Pere Ubu

It took 30 years for Pere Ubu to embrace its destiny. Born out of the industrial wastes of Cleveland, the protean avant-rock ensemble has tried its hand at apocalyptic drones, brittle minimalism and even mildly disturbed pop. But its 14th album, "Long Live Père Ubu!," released last week, is the first to explore the source of the band's name: Alfred Jarry's absurdist 1896 play "Ubu Roi." David Thomas, the band's singer and only constant member, had been approached many times about adapting the play, which centers on a grotesque, corpulent Polish despot named Père Ubu and his ambitious, conniving wife.

It took 30 years for Pere Ubu to embrace its destiny. Born out of the industrial wastes of Cleveland, the protean avant-rock ensemble has tried its hand at apocalyptic drones, brittle minimalism and even mildly disturbed pop. But its 14th album, "Long Live Père Ubu!," released last week, is the first to explore the source of the band's name: Alfred Jarry's absurdist 1896 play "Ubu Roi." David Thomas, the band's singer and only constant member, had been approached many times about adapting the play, which centers on a grotesque, corpulent Polish despot named Père Ubu and his ambitious, conniving wife.

Is the rock world finally ready for Pere Ubu? The critically acclaimed sextet from Cleveland, which finishes a two-night stand at Club Lingerie tonight--its first local appearance since re-forming in 1986--was a genuine punk-era innovator with its stimulating balance of gut-punch rock and unconventional sonic blasts. But so much attention was focused on the latter element during the group's first incarnation that Pere Ubu was usually portrayed as impenetrably bizarre.

If there was a band destined to provide new music for the 1963 science-fiction movie "X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes," it was Pere Ubu. An exemplar of idiosyncratic, innovative avant-rock for three decades, give or take a hiatus or two, the Cleveland group has a profound affinity for pop culture and the stratum of exploitative entertainment represented by a movie generally regarded as one of the best products of director Roger Corman's horror and fantasy factory.

"We are this cup," said a slightly agitated David Thomas, holding up a Styrofoam vessel to represent the perception-vs.-reality dilemma his band Pere Ubu has faced since it formed in Cleveland in the pre-punk mid-'70s. "We did 'The Modern Dance' and you say, 'Yeah, that's Pere Ubu,' " he said, referring to the band's 1978 debut album. "That's like just looking at the bottom of the cup. The bottom's not very pretty, no one sells it by showing the bottom, though it's a very important part.

Pere Ubu was a band designed from the outset to do things differently. Founded in Cleveland in 1975, named for the lead character in the Dadaist play, "Ubu Roi," the band succeeded in taking homey old garage rock in striking new directions. Along with such contemporaries as Television and the nascent Talking Heads, Ubu brought a refreshing strangeness to rock that has kept on resonating in rock's more adventurous, less blatantly commercialized wing.

"Home" was more or less the theme of Pere Ubu's concert Thursday at the Roxy. But given that it was Pere Ubu, the highly original and highly influential band that emerged out of Cleveland in the mid-'70s, this view of home had a slightly skewed perspective: "We spell it H-O-L-L-M-J," announced singer David Thomas cryptically. At this show, the Ubu domicile contained more than enough hooks to hang your hat on.

"From our point of view, this has been two steps short of a disaster," singer David Thomas informed the Roxy audience at the end of Pere Ubu's show Thursday. That probably came as news to most of the crowd, who had seemed to enjoy the veteran Cleveland band's accessible but still quirky brand of pop-rock. "This isn't how rock 'n' roll's supposed to be," the rotund Thomas continued. But, perhaps overreacting, he abandoned his lecture in exasperation when the crowd wouldn't keep quiet.

If there was a band destined to provide new music for the 1963 science-fiction movie "X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes," it was Pere Ubu. An exemplar of idiosyncratic, innovative avant-rock for three decades, give or take a hiatus or two, the Cleveland group has a profound affinity for pop culture and the stratum of exploitative entertainment represented by a movie generally regarded as one of the best products of director Roger Corman's horror and fantasy factory.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame probably isn't hip enough to induct these hometown heroes from Cleveland, but Pere Ubu long has held a secure spot on the alternative-rock honor roll. Along with Television and Talking Heads, Pere Ubu emerged in the mid-'70s to fan the commercially invisible dark flame first ignited in the '60s by the Velvet Underground. Now, alternative rock is a fairly raging fire that makes newer, less-deserving bands incredibly rich.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame probably isn't hip enough to induct these hometown heroes from Cleveland, but Pere Ubu long has held a secure spot on the alternative-rock honor roll. Along with Television and Talking Heads, Pere Ubu emerged in the mid-'70s to fan the commercially invisible dark flame first ignited in the '60s by the Velvet Underground. Now, alternative rock is a fairly raging fire that makes newer, less-deserving bands incredibly rich.

"From our point of view, this has been two steps short of a disaster," singer David Thomas informed the Roxy audience at the end of Pere Ubu's show Thursday. That probably came as news to most of the crowd, who had seemed to enjoy the veteran Cleveland band's accessible but still quirky brand of pop-rock. "This isn't how rock 'n' roll's supposed to be," the rotund Thomas continued. But, perhaps overreacting, he abandoned his lecture in exasperation when the crowd wouldn't keep quiet.

At the end of Pere Ubu's show at the Roxy Thursday, singer David Thomas informed the audience: "From our point of view, this has been two steps short of a disaster." That probably came as news to most of the crowd, who had seemed to enjoy the veteran Cleveland band's accessible but still quirky brand of pop-rock. But, continued the rotund Thomas, who brings the group to Bogart's in Long Beach tonight, "this isn't how rock 'n' roll's supposed to be."

For a doomed enterprise, Pere Ubu hasn't done so badly. As singer David Thomas tells it, the band was doomed--his term--from its inception in Cleveland back in 1975. It courted that doom, Thomas says, by harboring revolutionary hopes for rock music.

Pere Ubu was a band designed from the outset to do things differently. Founded in Cleveland in 1975, named for the lead character in the Dadaist play, "Ubu Roi," the band succeeded in taking homey old garage rock in striking new directions. Along with such contemporaries as Television and the nascent Talking Heads, Ubu brought a refreshing strangeness to rock that has kept on resonating in rock's more adventurous, less blatantly commercialized wing.

"Home" was more or less the theme of Pere Ubu's concert Thursday at the Roxy. But given that it was Pere Ubu, the highly original and highly influential band that emerged out of Cleveland in the mid-'70s, this view of home had a slightly skewed perspective: "We spell it H-O-L-L-M-J," announced singer David Thomas cryptically. At this show, the Ubu domicile contained more than enough hooks to hang your hat on.

For a doomed enterprise, Pere Ubu hasn't done so badly. As singer David Thomas tells it, the band was doomed--his term--from its inception in Cleveland back in 1975. It courted that doom, Thomas says, by harboring revolutionary hopes for rock music.

"We are this cup," said a slightly agitated David Thomas, holding up a Styrofoam vessel to represent the perception-vs.-reality dilemma his band Pere Ubu has faced since it formed in Cleveland in the pre-punk mid-'70s. "We did 'The Modern Dance' and you say, 'Yeah, that's Pere Ubu,' " he said, referring to the band's 1978 debut album. "That's like just looking at the bottom of the cup. The bottom's not very pretty, no one sells it by showing the bottom, though it's a very important part.