David Thomas, the live-wire frontman for experimental rockers Pere Ubu, has died. He was 71.
Thomas “died in his home town of Brighton & Hove, with his wife and youngest stepdaughter by his side,” the assertion continued. “MC5 were playing on the radio. He will ultimately be returned to his home, the farm in Pennsylvania, where he insisted he was to be ‘thrown in the barn.’”
Thomas, born in Miami, was a pivotal determine in Cleveland’s experimental rock underground (a scene that might go on yield the Useless Boys, Devo and 9 Inch Nails). Thomas first got here to prominence within the group Rocket From the Tombs, which, regardless of by no means recording an album, grew to become an influential act domestically in its transient tenure. Recognized for his near-falsetto excessive voice and contrarian fondness for professorial fits onstage, Thomas minimize as distinct a determine onstage as his music did on report.
David Thomas, heart, with Pere Ubu at Vaartkapoen, Brussels, in 1993.
(Gie Knaeps / Getty Photos)
A number of Rocket From the Tombs members break up off to type Pere Ubu — named after a play by French author Alfred Jarry — in 1975. The band was wildly progressive for its period (and continues to sound bracing in the present day), forgoing the sneering blasts of the simmering punk motion for arty dissonance, paired with ponderous rhythms, affection for B-movie soundtracks and Thomas’ idiosyncratic, sung-spoken literary allusions and bruised poetry.
The group’s 1978 LP, “The Modern Dance,” was a landmark of post-punk and new wave ambition that arrived simply as punk itself crested within the U.S. Whereas by no means a business success throughout its preliminary run from 1975 to 1982, Pere Ubu would encourage generations of experimental rockers and producers, and re-formed through the years with a revolving lineup round Thomas. The group recorded 19 studio albums, together with its extremely regarded 1978 LP, “Dub Housing,” and 1979’s “New Picnic Time,” a demanding and abrasive report that helped encourage acts like Sonic Youth.
Thomas’ solo profession included collaborations with singer-songwriter Richard Thompson and “Saturday Night Live” music producer Hal Willner.
New Pere Ubu music could come posthumously. “David Thomas and his band have been recording a new album. He knew it was to be his last,” Pere Ubu wrote on Fb. “We will endeavour to continue with mixing and finalising the new album so that his last music is available to all. … His autobiography was nearly completed and we will finish that for him.
“We’ll leave you with his own words, which sums up who he was better than we can,” the band’s assertion continued. “‘My name is David F— Thomas … and I’m the lead singer of the best f— rock n roll band in the world.’”
