- Apocalypse Now
- My Theory Of Spontaneous Simultude
- Life Of Riley
- Wine Dark Sparks
- Heaven
- Worlds In Collision
- Cry Cry Cry
- Non-alignment Pact
- Caligari's Mirror
- Invisible Man
- We Have The Technology
- Humor Me
- Busman's Honeymoon
- Oh Catherine
- Misery Goats
Pere Ubu
Apocalypse Now
Released August 22 1999.Out of print.
Release Notes
Apocaypse Now captures a very rare event - a band at the peak of its powers playing the perfect place on a perfect night in front of a wildly enthusiastic audience. It doesn't happen often with bands - a night when all the pains and squabbles are forgotten, when caution is thrown to the wind, when musicians are able to revel in the simple joy of the moment... together. When it happens with one of the great rock bands of our day the results are memorable.In the fall of 1991, Pere Ubu was touring America with The Pixies. On December 7 the band spent an off-day in Chicago, playing a small club called Shuba's. For fun, with acoustic guitars and an out-of-tune honky-tonk piano. The show was recorded two-track digital with two room mics and a DAT recorder. John Thompson designed the artwork. David Thomas and Jim Jones mastered it at Suma with Paul Hamann engineering.
Pere Ubu (v.6.1):
- David Thomas - vocals, radio, swirl horn
- Jim Jones - acoustic guitar, rat pedal
- Eric Drew Feldman - honky tonk upright piano
- Tony Maimone - acoustic guitar, electric bass
- Scott Krauss - drums, percussion
Release History
- Cooking Vinyl Records COOK CD185 (UK) Aug 22 1999 cd.
- Thirsty Ear Records thi57074.2 (US) Aug 24 1999 cd.
- S4 Records 496448 2 (Italy) cd.
- Bomba Records BOM22108 (Japan) Oct 24 1999 cd.
Press Reaction
Melody Maker, Sep 4 1999One of the most essential of Ubu's myriad releases.... The world's oddest band live in '91, where the punters, one presumes, stand slack jawed throughout.
Greil Marcus, Salon, 9/20/99
With melodies rising out of the clattering sound like the modal themes of old folk songs, the effect is stirring, Cleveland punks more than 15 years down the road with no lessening of their conviction that they have been chosen to change the world, laughing at how little they've been changed by it.
Jim DeRogatis, "Reasons for Living", LAUNCH
In 1991, the reunited Pere Ubu was at the height of its powers... On an off night while touring with the Pixies, the group pulled into the Shuba's, a homey and great-sounding Chicago rock club, and proceeded to run through a mostly acoustic set... [The] lineup is my contender for the band's best ever, and it tears through tunes ranging from "Non-Alignment Pact" and "Heaven" to "Oh Catherine" and "We Have The Technology," underscoring once more that Pere Ubu was and is a rock band for the ages.
The Wire, Oct 1999, p.59 "Possibly the best avant-bar band in the world..." -
Paul Verna, Billboard, Sep 18 1999
"Sometimes the best records drop completely unexpectedly. Recorded in 1991, this mostly acoustic Chicago show by new wave pioneers Pere Ubu is a small masterpiece of spontaneous rock. Listen to any one of these witty, wigged-out songs, and you'll hear more invention than most current bands put into whole albums. "My Theory of Spontaneous Simultude" slinks with sophisticated hilarity, while the classic "Non-Alignment Pact" simply rocks. "Worlds In Collision" and "We Have The Technology" are further examples of Pere Ubu's skewed pop genius." -
Alternative Press, Dec 1999, pp.113-4
"...highlighted by David Thomas' exuberant, caterwauling vocals and cheeky between-song banter and the band's patently unorthodox numbers....It all adds up to high art, and more importantly, great fun."
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