Pere Ubu - Birdies (Urgh! A Music War)

[tdp6]

Never got into them. Too deliberate.

[TheKarlock]

I didn't Know Glen Shadix was a singer!

[ElDreamMachine]

Love it too :) Long live Père Ubu !

[cosmicgeorges]

Love it, love him !..

[americandiscocrash]

is this the exotic birds?

[tambocha]

By christ, what a great movie. It changed my life completely back in 1982. 

[scottybroker]

Is this a joke?

[gewglesux]

@scottybroker Nope! it's pere UBU!

[SolsburyHill22]

@scottybroker nope, legit.

[WheresPoochie]

This documentary needs to be re-released ASAP.

[universalsingularity]

He's what David Byrne would have been if he were as big as he wanted to be. I mean literally, as in size. He didn't have to wear a big suit, it was already big ^^

[rhbxyz]

Beyond Brilliance!!!

[dillinger9999]

i never heard of this band WOW bad ass

[clambake444]

Thanks, An impossibly great song IMHO. Dave connects, communicates genuine pathos and humor. Saw him live not too many years ago. The band tore off the roof and knocked down the walls yet Dave was touching, moving, personable.

[Kakophilia]

great basslines ever!

[Threeballer97]

I started watching this and I thought this was terrible music.

Now after watching it ten times, I'm telling myself that the birdies are singing what I wanna sing over and over throughout my day.

[SeafloorReunion]

Hey...I was just goin over there too...maybe we could talk?

[st0ner65]

Brilliant, brings back some memories. I love this live version, the bass is fantastic on it.

[footscraysteve]

yes actually im a long time B P fan and if your ever heard nick singing, This is the end but where still living, sounds very close

[nojrevned]

TO MILETHEBOY AND SAMUELPONY, HOW DO YOU EVEN COMPARE PERE UBU AND THE BIRTHDAY PARTY? ONE IS BRUTALLY CONFRONTATIONAL AND THE OTHER IS.....! OH YEAH! NEVER MIND

[earinsound]

@nojrevned

that's what i thought--i do NOT see the connection whatsoever. the birthday party are brutal and junked-out, pere ubu are like eccentric librarians with guitars.

[Berwynvampire]

It's not hard to trace the lineage of bands like Arab on Radar back to Pere Ubu... Good stuff and the roots of a ton of true modern underground music.

[TheGeneralSkater]

my dad  made me look this up........lol

[Bengbusen]

haha great stuff!

[FlyingDoctor1988]

i feel red krayola within pere ubu.

[CludzyMasta]

well its different.

[andrewlewis963]

saw him in a converted church in salisbury a few years ago just brilliant

[RebelSpiritof77]

In the vein of David Byrne meets the Meat Puppets

[FrancoDamn]

The singers looks like Curly from 3 Stooges

[momominnosh]

Fabulous! Thank You for Posting!

[SamuelPony]

@momominnosh

You are so very welcome. I love it too.

[Caligula138]

This music is to comical /hokey for me...

[polistyrenejassband]

@Caligula138 musics the best part especially good for orgies and murder

[Caligula138]

@polistyrenejassband My Orgy & Murder playlist sounds100 times better than this.

[geminirat60]

reminds me of zappa

[melomane2010]

Urgh! A Music War had some really great moments that introduced me to a lot of music a kid from Chicago just never got to hear. A buddy from LA when I was in the USAF introduced me to to it, and I still find the performances inspiring.

This song probably wins hands down as one of the strangest songs I had heard up to that point in my life, but I love the manic passion of it

[tatehemlock]

Capt Beefheart anyone??!?! Pere Ubu and the Birthday Party both had that Beefheart influence and both took it in new and AWESOME directions.

[willimoto]

PLAY THIS FOR YOUR GIRL.ON YOUR FIRST DATE!

[WaxHeadroom]

1980 ruled.

[ccfrahm]

is this cool or what

[huhorst]

Pure Ohio Genius!

[nikfromherts]

What a lovely mover!

[mfboom23]

makes me happy to be from clevland!

