WHY I HATE WOMEN, PERE UBU¹S FIRST ALBUM IN FOUR YEARS,
WILL BE RELEASED ON SMOG VEIL RECORDS
national tour kicks off at UCLA¹s Royce Hall on October 29th
Chicago, IL, Tues., July 25, 2006 Smog Veil Records announces new Pere Ubu
release to street on September 19, 2006. National U.S. tour dates are
lined-up and the first show is confirmed for UCLA¹s Royce Hall on October
29th.
Why I Hate Women was produced by David Thomas and engineered by Paul Hamann
at Suma, Painesville OH (Grand Funk Railroad, The James Gang, The Outsiders,
Firehose, Wild Cherry) at various times during 2005, principally in October
and November. ³I don't use EQ in the mix stage,² Thomas notes. ³Over the
years Paul Hamann has invented and built a number of specialized microphones
for my use. They have names like The Box, The Fly's Eye, The Horn, The
West, The Phone and The Fan. These microphones² he elaborates ³are designed
to capture the sound of an instrument or voice in a very limited frequency
range.² He adds ³I don't like using 'store-bought' audio effects, so
the
effects are from room mics, a spring reverb from an old Hammond B-3, my
specialized microphones and maybe an echo plate.²
About the music, the title and the songs Thomas explains ³My work on an
album begins as a sound I hear in my head. I construct or intuit a back
story to that sonic framework. This back story is more or less detailed and
is peopled with characters. The purpose of the album then becomes to capture
a specific psychological moment from one of those characters² he details.
³Finally there is the album title. This is the last chance to shape the
envelope of that moment. The title came to me as I was sitting in my local
pub. Knowing what would lay ahead I was not happy. Weeks went by as I
searched in vain for an alternative.²
Frank Mauceri, head of Smog Veil Records is clear about why he wanted to be
involved with the band and this release: "The Songbook of American
Independent Rock Standards,³ Mauceri states ³if such a book exists, surely
lists Pere Ubu, immediately alongside Velvet Underground, as the progenitor
of a unique outsider sound. Instead of resting on those laurels, the band
expands the known universe with their new album, Why I Hate Women. While
maintaining an angular discordance, the band with Why I Hate Women
recognizes that fans do occasionally like to tap their toes and hum along
while questioning, 'what really is rock 'n' roll anyways?¹"
UbuProjex.net meticulously documents the band¹s history. A sample of the
exhaustive chronicling on this site is excerpted here: ³Pere Ubu burst upon
the scene in 1975 and changed the face of music. For over 27 years they've
defined the art of cult; refined the voice of the outsider; and influenced
the likes of Joy Division, Pixies, Husker Du, Henry Rollins, REM, the
Sisters of Mercy, Thomas Dolby, Bauhaus, Julian Cope and countless others.
They make music that is a disorienting mix of Midwestern riff rock, "found"
sound, analog synthesizers, falling-apart song structures and careening
vocals. The band¹s single, "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" b/w "Heart of
Darkness",
released in 1975, along with Television's "Little Johnny Jewel," signaled
the beginning of the New Wave movement.²
Pere Ubu has been written about by some of America and Europe¹s greatest
rock journalists. Rolling Stone Magazine noted "Pere Ubu have been
neglected pop geniuses for 20 years..." Contemporary music writers,
continue to discover and cover the band¹s evolution. Stylus recently wrote
"downright irresistible to even the most hardened fuck-all-that-art-wank
musical traditionalist." And Dusted.com concurs, opining "They've
since put
out music that's even more dry, frightening and violent than those early
years, so this record documents merely the first of many Ubu mood swings
between pop and noise." While blogger Jack Feeny head-scratchingly admits
"I've heard few albums quite so deliberately inaccessible as this one"
and
concludes ³an excellent fusion of punk and avant-garde art-rock."
Pere Ubu are David Thomas on vocals; Keith Moliné on guitar, backing vocals,
bass; Robert Wheeler on EML synthesizer, theremin; Michele Temple on bass,
lead vocal and Steve Mehlman on drums, clave, wood block. This is also the
line-up that will perform live on tour. On the album, Rodolphe Burger plays
stylophone on ³Texas Overture.² Robert Kidney plays lead guitar on ³Love
Song.² Jack Kidney plays harp on ³Blue Velvet² and tenor sax on ³Synth
Farm.² Andy Diagram plays trumpet on ³Mona.²
The eleven tracks on the album are 1. "Two Girls (One Bar)" (2:28), 2.
"Babylonian Warehouses" (4:27), 3. "Blue Velvet" (5:51), 4.
"Caroleen"
(4:21), 5. "Flames Over Nebraska" (2:07), 6. "Love Song" (6:08),
7. "Mona"
(2:47), 8. "My Boyfriend's Back" (0:57), 9. "Stolen Cadillac"
(6:14), 10.
"Synth Farm" (3:02) and 11. "Texas Overture" (6:12).
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 25 July 2006 21:14 (nineteen years ago)
Gah. Folks are going overboard on the "sexism" angle. And I'm a sensitive sort. I find Lily Allen's "Nan..." kind of disturbing in it's scalding lack of compassion. And the often-unremarked-upon sexism of a lot of contemporary music really bugs me (Early Man an exemplary offender).
But this isn't really sexism. It's "sexism." It's a deliberately sexist phrase presented for consideration. It seems intended to be read as "loaded," and even as self-critical.
I mean, look at Dave Thomas: he's not a handsome man. In light of that, and in light of his past work, the title comes across more as a mockery of self-loathing than as an unambiguous declaration of any kind.
Still, I agree that it's a stupid title. It'll repel a LOT more folks than it will attract. And I'm not sure that those it does attract will be worth the bother...
― fuckfuckingfuckedfucker (fuckfuckingfuckedfucker), Wednesday, 26 July 2006 12:21 (nineteen years ago)