Pere Ubu - J390 Degrees of
Simulated Stereo; Ubu Live: Volume
One' - (Rough Trade) - Now I ain't no
old-timer, but I remember when you
could hunt through a few of those high-
priced college record stores and, with a
little luck, find a Blank Records
pressing of Ubu's first album, The
Modern Dance (1977), in the cut-out
racks. Never mind anything like that
these days. No sir; we've seen Dance
become import-only on Mercury;
we've seen Chrysalis try a domestic
Dub Housing (1978) and then go with an
import-only New Picnic Time (1979);
and in the past year or so we've seen
390 DEGREES
OF
SIMULATED STER EO.
Pere Ubu
In
Cleveland,
London,
& Brussels.
UBU LIVE:
Volume One.
the British label Rough Trade pick up
the publishing and distribution rights to
pretty damn near the whole Ubu
catalogue.
OK? And we ain't even talking pre-,
1977 yet. The American listening public
has never liked (or, shall we say, that
the radio/record industry has never given
them the opportunity to like) Pere
Ubu's music (or Don Van Vliet's or the
Residents' for that matter). The first
edition of Pere Ubu (Pere Ubu 'A,' as
they refer to it) only lasted from
November 1975 to May 1976, in which
time they gigged-hard in the Cleveland
area and managed to release a 45 on
their own label (Hearthan), "Final
Solution"/"Cloud 149." It was
frightening hard rock out of the hear-
tland of the USA, and for years nobody
knew it existed.
I BRING UP all this "Encyclopedia
of Rock" stuff because this exciting
new UBU LIVE: Volume One is in part
a chronicle of the transition from Pere
Ubu 'A' to Pere Ubu 'B' (spanning July
1976 to September 1979). That transition
is the subject of a not-so-small con-
troversy. Purists have stuck up their
noses at Ubu's post-Dance polish and
production flash. Former Ubu band
members, such as Tim Wright (now
with DNA) have decried the can-
nibalizing of the songs they wrote with
the groun. and have sued tn nrevent

tneir release.
As a chronicle of Pere Ubu's 1975-76
transition, the new live album is flawed
in that though it contains a good num-
ber of songs written by Pere Ubu 'A,'
only three are actually performed by
Ubu 'A,' and they were recorded on a
portable tape machine, and the girl
next to me kept jumping around
and . ..
But as a compilation of live tracks,
Volume One is red hot. Most notable are
the three tunes from Dance (extended
versions of "Street Waves," "Real
World," and "Laughing"); a Pere Ubu
'A' performance of a previously -un-
released "Can't Believe It"; and the
three tunes from the Datapanik in the
Year Zero re-releases (a chilling "30
Seconds Over Tokyo," a rocking
"Heart of Darkness," and a riveting
"My Dark Ages"). Conspicuous in its
absence is the unequalled "Final
Solution."
THE QUALITY of many of these
recordings leaves much to be desired.
However, with the possible exception of
this version of "The Modern Dance,"
these performances can be so rare or
inspired as to transcend the poor sound.
Compiled by Ubu Communex, the Ubu
Live Series is made up of tapes recor-
ded by Pere Ubu's loyal following. It
will cover the Dub Housing and New
Picnic Time LPs on Volume Two, and
will bring us up to date with Pere Ubu
'C' (September 1979 to the present) on
Volume Three.
The Ubu Live Series is a working
example of how Pere Ubu has strove to
become a financially viable, yet un-
compromising musical force. It may
well be the method by which Ubu and
other artists such as Fred Frith,
Material, and Robert Fripp survive in
the 1980s-stay small, and stay in
touch. BillBrown

The Michicdan Doily-Tuesday, June 16, 1981-Page 7
Tom Petty
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers -
'Hard Promises' - (Backstreet) - Noabo n
doubt about it, somebody wa at to
make sure Tom Petty remains a star.
Every song on the new LP just strains
to be cataclysmic, and there's even a
superstar guest appearance by the
highly-marketable Stevie Nicks.
Thus the album is even more "ac-
cessible" (critical euphemism for -
"commercial") than Damn the Tor-
pedoes. Not that I'm accusing Petty of
selling out, you understand. Any guy The songs really don't deserve any
who makes the record company charge better treatment. Only during "Kings
$8.98 for an album they wanted to Road" does Petty come back out of the
charge $9.98 for can't be all bad. The doldrums. The tune is'a rocker with a
truth is, this one just ain't worth it at prophetic chorus: "I didn't know which
any price, way to go / I'm a new world boy on the
old Kings Road." Amen.
THE DAMN THING falls in that
irritating area between disgraceful and The second side is hopelessly mired
laudatory, that sort of no man's land in in Billy Joel truisms ("There's no one
which it is difficult either to like it or as honest as someone in pain"; "You
hate it without feeling remorse. It's gotta be careful what you dream") and
neither bad enough to inspire scorn nor wheezing, cliched melodies. Along the
good enough to inspire anything else. way we are treated to a latter-day Par-
For instance, there is nothing on the tridge Family love song ("A Thing
first side that is verifiably bad. Instead About You"), a duet with Stevie Nicks
it comes off as merely disappointing, in which Petty's voice is reduced from
and the first two songs even sound like wizgned wistfulness to a cravenly
vintage Petty. There's a jubilant snivel, and a pretentious piano ballad
willfulness to lines like "You take it on that asphyxiates on its own vacuity and
faith / You take in to the heart" that ends the album most inauspiciously.
makes "The Waiting" instantly
gratifying. It's reassuring to know that THE SONGS just aren't there, and
he still believes. Petty knows it. Thys the album lacks
both substance and conviction, the
Similarly, the anguish of "A Woman songs tend to blur, and certainly none of
In Love (It's Not Me)" is genuinely them are as distinctive as the finer
plaintive, despite the smarmy Pablo tunes on Damn the Torpedoes.
Cruise-y refrain. There's a wonderfully Enormous popularity tends to stifle
poignant moment when Petty the creativity of many rock 'n' rollers,
exasperatedly intones the finest lines of perhaps because they feel an obligation
the album: "Time after time, night af- to please their newly-won constituency,
ter night / She would look at me and say perhaps because they aren't as
she was lonely." Now that hurts, and miserable as they once were, or maybe
the bitter irony of the dilemma is ac- even because fame corrupts (then does
centuated by the flawless inflections of absolute fame corrupt absolutely?).
Petty's vocals. I'd prefer to believe this is simply a
transition album for Petty, that he
BUT THEN the album begins to fall hasn't fallen into any of the above
apart, as Petty desperately tries to traps, because he is currently the only
save doomed material from its deser- talented neo-Byrds artist in evidence.
ved fate. In general, the album simply You can almost hear the quirky leer of
loses its vitality. Petty's singing Roger McGuinn updated in tunes like
becomes monotonous, as he renders "The Waiting" and "Kings Road," but
love songs like "A Thing About You" 'it is rendered with an invigorating
with the same conviction and vigor as freshness that has characterized Pet-
ballads ("You Can Still-Change Your ty's music as long as he has continued
Mind") and a couple of curious oddities to grow. Hard Promises is the first time
about bad guys ("Something Big" and- he has stopped.
"Criminal Life"). Fred Schill

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