Pere Ubu: Pennsylvania

With most of Pere Ubu's formative output reissued as part of the Datapanik In The Year Zero box set, it's easier than ever to immerse yourself in the iconoclastic Ohio band's music. Still, the most recent stage of Pere Ubu's contrary art-punk career may also be its most challenging. After all, though such Ubu classics as The Modern Dance and Dub Housing aren't nearly as tough to digest as their reputation indicates, you'd still think the remaining band members would mellow with age. Well, the new Pennsylvania isn't easy listening. But as Ubu frontman David Thomas—whose own solo work in Two Pale Boys was similarly exhumed for a box set—noted in a recent interview, Pere Ubu was always a rock band at heart, and behind much of the racket are actual songs. Some of them, like "Drive," "Monday Morning," and "Wheelhouse"—all found on the second half of Pennsylvania—are even catchy. At this point, Thomas and guitarist Tim Herman are the only founding members left, but the band's trademark EML synthesizer (now played by Robert Wheeler) and quirky drums (now played by Steve Mehlman) remain aligned with Ubu's original vision. At 70 minutes, Pennsylvania is too long to take in one sitting, and a couple of odd hard-rock songs (parodies) are pretty lame. But if Pennsylvania were tossed in with the other albums on the archival Datapanik, few people would probably notice, supporting the assertion that Ubu's art is as unclassifiable, unpolished, and unpredictable as it ever was.