BETRAYAL...

by David Thomas

Posted July 27 2021

For the last three months, Scott Krauss has been engaged in what I would describe as a hostile takeover bid for Ubu Projex. It's dependent on a publishing agreement with BMI signed by me when he was still a partner, along with myself and Jim Jones. That paperwork was never corrected by the manager at the time, who, in an email to BMI, fell on his sword taking responsibility for the oversight.

"Pere Ubu has always been based on trust," Allen Ravenstine.

When I founded the band in 1975, I had in mind a new way of organizing things. Pere Ubu would be a series of distinct and unrelated aggregations. It would not be a democracy. It would run according to rules and principles, like a republic. It would be a brotherhood of understanding, cooperation and, yes, trust.

Skip forward nearly twenty years...

Hypocrisy

In early 1994 Krauss quit the band. He declined to record the Raygun Suitcase album. I gave him a grace period for as long as possible in order to reconsider. Robert Wheeler was tasked with so informing him. Krauss had previously quit in January 1978 and then one or two weeks later asked to return. After a year and a half of silence and with a tour looming in October 1995, Jim Jones told Scott that he was out of the band. Nevertheless, Krauss noted in social media that he only found out via the internet. Recently in an email to Communex, however, Krauss noted that David and Jim had kicked him off the board of directors, i.e. out of the partnership.

On January 6 1990, the then partners Krauss, Tony Maimone, Jones and myself along with band member Eric Drew Feldman had a meeting, agreeing the Penny / Pound Principle.

"If an Ubu musician, partner or not, expects equal footing with other Ubu musicians he must be prepared to take the good with the bad. If he expects to be offered any and all Ubu work he must make himself exclusively available for any and all Ubu work. Once an Ubu musician, partner or not, makes himself unavailable for Ubu work he is liable to be replaced with no guarantee or assured expectation of reinstatement."

Two days later at another meeting of the same people, the Principle was clarified further:

"A person may not insist on the right to come and go as he pleases."

Link to PDF of the Minutes from January 6 and 8, distributed as Band Letter #30.

Soon afterwards, Chris Cutler was dropped from the band and partnership because his other activities prevented him from touring. Krauss was one of the directors who approved the action.

In 1992, Eric Feldman got himself into a muddle with his timing. He had booked to tour in The Pixies and, so, had to decline to attend the Story Of My Life sessions. He was dropped from the band. Krauss was one of the directors who approved the action.

In 1993, Tony Maimone got into a similar muddle when he booked to tour in They Might Be Giants and declined a Pere Ubu tour. He was dropped from the band and partnership. Krauss was one of the directors who approved the action.

At that point the remaining partners were Krauss, Jim Jones and myself.

From 1995 to 2021, Krauss had no meaningful interaction with Ubu Projex.

His obstructive claim with BMI is based on, either, that he is still a partner or his assertion that I claim to be the sole owner of Ubu Projex. Both false.

Tony Maimone, Allen Ravenstine, Tom Herman, Mayo Thompson, Robert Wheeler, Michele Temple, Chris Cutler, the beneficiary of both Tim Wright and Peter Laughner, Graham Dowdall, Keith Moliné, Anton Fier, Eric Drew Feldman, Darryl Boon, Steve Mehlman and Dave Cintron have all signed the June 20 2021 Agreement, which refutes the Krauss allegations.

The Krauss obstruction has caused the withholding of royalties payable to members of the band past and present and has prevented Ubu Projex from making good on a publishing sub-license.

At the heart of his efforts is a betrayal of trust and brotherhood.