It was bound to happen eventually. I find myself in my local record store and nothing I had come there to find was in stock. Going through the vinyl bins three times I feel compelled to buy something, as I always do when I go there, just to support them. I had heard the name Pere Ubu before, specifically in the Looking For A Thrill DVD that Thrill Jockey put out a few years ago. Anyway, they had Dub Housing in the Punk section and I like to take gambles on music sometimes.
I think I can now relate to how people felt in 1978 when they heard this album because they had little-to-no expectation about it, just as I did. There is very little in music like Pere Ubu--Captain Beefheart is a reference point, but it's also a misleading one. Of all the new wave/post-punk bands I've heard, Pere Ubu is easily the strangest and most interesting at the same time. Within very specific genres certain bands will transcend and make something both of its time and essentially timeless. That is Dub Housing.
Every element of the sound of Dub Housing is essential to its greatness. David Thomas's vocals are impassioned, strained, strange, and deranged. His delivery, cadence, and lyrics are all his own. Guitars chime, clang, and distort to the point of unintelligibility. The bass and drums keep an effectively grooving and cathartic warped playground tempo. The juxtaposition of almost cheesey organ lines with some of the most brilliant, original, and frankly fucked up synthesizer sounds I've ever heard is the lynchpin of the album's sound. Little touches like the sparing use of saxophone and sound effects also add to the bizarre soup of sound.
It's safe to say that songs like 'Drinking Wine Spodyody' and 'Caligari's Mirror' are two of the album's best, so sample these if you're at all curious about this band. The former is one of those songs that shouldn't be catchy but is, with its off kilter, angular playing and vocal tics from David Thomas. 'Caligari's Mirror' borrows from the "what should we do with a drunken sailor" mariner's song to great effect. And I would be doing a disservice to the album if I didn't mention the two instrumentals, 'Thriller!' and 'Blow Daddy-o' which push the band's instruments to their limits, from the psychedelic, backwards guitar of 'Thriller!' to the synthesizer/noise loop that runs throughout 'Blow Daddy-o.'
The true tests of an album's greatness are its longevity and timelessness. And in those regards, Dub Housing is a brilliant piece of art: people are still discovering this band and being influenced by it, and it still sounds both fresh and belonging to no certain era or movement.
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