[SpaceRitual]

This is way better than the studio version, which is awesome. Plus I love Dave's moves.

[theMacvarish]

Is this art ?

This is art !

Should have been as big as U2, but they forgot to sell seats and souls.

[incarnation1000]

@theMacvarish

[hobbsk]

yes!!!!!

[birdandthe]

art of walking was ubus last excellent album

[posthumanhero]

'art of' was, in my mind half good and half-filler.......love 'bailing' which was too great to be appreciated and the reunion lp , 'tenement' which is simply mindblowing........it seems like the last handful of lps may have something to offer too -- although all that remains is thomas (which is sad).......maybe i'll invest in them sometime, although i have ethical issues with buying ubu lps minus maimone.

[DeathMetalDouglas68]

Tony's a bass god. I can only assume he was a pretty big influence on Mike Watt.

[posthumanhero]

it saddens me that tonys out of pere ubu and has become a session musician of sorts.....in a right woirld pere ubu would be rock stars and tony would be internationally famous.....he's influenced my bass playing and i regarde him as quite the innovator and a real gentleman.....somebody please get the original band together.....yes, it does matter!.....thx.

[DeathMetalDouglas68]

You mean Pere Ubu MK2 should get back together. Tony came into the band after Tim Wright in '77 not '75 when "Final Solution", "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" etc. were recorded. Founder Tom Herman has come back here and there. He's absent from this vid because Mayo Thompson replaced him in 1980. I think it would be neat if the MK3 lineup in this vid were to get back together. Tom is a great guitar player by Mayo's style is so bizarre. RIP Pete Laughner '77 RIP Jim Jones '08.

[posthumanhero]

yea, i just refer to 'modern dance' (their 1st lp) as the original lineup -- especially since the album is so seminal........i don't think mayo will play with the band anymore, judging by some comments i read -- something tells me thomas and thompsan don't quite see eye to eye......btw 'bailing' is a very very excellent and innovative lp.....why do people, including mayo hmself, dis on it so much?

[tschak909]

did nobody notice the last half second?

"I'm goin....somewhere...."

"I'm goinmover there..." LOLZ!

[hobbsk]

punk fuckin rock! love this band

[TobeUK]

those people shouting 'Devo!devo!" at the end of that clip? another great band from the era...

[zazeify]

is it just me, or did the Talking

Heads borrow a LOT from this band? Anyway, love them both.

[bornjaded]

I doubt Pere Ubu were much of an influence on Talking Heads, as each band shaped their identities concurrently, but in different scenes.

However, David Byrne's song "Angels" from his self-titled solo album bears some uncanny similarities to this song.

[Ibanezguy2007]

ahh not that whole artistic post punk bullshit again...so basically if I started a band writing very basic songs and got a fat drunk man to shout and dance like a prat onstage I could call it expressionist music art?! The way i see it is you're just making an excuse for why they suck so much.

Damn, I will never understand this..

[portnoyisthebest]

there's no way pere ubu can belittled to this degree! like em or not, they have their spot in music history.

[13crapa]

stop trying understand and move on

[Ibanezguy2007]

this is such baad music! What genre is it??

Someone explain to me what they think is good about this band? And I might understand

[portnoyisthebest]

some will call it avant garde rock, and some will call it punk or anything in between. But I think oylovely nailed it 100%. Pere Ubu kind of follows up on the concept of "if you know all the rules, you can break them" and takes this to the next level. It's probably best you leave this video be and move on to the next run-of-the-mill mainstreak rock tune, never to return.

[jon1156]

You'll notice none of the repliers can actually say why Pere Ubu was good, only what context they fit into and what they weren't - ie "impressive" musically. I find them somewhere between boring and annoying myself. That said it's pretty hard to put into words why one likes any music, isn't it?

[namealreadyused12345]

Well, let me help you.

1. go to the cd player/ ipod or whatever you have.

2. take the miley cyrus cd out.

3. put on some pere ubu

4. then come back to youtube and explain to everyone how 'the modern dance' changed your life. hahahahah is that good?

