August and we are gradually moving all album releases possible to the site. 3 Generations Photo of three generations of Ubu synth players. |
Buyer's Guide to Pere Ubu
For those wondering what to buy first, next or last.
Press Center
A good place to find information concerning Pere Ubu, David Thomas, Special Projex and other sources on the site. Pere Ubu Studio Albums David Thomas Albums Rocket From The Tombs
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