Pere Ubu - Why I Hate Women

by Adam Wood

published: 15 / 10 / 2006

Label: Glitterhouse Records
Format: CD

intro

Irrestible, nervy latest album from durable Cleveland art punks, Pere Ubu

In 1978 the all American kickback began. The original Pere Ubu line up released 'The Modern Dance', an edgy, nervy kind of record that was the first in a surge of white paranoia. Headed by Ubu and Devo, America began hitting back at pop singers who attempted to sound like black soul artists and even the burgeoning New Wave that exhumed funk as the US East coast began its long climb into prosperity after the dirge of the mid 70's. For Ohio residents Pere Ubu and Devo, and to a lesser extent California’s the Residents, nothing could be further from reality than the funk and good times that were steadily reappearing. They were in the rust belt. The huge industries of Ohio and Michigan could no longer compete with a free market global economy and unemployment was rife. So Ubu set about exploiting new electronic music technology and deliberately sounding as white as possible as a way to expose their alienation from the mediated east coast semblance. Ever since their conception Ubu have traded on this peculiar whiteness and, despite various line up changes, have returned to form with the startling 'Why I Hate Women'. ‘Two Girls (One Bar)’ opens proceedings with a stabbing, Morse code drumbeat, succeeded by David Thomas’s haunted wailings, creating a bizarre juxtaposition of the melancholic and the desperate. 'Why I Hate Women' keeps the electronic squealing first heard on ‘Non Alignment Pact’ on 'The Modern Dance', a kind of piercing noise that reaffirms their separation from the mainstream. Probably one of Ubu’s best track in years is the death knell ‘Blue Velvet.’ Much like the film one may suppose it is named after, ‘Blue Velvet’ is a small town deformity, where the irrational subconscious can be heard in Robert Wheeler’s synth hostility, and whose remorse comes with echoes of Lynch and Badalamenti. That’s not to say that this record is of limited scope however. ‘Caroleen’ is an unrepentant early 90's wig out and ‘Flames Over Nebraska’ is a tentative step into electro country death. Pere Ubu have spent their entire career trying to scare off their audience and to enforce their separation from reality. Their quest to be devoid of feeling and to purge themselves of popular culture has made them a quite irresistible force.

Track Listing:-

1 Two Girls (One Bar)
2 Babylonian Warehouses
3 Blue Velvet
4 Caroleen
5 Flames Over Nebraska
6 Love Song
7 Mona
8 My Boyfriend's Back
9 Stolen Cadillac
10 Synth Farm
11 Texas Overture

Band Links:-

http://www.ubuprojex.com/
https://en-gb.facebook.com/official.ubu/
https://twitter.com/ubuprojex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pere_Ubu

Label Links:-

http://label.glitterhouse.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GlitterhouseRecords
https://twitter.com/glitterhouserec
https://www.youtube.com/user/GlitterhouseTV

interviews

Interview (2017)

Erick Mertz talks to David Thomas, the front man with influential alternative rock act Pere Ubu, about his group's experimental new album, ‘20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo’.

Interview (2012)

Interview (2009)

Interview (2008)

Interview with David Thomas (2006)

Interview with David Thomas (2005)

Interview with David Thomas (2004)

Interview (2004)

profiles

A Self-Indulgent Reflection on David Thomas (2025)

Pere Ubu - A Self-Indulgent Reflection on David Thomas

Mark Rowland reflects on four interviews with Pere Ubu’s notoriously cranky frontman David Thomas, who died in April.

live reviews

Musician, Leicester, 12/11/2014

Dave Goodwin at the Musician in Leicester watches Peru Ubu play a confrontational yet brilliant double set of experimental rock

Blackheath Halls, London, 27/2/2010

Islington Academy, London, 18/9/2005

favourite album

The Modern Dance (2006)

For our 'Re : View' slot, in which we look back on old albums, Mark Rowland writes about Pere Ubu's 1976 classic debut album 'The Modern Dance', which has recently been reisssued

Dub Housing (2002)

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