[iamtheblackcrowking]

is there a versian like this on any of pere ub' albums, because this versian is much better than the devoesque non-bassy versian I have. - or alternatively has anyone been able to rip just the audio from this vid?

[wtfwaco]

There is a live version on the Ubu LP "One Man Drives While The other Man Screams" I think you can order it from Amazon. Conversely you can go to Ubu's own official download site hearpendotcom and get it from the download titled "The Art of Talking" (a different live take).

[bennilekrul]

you can find it on "datapanik in the year zero" (all the early songs) or the cd "the art of walking" where it originally appeared (on vinyl of course)

[Downbythewater73]

Great. Thanks.

[shadowhalfcast]

werewolves make good bass players?

[RotoPlasmX]

laugh out fuckin' loud!

[MrPotatoesLatkie]

Hey, didn't this guy later sing for Blues Traveler?

[donnybrooklads]

Art house music must have Ubu in the same sentence!

[borgorusky]

Pere Ubu with all their weird and wonderful dimensions...pity there's not much at all of Ubu and Thomas around on YT especially since they have made so much great stuff and are one of the few legendary bands/singers still kicking.

[freefrench]

No. Tudósok are like Pere Ubu. Important difference.

[Nickthetoast]

Chris Moyles has had a shave and put on a suit... I prefer him like this.

[polistyrenejassband]

dub housing is the ultimate ubu record

[mikedrud]

This song has everything! An outrageous, against-the-grain singer who's whacked, weird keyboard effects, jittery guitar, a female drummer and awesome, groovy bass.

Could you want anything more. Certainly one of the most underrated of bands. Thanks for posting.

[wtfwaco]

Good observations except for the drummer bit. Drummer is a man.

[mikedrud]

Ah, didn't see enough of "him". Oh well, still very cool video.

[Khultan]

Wait a minute, a man?  Aw, cool anyway.

[Khultan]

You're so right about that, Mikedrud. I contributed the 6th thumbs up because it is deserving with merit.

[Timmybear]

@mikedrud - R Scott Kraus does have rather long hair and is slim and semi-pretty, but is not female. Actually, the only woman who has been in any version of Pere Ubu (though she has now been in the band for 10 years) is Michele Temple, bassist.

[mikedrud]

@Timmybear Yeah, I got called out on that one. I don't know the individual players, so my mistake. Still an awesome assemblage of weirdness!

[elephant0m]

@mikedrud

"Could you want anything more."

-yes, frank zappa

[maxmagnum74]

@mikedrud The effects you listen are not coming from a keyboards, but from the Theremin..... a special instrument.

[vonbontee]

@maxmagnum74 No, sorry, not a theremin. It's a synthesizer, an EML 500 I believe.

[shaftsbury94]

@vonbontee mister clever pants

[earinsound]

@mikedrud

that's along-haired dude named Scott Krauss, not a woman. yes, pere ubu were great back then....and certainly never underrated.

[stephenlatty]

that's mayo thompson on guitar! just saw this film at nuart in santa monica but this clip was missing. whaa??

[SamuelPony]

Don't worry at all. They are both great bands, and Nick Cave is still making some fantastic records.

Dig into Pere Ubu/Rocket From The Tombs and you will be pleasantly surprised.

[SamuelPony]

You may consider that Pere Ubu was around for a number of years before The Birthday Party made records.

[theghostsofgiants]

David kinda looks like Otho from Beetle Juice. Awesome.

[steveo13211]

i was high the first time i saw this video. since then i watch it all the time. i love the bass in this song.

[ubukhan1]

I watch this video at least once a week. It will be a sad day if it ever disappears.

[mhofkp]

if you love this, you'll love james chance and the contortions...pure no wave goodness

[PantsMenace]

David Thomas has the best stage presence of any artist I've ever seen. He's got a more distinctive style than Ian Curtis and he's actually energetic. Needs more Pere Ubu videos.

