The Modern Dance is the debut album by American rock band Pere Ubu

Pere Ubu

Pere Ubu is an experimental rock music group from Cleveland, Ohio.Père Ubu may also refer to:* Ubu, the enigmatic central figure of a series of French plays by Alfred Jarry, including Ubu Roi, and subsequent plays Ubu Cocu and Ubu Enchaîné...

, released in 1978.

Overview

"Street Waves" is exactly the same as their 3rd single (on Hearthan). "The Modern Dance" track is the same recording as their 4th Hearthan single, but is remixed for this album (the percussion on the single is a squeaky doll and is replaced by a railroad tie).

Critical Reception

Music critic Piero Scaruffi

Piero Scaruffi

Piero Scaruffi received a degree in Mathematics in 1982 from University of Turin, where he did work on the General Theory of Relativity. For a number of years he was the head of the Artificial Intelligence Center at Olivetti, based in Cupertino, California. He has been a visiting scholar at...

 names The Modern Dance as the 7th greatest rock album of all time. Reviewing the album, he writes that "their sound starts out from the spirit of old-style garage-rock, but distorts it with harmonic and rhythmic grotesquery. The surreal lyrics and the student humour attenuate the dramatic force of the performance, but at the same time increase the feeling of collective madness, of resigned fatalism, of ineluctable slavery."

Allmusic critic John Dougal writes that "the Modern Dance remains the essential Ubu purchase... It announces itself quite boldly: the first sound you hear is a painfully high-pitched whine of feedback."

Side one

1. "Non-Alignment Pact" – 3:18
2. "The Modern Dance" – 3:28
3. "Laughing" – 4:35
4. "Street Waves" – 3:04
5. "Chinese Radiation" – 3:27

Side two

1. "Life Stinks" (Peter Laughner
   Peter Laughner
   Peter Laughner was an American guitarist, songwriter and singer.A native of Bay Village, Ohio, Laughner remains a rather little known figure; nonetheless, Richie Unterberger described him as "probably the single biggest catalyst in the birth of Cleveland's alternative rock scene in the mid...
   
   ) – 1:52
2. "Real World" – 3:59
3. "Over My Head" – 3:48
4. "Sentimental Journey" – 6:05
5. "Humor Me" – 2:44

Personnel

• David Thomas
  David Thomas (musician)
  David Lynn Thomas is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.He was one of the founding members of the short-lived protopunkers Rocket From The Tombs , where he went by the name of Crocus Behemoth, and of punk group Pere Ubu . He has also released several solo albums...
  
   - vocals, musette
  Musette de cour
  The musette de cour or baroque musette is a musical instrument of the bagpipe family. Visually, the musette is characterised by the short, cylindrical shuttle-drone and the two chalumeaux. Both the chanters and the drones have a cylindrical bore and use a double reed, giving a quiet tone similar to...
  
  , percussion
• Tom Herman - guitar, backing vocals
• Allen Ravenstine - EML 101 & 200 analog synthesizers, saxophone, tapes
• Tony Maimone
  Tony Maimone
  Tony Maimone is a bass player, producer, and engineer who lives in Brooklyn, New York.He was a member of Pere Ubu from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, often playing with drummer Scott Krauss...
  
   - bass, piano, backing vocals
• Scott Krauss - drums

Production

• Arranged By Pere Ubu
• Production By Pere Ubu & Ken Hamann
• Recorded & Engineered By Ken Hamann
• Assistant Engineers: Mike Bishop & Paul Hamann
• Mastered By Porky

Release History

Year of Release	Place of Release	Format	Label
1978	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	Vinyl LP	Blank
1981	United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...	Vinyl LP	Rough Trade Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
1988	United Kingdom	Vinyl LP	Fontana Fontana Records Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
1988	Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...	CD	Fontana
1998	United Kingdom	CD	Cooking Vinyl Cooking Vinyl Cooking Vinyl is a UK-based independent record company, founded in 1986. Its original orientation was toward contemporary folk music—notably Billy Bragg, and Michelle Shocked's Texas Campfire Tapes, recorded on a Sony Walkman, one of its first releases...
1998	United States	CD	DGC DGC Records DGC Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and currently operates as an auxiliary label of Interscope Records.-Company history:...
1999	Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...	Vinyl LP	Get Back
2006	Europe Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...	CD	Silverline
2007	United States	Vinyl LP	Blank
2008	United Kingdom	CD	Cooking Vinyl

External links

• The Modern Dance at rateyourmusic.com
• The Modern Dance at discogs.com