Indeed. I'm no fan of Catholicism either, but Pope Francis seemed like a moderate compared to most of the others.cakes wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 7:35 amRemember, the one before was pretty terrible!jfv wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 7:21 amLOL
As a recovering Catholic, I have somewhat mixed feelings. Not sure if I could ever go so far as to say that I'll miss a Pope, but let's just say that it's likely that the next one will be worse.
Re: RIP v2 - still no cure for death
1384Goddamn, another American institution.
Rock music allows for so many bizarre personalities, strange voices, and general esoterica, and yet Dave still blew away the competition. I think everyone who hears him sing probably thinks the same thing, "is he gonna sound like this on every song??" But talking with both past and final (what a thought) members of Ubu, he was the prime mover, the guy who ensured that the band never keeled over, regardless as to what petty bullshit life threw at them. That he attempted to do spoken word/comedy/performance art after the initial breakup and later worked some of those routines into songs - well, shit, his calling was probably some sort of university theatre director, but thank god he and his oboe voice never gave up on rock 'n roll. Hopefully the ghoulish post-mortem reappraisal will "discover" the band's mid-90's work - St Arkansas is right behind their first two albums.
He co-fronted the 3rd greatest rock band ever, Rocket From The Tombs, and that was how he started an illustrious career in music. Was Hearpen Records the first time a rock band started their own record label to release their music as is, no stress from music's "commercial" suicide?
What a fucking guy. Requiescat.
Rock music allows for so many bizarre personalities, strange voices, and general esoterica, and yet Dave still blew away the competition. I think everyone who hears him sing probably thinks the same thing, "is he gonna sound like this on every song??" But talking with both past and final (what a thought) members of Ubu, he was the prime mover, the guy who ensured that the band never keeled over, regardless as to what petty bullshit life threw at them. That he attempted to do spoken word/comedy/performance art after the initial breakup and later worked some of those routines into songs - well, shit, his calling was probably some sort of university theatre director, but thank god he and his oboe voice never gave up on rock 'n roll. Hopefully the ghoulish post-mortem reappraisal will "discover" the band's mid-90's work - St Arkansas is right behind their first two albums.
He co-fronted the 3rd greatest rock band ever, Rocket From The Tombs, and that was how he started an illustrious career in music. Was Hearpen Records the first time a rock band started their own record label to release their music as is, no stress from music's "commercial" suicide?
What a fucking guy. Requiescat.
Re: RIP v2 - still no cure for death
1386Sad day indeed. I knew he'd been in poor health for some time, but those early RFTT and Pere Ubu albums were benchmark texts for me.
Re: RIP v2 - still no cure for death
1387David Thomas was awesome.
He was one of the greatest frontmen, and he did in two of the best bands I ever saw play live.
Super wide-ranging music, super flexible voice--which is saying something given how weird and formally constricted it was. Wide-ranging and unique world view. Capable of being very scabrous, very tender. Smart as hell.
Silkworm always felt like (maybe wished) Pere Ubu were kindred spirits somehow, and we listened to tons of their music in the late 80s-90s--everything from the early singles up through Tenement Year and Cloudland. I feel like I have some catching up to do.
Requiescat.
He was one of the greatest frontmen, and he did in two of the best bands I ever saw play live.
Super wide-ranging music, super flexible voice--which is saying something given how weird and formally constricted it was. Wide-ranging and unique world view. Capable of being very scabrous, very tender. Smart as hell.
Silkworm always felt like (maybe wished) Pere Ubu were kindred spirits somehow, and we listened to tons of their music in the late 80s-90s--everything from the early singles up through Tenement Year and Cloudland. I feel like I have some catching up to do.
Requiescat.
Re: RIP v2 - still no cure for death
1388i discovered pere ubu as cooking vinyl started to reissue their albums in the mid 90s, by which time i'd had a few years to imagine what they might sound like. i think i was 16 when i heard 'the modern dance' for the first time, and i knew i'd never be the same.
this rapt, open attention to the sound of rock'n'roll and what it could be persuaded to bear. the way his lyrics reflected and refracted other people's songs, as well as each other, across decades like the shards of mirror on the cover of bailing man. i think i fell in love with the articulacy of the man and his project as much as anything else - this is what we are, this is how we do it, this is what we're not going to do, this is what we're not prepared to settle for.
i saw them play just once, at the ica in london, for 'ubu roi'. sarah jane morris couldn't do the show so had been substituted with a stack of cardboard boxes with 'mere ubu' written on it. they played the album straight through - feeling like it might all violently disintegrate at any time - during "the story so far" he walked back upstage and lay down and sang this extraordinary wordless solo? howl? lament? - jesus, i don't know. i was afraid to try and meet them outside and i wish that i had.
some people's art gets right up in your imagination & your sense of self and looks around and says something like, "look over here! and over there! wow, look at that! what happens when we try this!?" his art did that for me.
'pennsylvania', 'why i hate/luv women', 'carnival of souls', all incredible.
this rapt, open attention to the sound of rock'n'roll and what it could be persuaded to bear. the way his lyrics reflected and refracted other people's songs, as well as each other, across decades like the shards of mirror on the cover of bailing man. i think i fell in love with the articulacy of the man and his project as much as anything else - this is what we are, this is how we do it, this is what we're not going to do, this is what we're not prepared to settle for.
i saw them play just once, at the ica in london, for 'ubu roi'. sarah jane morris couldn't do the show so had been substituted with a stack of cardboard boxes with 'mere ubu' written on it. they played the album straight through - feeling like it might all violently disintegrate at any time - during "the story so far" he walked back upstage and lay down and sang this extraordinary wordless solo? howl? lament? - jesus, i don't know. i was afraid to try and meet them outside and i wish that i had.
some people's art gets right up in your imagination & your sense of self and looks around and says something like, "look over here! and over there! wow, look at that! what happens when we try this!?" his art did that for me.
'pennsylvania', 'why i hate/luv women', 'carnival of souls', all incredible.
Re: RIP v2 - still no cure for death
1389My favorite memory of David Thomas was driving up from Oberlin to see Rocket from the Tombs (with Richard Lloyd in place of Peter Laughner) at Beachland Ballroom in 2006. That band had its share of strife, but on that night they (and especially Thomas) seemed absolutely delighted to tear through some 30-year-old songs to an appreciative crowd in their hometown. He grinned and laughed the whole night, delighted by the power of the band and the response of the audience.
That he managed to record a new record in his last weeks reminds me of John Grabski and our admiration for how that man lived and died.
That he managed to record a new record in his last weeks reminds me of John Grabski and our admiration for how that man lived and died.
dvockins wrote:
That is the most pretentious bullshit I have heard in the last three years and I live in Brooklyn.
That is the most pretentious bullshit I have heard in the last three years and I live in Brooklyn.
Re: RIP v2 - still no cure for death
1390Steve "Mongo" McMichael. Hopefully reunited with that little dog he used to dress up on Nitro.