[TEKearns]

You aren't kidding. This video brings it out. He's strangely genuine and touching. When I saw him (Echo Lounge Atlanta), he could barely get on stage because of his size. Girl bass player if that helps date the show. They tore to roof off that place. Nobody could have rocked harder. Dave was a giant obese man fitting no rock stereotype or archetype. Yet, it was touching from start to finish. He was touching. Just amazing.

[Islwynpaul]

Wonderful stuff, David Thomas is an amazing artist. Love Pere Ubu.

[creamstripe]

This is totally expressed with freedom and its amazing.

[tolvana]

This is so perverted, I simply have to watch it over and over again.

[JasonJarvis88]

If anyones interested ive uploaded some pere ubu tracks from 1978 to 1982

[yodro]

Singing his heart out as usual : )

[shadowhalfcast]

like antonin artaud meets huey lewis and the news. too good for words. aaaargh and i aaaahheee weee huh aaah

[spurtfather]

I'm going I'm going, and I'm not falling down anymore!! BOING

[cchavez1]

Will Urgh, along with The Decline Part 1 ever come out on DVD by the end of the millemium???

Retarded!

[runner99]

Sometime before I die would be nice! Damn, any day now!

[lizardale]

I NEED more Pere Ubu videos.

[woonsocketrocket]

with a singer naming himself Crocus Behemoth, the band descended from the indie-rock underground at the end of 1975 like the landing party from some alien civilization. Dave Thomas, your music will be with us forever ..try to find "Final Solution"..WOW !

[tolvana]

I just watched this for the umphteenth time, and this still rocks.

[tolvana]

Damn, what hyper intencity! More efficient than Primus, actually.

This simply can not go without noticing.

[ChernozymVideo]

I always loved seeing Pere Ubu! Great live band; saw them many times in Toronto at tiny clubs.

[hearditman]

Omg the lead singer ate all the pies, but he's quite good.

[LeaveDenbyAlone]

Also, 2:16

[LeaveDenbyAlone]

THE BIRDIES ARE SINGING

[thatmuse76]

I saw them in 2003 when David Thomas was touring as the Rocket From The Tombs reunion at the Black Cat in Washington DC. Easily one of the best concerts I have been to. Of course since Peter Laughner died in 1977, they had Richard Lloyd (aka Richard Hell) from Television filling in. The funny thing is I my only reference of that Richard Lloyd looked like was from photos in the late 70's. I was shocked when I saw him on stage and realized he was at the table next to mine before the show.

[wtfwaco]

Richard Lloyd and Richard Hell both played in Television but are in fact different people.

[jonasj2006]

I think Mike Watt played bass on this one.....

[wtfwaco]

The GREAT Tony Maimone on bass!

[maaya111mk]

great to see!

thanx for posting.

i guess we need some more:D

[finalnexus]

slightly overactive imagination perhaps??

[bilgemonkey74]

Effin' Amazing!

[djwolf12]

its otho from beetlejuice!!!!!!

[Thermalfiredotcom]

If i was drinking milk while reading your comment it would have explosively exited through my nostrils! Good eye man!

[mrt0724]

pere ubu were definitely weird at least they were original!

[wagsouza]

FUCK PERE UBU!!

[nifffs]

Would you like a hug?

[evilmoussaka]

cornegidouille !! david thomas et ses palotins nous font du bien aux oneilles !

[mousetrapreplica91]

Assurdo, i Pere Ubu con Mayo Thompson! Non poteva che uscire un capolavoro come The Art Of Walking.

[bearandsuperbear]

Also, you have to love how one dude is dancing in the crowd and nobody else knows what the hell is going on....

[ISEEUDANCE]

Good band! Very unique.

[eczema1966]

Hi Pere Ubu Lovers a bit of advert for the best band in activity....

please have a listen to Pere Ubu Radio on a site called m..pace.

you know

Thanks

And Enjoy hearpen for listening more of Pere Ubu's songs.

[theonlytruepunk]

Wall of Voodoo!

[raw420x]

I believe this was performed and shot at the Florentine Gardens in Hollywood....

[ericidle999]

l love this inspired lunacy,great footage,thanks.

[turntapzap]

Oh sweet bastard, yes.

