Customer Reviews

St Arkansas

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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The creak and wobble in your speakers can only mean two things: 1. They're worn out - turn down those hits from the 80's!; or 2. The boys are back in town, but it's not OUR TOWN, and the neon above the bar will fry your brains. Pere Ubu, lead by the locomotive once christened Crocus Behemoth, reincarnated as David Thomas for the past 25 years, has again pulled into the station with this new album, and it's anyone's guess what happened to the caboose. This is the album to play when you want to annoy your neighbors at 4 a.m. This is the album to play when you need an excuse to check your door and window locks. This is the album to play whilst balancing on a unicycle with a Princess cake in one hand and a quart of rubbing alcohol in the other - it's sweet music, but you may sustain a flesh wound as you listen. With its Nathaniel West-esque title, "The Feverered Dream of Hernando DeSoto" is the sonic equivalent of passing time in a barrel full of monkeys. "Hell" is about as hushed and seductive as a David Lynch interlude - this should be the theme for that ubiquitous dwarf, whether he's in a red room or a blue storage closet. It makes you wonder how overrated heaven probably is. Pere Ubu's answer to "Desolation Row" (less a few hundred verses) and the last departure on this album, "Dark", in fact, may be that lost caboose, longer than the train that preceded it, with that clown David Thomas steering and waving (for this train is certainly running backwards). You wave back at him, knowing he could blow some righteous animal balloons, but remembering that John Wayne Gacey could, too.(Some will invariably compare this and other later Ubu releases to "Dub Housing"; beware that the music graveyard has now added security since The Pixies continue to be exhumed every time Frank Black puts out a new, great solo album. Please let the dead rest - what would their mothers say?).

This third installment of Pere Ubu's latest incarnation finds the avant garage rockers soldiering on into the new century with confidence and purpose. The music is much less varied here than with the previous two efforts, and almost sounds like it could have been recorded in one live basement session. Although certainly less spectacular than "Ray Gun Suitcase" or "Pennsylvania", "St. Arkansas" definitely has a satisfying quality to it that makes it a recommended addition to your collection. Things start off with the jaunty and up-beat (but, don't worry, still plenty skewed) "The Fevered Dream of Hernando DeSoto" and "Slow Walking Daddy". Then, we get into my favorite part of the album, which is the middle section - the meat in the sandwich, if you will. "Michele" and "Steve" are just gloriously crazed and menacing - my votes for best songs on the album. "333" and "Lisbon" are also great, and emerge as bizarre little travel vignettes (travel, especially of the road-trip variety, has always been a favorite Ubu topic). "Phone Home Jonah" is a fun surprise in that it's pretty much a straight-forward rocker, and actually rocks harder than anything they've ever done - ever! Things wane a bit at the end as the album seems to run out of steam, and that's probably why I can't give it a higher rating. However, there's still enough good stuff here to make it worth checking out. As a side note, when I lived in the northeast section of the land, I used to frequently ride the motorcycle over the wilds of western Pennsylvania. I'm sure I've been down US-322 numerous times, but I can't specifically recall the Moose Lodge (#2505, that is) 6 miles south of Meadville. If I'm ever back that way, I'll have to check and see if it's still there. I hear that they have a good cod dinner on Fridays, and a good steak dinner on Saturdays, each for only $5.95. My understanding is that I would be welcome. In fact, I hear-tell that YOU are also welcome.

This third installment of Pere Ubu's latest incarnation finds the avant garage rockers soldiering on into the new century with confidence and purpose. The music is much less varied here than with the previous two efforts, and almost sounds like it could have been recorded in one live basement session. Although certainly less spectacular than "Ray Gun Suitcase" or "Pennsylvania", "St. Arkansas" definitely has a satisfying quality to it that makes it a recommended addition to your collection. Things start off with the jaunty and up-beat (but, don't worry, still plenty skewed) "The Fevered Dream of Hernando DeSoto" and "Slow Walking Daddy". Then, we get into my favorite part of the album, which is the middle section - the meat in the sandwich, if you will. "Michele" and "Steve" are just gloriously crazed and menacing - my votes for best songs on the album. "333" and "Lisbon" are also great, and emerge as bizarre little travel vignettes (travel, especially of the road-trip variety, has always been a favorite Ubu topic). "Phone Home Jonah" is a fun surprise in that it's pretty much a straight-forward rocker, and actually rocks harder than anything they've ever done - ever! Things wane a bit at the end as the album seems to run out of steam, and that's probably why I can't give it a higher rating. However, there's still enough good stuff here to make it worth checking out. As a side note, when I lived in the northeast section of the land, I used to frequently ride the motorcycle over the wilds of western Pennsylvania. I'm sure I've been down US-322 numerous times, but I can't specifically recall the Moose Lodge (#2505, that is) 6 miles south of Meadville. If I'm ever back that way, I'll have to check and see if it's still there. I hear that they have a good cod dinner on Fridays, and a good steak dinner on Saturdays, each for only $5.95. My understanding is that I would be welcome. In fact, I hear-tell that YOU are also welcome.

Ubu return with another unsettling set. Always adventurous and worth hearing.

After almost 30 years of recording and almost 4 years since their last effort, Pere Ubu is back with a CD that is as good as anything since their first, great incarnation back in the late 70s and early 80s.

Unadorned and claustrophobic, St Arkansas contains more classic 30 Seconds Over Tokyo-like freakouts than we've heard in recent years, especially on the almost free-form Lisbon--a highlight. This may be due to the inclusion of original guitarist Tom Herman. Other highlights include the swaggering Slow Walking Daddy (which includes a lyrical reference to the final song Dark--a common Ubu tactic), Michele, 333, Steve and the harrowing Hell. The final track, the endless Dark, is in my opinion the weakest track, contrary to most reviews.

This is not the poppish Ubu of the Cloudland era; the band seems to have gone out of its way to create a box-like, garage sound. As a result St Arkansas comes off as more immediate than Ubu's previously two efforts, Pennsylvania and Ray Gun Suitcase, which were almost too expansive. David Thomas' vocal performance is as stong as its been in years, for the most part neglecting the mumbled, barely audible style he has used as of late. Long-time Ubu fans who may have wondered just what was left of that great, unforgettable voice will be pleased to know that Thomas voice has returned to....uhhhh.....normal.

At a manageable 40 minutes, St. Arkansas is the right length, as opposed to the 55 to 60 minutes running time that seems the norm these days. Its brevity helps it succeed.

Pere Ubu will probably never create another Dub Housing. The bizarro party vibe that permeated their early classic material is long gone. But this is a very impressive CD by a band that has shown an ability to jump-start itself when needed.

I'm a big fan of Pere Ubu and always look forward to a new release by them. But I've got to say, "St. Arkansas" left me cold. The earliest incarnation of Pere Ubu (late 70's/early 80's) produced some incredible albums ("The Modern Dance", "Dub Housing") but also a few so-so efforts, and this reminds me of the more lackluster albums from that period. In 1988 they reunited and produced 4 albums through 1993, all in a much more pop-ish vein, that I enjoyed immensely. In 1995 they turned away from pop with the brilliant "Ray Gun Suitcase", which called to mind the classic "Dub Housing" album from 1979. But I wasn't crazy about the follow-up, 1998's "Pennsylvania", and "St. Arkansas" continues the slide. The production sounds rushed, the instrumentation is surprisingly uninteresting, and after severals listens, only 4 songs ("The Fevered Dream Of Hernando SeDoto", "Slow Walking Daddy", "333", and "Steve") had begun to catch my ear. I would call these four songs OK, and the other 6 on the album all seem quite weak to me.