Saturday, November 21, 2009

"Honey... they're playing our song" - Pere Ubu now on You Tube

As previously reported Pere Ubu, the avant-garage art-rockers from Cleveland, Ohio, have been mightily opposed to their material appearing on You Tube or elsewhere.

However news from the Ubu Projex website:
Recently there has been a change of policy as regards YouTube. This is due to the appointment of Robert Wheeler as Grocery Police Officer, now in charge of internet activities. He advocates a more liberal approach to uploading videos of the band, though he will continue to censor and instruct the removal of not-approved uploads. David remains opposed but acknowledges Robert's authority in this matter. For related matters email Robert.

As well as Grocery Police Officer, Robert Wheeler plays electronics in Pere Ubu, namely an EML-101 synthesizer and homemade Theremin. And you can see him playing said homemade Theremin about 2 minutes in to 'our' song.



This video and others are available to download in MV4 format from the Hearpen label website plus live recordings of the band, spoken word from David Thomas and high quality digital versions of the extensive Pere Ubu catalogue. And the reason you won't find this elsewhere?
We must find our proper niche. That niche will be the place where we can control our output and offer it on terms that we can live with. It is not possible to enter into a commercial contract without negotiating download rights. It is intensely frustrating to hear sound that we've spent months meticulously constructing being reduced to a dog's dinner with lousy encoding ratios. If it's going to be out there we want it reproduced in such a way as to adequately convey the meaning of the sound. So we'll do it ourselves. Follow this link for a detailed explanation of the technical and aesthetic decisions made.

'Folly of Youth' is from the 1995 album "Ray Gun Suitcase" which can be bought here, here or here. Highly recommended.

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