[wipeouters]

classic. i love the 80's. i'm 45

[finalnexus]

What the hell is he trying to say??

[colormetafora]

beutiful creation. very.

[tbzeee]

strange strange man. amazing he's been doing this crazy shit for over 30 years. we love you dave, come play in flagstaff.

[ecogazoo]

I noticed his hair was flying in the wind as he put one foot in front of the other and he was moving & going somewhere

[AlisoBob]

The beer line must be incredibily long when these guys take the stage.... They suck ass!

[eczema1966]

HI again. Pere Ubu still don't forget, they are still awesome.

SO Dear Pere Ubu's fans

here an adress, writte the three "w" dot myspace dot com slash pereuburadio, and it is exactly what it means.Thank you for that video and thank you for reading

[wagsouza]

FAT UBU!!!

[Yorkmackem]

When he joined them they went downhill in my opinion, Modern Dance and Dub Housing are easily their best albums.

But Rocket from the Tombs were even better !

[TimNicholas]

haha dude what are you talking about?

Dave was with them from the beginning

you're right about those two being the best though

[Yorkmackem]

I was talking about Mayo Thompson, too self indulgent IMO. They never recaptured the heights of Final Solution, 30 Seconds over Tokyo or Non Alignment Pact....with the death of Laughner went their nihilistic edge that made them truly revolutionary, by 1980 they were no different from a lot of other New Wave "arty" bands...

[TimNicholas]

mmm

maybe

I love The Red Krayola though

[ds23efi2cv6]

Can you recommend any particular releases to go for if because I'm not very familiar with the band.

[bearandsuperbear]

Nonsense, Tom Herman was a genius - Dub Housing is easily the best album. The Mayo records are great, Art of Walking and Song of the Bailing Man both neglected works of minor genius. Dub Housing is a titanic piece though

[posthumanhero]

'self indulgent' is such a bullshit term...especially in this context: it takes great concentration to do what mayo is doing and he's no more 'indulgent' than anyone else on that stage.

[lizardale]

PERE UBU RULES!!!!!!!!!!

[djwolf12]

its otho from beetlejuice!!!!lmao

[lecagot2]

Ohio provided the driving force in the Post -Punk era before the music scene moved to Seattle

[daddycrockett23]

That's one hell of a band!Especially worth noting is that drummer.He's doing a fantastic job of filling up the sound.Instead of just keeping a 4/4 beat he's contributing to the sound.Go UBU!

[PravdaRecs]

Awesome!

[cindyshealed]

I was taken by a date to see this band at McCabe's in L.A. in the early 90s. I still have no idea what I witnessed that night.

[psychicshopper]

A few years ago I was in a record store with my daughter, and I pointed to a Pere Ubu record and said what a groundbreaking band they were, and by the way thats the drummer behind the cash register. She said" if they were so groundbreaking, why is he working at a record store"

[wtfwaco]

Methinks groundbreaking don't pay the bills. They all deserve to be rich and famous.

[rdangelo]

I disagree. Just because you're creative doesn't mean the world owes you a living.

[wtfwaco]

No one "owes" anyone a living. By the quality of the work and the sheer influence of the music, the Ubus DESERVE to be rich and famous. I might work 60 hours a week and "deserve" a vacation, doesn't mean I'm going to get one. The world doesn't work that way. Paris Hilton doesn't "deserve" to be rich or famous - yet she is. The members of Pere Ubu DESERVE to be rich and famous.

[kiely]

"if they were so groundbreaking, why is he working at a record store" yup, and Van Gogh musta sucked because be never made any money.

[thesquonkstear]

The word you guys are dancing around is "Popular", which means limited supply for a giant demand in the music business (or any art). "Deserving" has little to do with being syndicated. Happy Birthday was made into a massive hit on a dare between two DJs. What UBU lacked were "rotations" on the radio, or video or billboards, or in a film. A good agent could have packaged them and made them as big as say Grace Jones, easily, and she does not work at a record shop.

[thesquonkstear]

Johathan Winters got himself a garage band! Cool.