Pere Ubu

"In this bar, the beer don't work on me" may never get the chance to become one of pulp fiction's great opening lines - its intended author, Jim Thompson of Savage Night/The Killer Inside Me fame, died long before it ever became a reality - but it sure makes a hell of a start for the new Pere Ubu record. There's a lot more where it came from, too; for example, "in my head is a white room where all the good things go" from the surreal, noir-ish "Blue Velvet," or "I gotta get outta this place else I swear my head will crack" from the claustrophobic semi-narrative "Stolen Cadillac." Indeed, Why I Hate Women - what a title! - is so full of standout, highlight, and flat-out brilliant snatches of gutter poetry, it makes you wonder why Pere Ubu mastermind David Thomas hasn't ever considered a side career as a writer of dime-store fiction.

But then, Thomas has always had a way with words; and his talent for angular, experimental deconstructions of rock and roll music is pretty unmatched too, as fans of early post-punk milestones The Modern Dance and Dub Housing can certainly attest. For all of its own particular charms, however, Why I Hate Women (the 13th proper album by Pere Ubu, and first since 2002's St. Arkansas) shouldn't be confused with either of those late-'70s classics. This is an altogether darker, subtler and more difficult affair than the Pere Ubu of "Non-Alignment Pact," "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" and "Final Solution"; an album which is ultimately as anti-social and irascible as the hard-boiled fiction from which it draws inspiration. Songs like "Babylonian Warehouses" in particular are little more than mood-setting texture, laced with shrill synthesizer squawks and a lyrical redundancy that can become actively irritating on the first couple of listens. It can also make the more standard-issue rock numbers, like "Caroleen," feel like a much-needed break from all that building tension, their impact magnified by the sheer impenetrability of those "texture tracks." Imagine a record, half of which is taken up by Tom Waits in "Shore Leave"-esque spoken word mode and half of which is good latter-day Pixies, and you'll be close to my first impressions of Why I Hate Women...except, to be frank, the actual product doesn't sound half as good as what you're probably imagining.

Stick with it, though, and the oblique beauty of this album on its own terms will begin to show through the cracks. If the incessant cadence of opening track "Two Girls (One Bar)" seems at first like the musical equivalent of a jackhammer on concrete, when coupled with Thomas' breathlessly repeated question, "Is that fire in your eye?", it perfectly evokes the Dutch-tilted sexual paranoia of a good film noir. Even better is the wonderfully titled "Love Song," a truly bizarre dreamscape where "my eyes are growing tentacles for to grab you" qualifies as a sweet nothing. Again, Why I Hate Women is a grower to say the least; even in its most hooky moments, it lacks the immediacy of Pere Ubu's "golden age" work, and though Thomas' most recent lineup is more than competent (just listen to the layers of aural nuance on "Synth Farm"), he's still hurting for a rock guitarist as gritty and exciting as Peter Laughner was in 1978. Even so, for established fans of Pere Ubu or even just adventurous neophytes, this record is a challenge well worth attempting.

- Zach Hoskins

Official Site
Modern Pea Pod Interview with David Thomas
Buy It from Amazon
See Also: The Dutch Tilt: not just a sexual position.