Band member changes, a five year hiatus and multiple side projects. Pere Ubu is probably classified more as a musical group than an out-and-out band. With the new album 20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo, how will we find the most recent material from this dysfunctional group?
Sex clowns bounce around. Yes, you read it correctly. Monkeys and clowns for what it’s worth. These are the key sets of lyrics you’ll hear upon launching yourself into “Monkey Bizness”. The song outside of the, ahem, surreal lyrics remains fairly fascinating. The guitar riff remains brazenly punk with a repetitive riff whilst garage and electronic elements and layered over the top to create a lighter and stranger environment for the rest of the track.
“Toe to Toe” replicates the same vibe found here in a fast and furious track seated just below the two-minute mark. The influences here from early punk are clear and prescient; it’s a fairly welcome throwback.
Showing off their mid-Western roots, Funk 49 starts by dropping into a soulful riff with rich bass coupled with a warm baritone voice emanating from David Thomas, lead singer and only constant member of the band since it’s conception in 1975. Immediately following this 1:49 track is “Prison of the Senses”. At just over two minutes, it’s not much longer in terms of listening time, although it does lurch straight from soul into garage-electronic again.
And so goes the rest of the album, lurching and disjointed.
“The Healer” is one of the only songs on the 12 track, 33 minute album that manages to break the classic three minute mark of most traditional song releases, well pop at least. Coming off of the somewhat crazed coat-tails of the first four tracks, which exemplify the self-described ‘avant-garage’ sound that Pere Ubu have created, The Healer is a surprisingly soft and emotive acoustic track, which does a great job of showcasing that Pere Ubu is not a one-trick pony.
However, this reprieve is the last of any real length in the album. Whilst we are granted some excellent shows of blues from the band is the form of “Red Eye Blues”, Swampland and even Howl, if we’re being generous, that it where it ends. Where these tracks do wonders to blend the madness that is Pere Ubu with a more traditional setting, at least providing some form of solid ground for them to leap from, the rest of the tracks do little to impress.
Two of the most damaging tracks to the album’s structure come in the form of “Plan from Frag 9” and “I Can Still See”. Now in fairness to the band, they have outright stated that they have taken influence from Musique concrète. A musical form that until listening up on the band, this reviewer had no experience of, but listen I did and research I did.
The findings displayed that although it was weird and a little uncomfortable at points, it was at least structured and retained a discipline amongst the unorthodox techniques and sounds that are employed in its production. Pere Ubu, do not adhere to this.
The band is classified as underground and with two charting singles over 16 studio albums since 1978 that seems to be a badge they’re fiercely clinging to. It’s fine to be contrary to the grain in the music industry, many bands have inadvertently flung themselves to fame by being different, it’s what musicians strive for to be different and be recognised as such. However, being contrary simply for the sake of assuming that stance is liable to keep you underground. If people were still convinced that Morrissey was the ‘King of Hipsters’ for his maudlin lyrics and attitude and deviance from the music scene as a whole, I think we’ve found a competitor for him in the form of Pere Ubu as a collective.
Overall 20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo probably could’ve done with a few more…
Author: Steve, Southgate Store
