Serpent Mounds

[s~Z]

Pere Ubu at the Knitting Factory.

Ohio is one of the stranger states in the union; perhaps the Indian serpent
mounds somehow affect the unconscious mind of its natives. All kinds of arty
weirdness have originated in the Buckeye state — Devo, Jim Jarmusch, Kim
Deal, Pere Ubu. Eighteen members have come and gone and come back again
during Pere Ubu’s scattered 25-year history, during which Ubu has influenced
everyone from Hüsker Dü to the Pixies. Forever sounding like they’re on the
brink of disaster — from their punkish 1978 debut Dub Housing to 1998’s
obtuse Pennsylvania — Pere Ubu are, in the words of vocalist David Thomas,
"custodians of the avant-garde," porch music for psychiatric hospitals. The
current incarnation — featuring original multi-instrumentalist Tom Herman,
who rejoined after a 20-year absence upon the 1996 release of the boxed set
Datapanik in the Year Zero (Geffen) — celebrates Pere Ubu’s silver
anniversary with a stop at the Knitting Factory. Frenetic and schizophrenic,
literary and absurd, David Thomas also premieres his one-man spoken-word
show, Surf’s Up in Bay City, at Beyond Baroque Friday night (see Readings
listing for details). (Skylaire Alfvegren)