Pere Ubu: Elitisim for the People 1975-1978

Just noticed that the box is available for preorder from Amazon US for $94.99, release date 8/21. Sorry, can't copy link from phone).

Also, still available at £58.11 from Amazon.uk.

 

Thanks for that info, rtalwani! (That did not enter my mind.)

I still had the page open and selected ALAC and I'm downloading that now.

I may want a smaller file size for portable use and it may be interesting to listen for the difference in sound.

 

The downloadable FLAC files are 24/192 with the exception of the last six Manhattan live tracks which are 16/44.1.

 

W-h-a-t????????

Not odd at all, as the FLAC encoder has already made the files as small as possible, so there is no further gain to be made from Zipping them. Zips of compressed files are usually done for convenience (one file to download).

 

For me it's all about the singles, the first three albums and some live shows. The comp cd has some good stuff, but I just never felt the need to buy the box.

What I'd like to see is a complete Tripod Jimmie cd.

 

Whoops, I only checked one file.

 

I learnt something new. Thanks, Black Elk.

 

Yeah, it was definitely one of the tougher items for me to track down from RSD (along with the Heavenly singles box set - which is now being released on CD). Very little stock available from the usual outlets OR from flippers, nothing from Fire direct. I managed to pick up a copy (at list price) from a store selling through Amazon. I don't know if there's any difference between those early copies and the current release.

 

Nice review of the box set from Quietus: http://thequietus.com/articles/18341-pere-ubu-elitism-for-the-people-1975-1978-review

Their conclusion:

"Elitism For The People confirms two things, essentially: that Pere Ubu were possibly the most original band to emerge from the embers of America's punk scene and, more importantly, one of the best rock & roll bands to have ever spat out riffs, lyrics and noise. They're still going, and all: the flame burns eternal in the hands of constant member David Thomas. Long may he run."

 

I have had a chance to listen to the 24/192 (and 16/44.1 for the live tracks) download. I listened on a PonoMusic Player, Sennheiser HD600 and balanced Venus Audio/Cardas cable.

I listened to the whole download once, the studio portion once more and selected songs once again.

The live recordings are bootleg quality. They are Mono (which is fine with me) and sound like they were intended to capture the performance but not anything near a Hi-Fi attempt meant for release. That is fine with me, as well. I consider these songs a bonus and they were cool to hear. I probably will not be listening to the live tracks much.

The studio recordings sound superb. Very dynamic sounding (!!!) and the tapes don't sound like they have aged. No tape hiss and I could not detect any noise reduction. (Sometimes I hear noise reduction sometimes I don't.) Nothing weird as far as EQ. I sometimes thought that there was a small boost in the upper midrange but that is in comparison to my memory of listening to the vinyl. It has been a while since I have listened to the vinyl and I am not in a position to do so at this time. Anyway, this did not in any way detract from my enjoyment of these recordings, and may be a total non-issue. Just trying to be as descriptive as I can.

Most of my Pere Ubu listening has been of the original Hearthen singles and The Modern Dance on the US Blank LP. Dub Housing and beyond, I would listen to them a few times when they were new and then return to the earlier releases whenever I was in the mood to listen to Pere Ubu. After listening to this download, I see that I have some nearly "new to me" Pere Ubu LPs that I want to go back to.

I loved the way Pere Ubu sounded on their early releases and still do. This is a great download.

 

Just had the Dub Housing and Modern Dance LPs delivered today. If I'd picked them up to look at in a shop I probably would've thought twice as the first impression does kind of scream 'low quality reissue' - flimsy sleeves, terrible static-y plain glossy inners and thin vinyl. They do sound good to me (for what that's worth, since I don't have anything to compare them to and haven't heard the albums in years) so despite the above I'm really pleased for £12 a pop.

 

Just bought the download. The vinyl is awfully tempting, but geez, $90 is a bit too crazy for me.

 

This sounds interesting, but since I already own their studio albums, I'm mainly just interested in the live performances from the early days. Unfortunately, older releases like 390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo seem to be out of print and very difficult to find. I wish that they would at least make this available as an independent download.

 

If you haven't heard Live At The Longhorn April 1, 1978 you should check it out, great live Ubu set.

 

Yeah, that looks like a corker. There was a wild, frenetic energy to their performances back in those days.

 

I was listening to it last night, it's a real stormer and the sound is excellent for a 2 track recording. They were one of the best live bands around at that time.

 

They still were 20 years later

The 1994 - 1998 Raygun Suitcase (PU) / Pennsylvania (PU) / Erewhon (David Thomas and 2pb) era was just incredible in concert.

 

Never owning a single Pere Ubu record but having heard cuts and seen live videos of their performances eons ago, I downloaded the flac files.
1. BandCamp is severely lame in not clearly defining the resolution of the different download formats. No excuse. And the drop down menu deally bobber after paying borders on rip-off.
C'mon. Downloads are mainstream and have been for a few years now. I do UI design and it should be a simple non-drop down display of which format you want and are paying for.
2. Thanks to Dino I knew what was up and was able to pick the flac option. BTW, don't feel bad about knowing that flac is already compressed and zipping the files was merely a way to package everything in 1 file.
3. FWIW, I will be converting the .flac files back to .wav since that's the way the artist originally packaged them.
Hopefully this will be good.

 

Have you heard 390 Degrees? I have it on vinyl but it's far away in my mother's basement. My memory of it was that it was a collection of pretty poor recordings and I don't really miss not having it. OTOH I probably haven't heard it in 20 years or so. I need to check out that Longhorn performance

 

raygun suitcase is almost as good as the first two albums imho

 

Those sound like they're different from the discs that were released in the RSD box. In that box, the singles collection and the live album were on thin (i.e. flimsy) vinyl (and also in thin sleeves, like 12" singles), whereas the two albums were pressed on thick vinyl and housed in regular sleeves. Everything sounded good, though (except for an unfortunate patch of non-fill on my copy of Dub Housing).

 

Very different but yeah. Personally I rate Ubu / Thomas higher 1995 - 2015 than the earlier stuff, much as I love that too. And I prefer David's non Ubu albums from 1981-1986 over Ubu 1975-1989, much as I love those too!

Raygun was originally intended as an Ubu farewell album, apparently, which might have something to do with its mindblowing power, hugeness and brilliance.. a 20 year old (at that point) band / artist (Thomas) making an album as good as that at that point in a career is exceptional IMO.

 

I've heard some of it online and the performances sizzle, even if the sound quality is less than pristine. I've been checking out 390 Degrees, Part 2 (from the box set) more lately, which includes one performance from '78 and another from '81. Thomas goes out of his way to spell out why they favor the "bootleg sound" for live performances over more polished concoctions. Though I wouldn't necessarily want this approach for all of the bands that I listen to, it seems to work for these guys. I get the impression that the Longhorn show sounds better than 390 Degrees.

 

I was going to tell you that "390 Degrees" is available in the Datapanik box set and is dirt cheap... then I went to check on Amazon and hello! seems all their 20th Century stuff is out of print. But Amazon's not the best place to determine if something's out of print.