MANIFESTO °A LA UBU Self-expression I’m not into self-expression. I don’t like self-expression. It’s a dead end. It should be left to the professionals is my opinion. Music as an art form I’m an absolutist. I’m not a relativist. Music is a superior artform, clearly. It certainly used to be in the absence of any other dominant art form. It must still be beeause...it’s any number of reasons. Any time you think you’ve come across a truism, there’s any Planet of the Arts Volume 7 Issue5 page 6 Beatles, because you can only discover the Grand Canyon once. It became clear to the brief generational window that we were a part of that the next step was to build the brave new world: the villages and the towns and the canals and the railroads of this land that had been discovered. So that was our mission and that was the mission of the New'Wave. That was a group of people all around the world who had asked for the torch to be passed on to them and were going to take rock music to the next step. Well, this was all smothered in the cradle, as you know, by this alien form of punk music, which is why I’ve also always been very much against world music. You know, I believe everybody should just stick to what they know. I hate number of coinci- dental, collateral reasons that ap- pear, justifications. For instance, | was just thinking last night as I was drift- ing off to sleep, that, you know, certainly music has, | was thinking, “Well, what about film?” | was thinking, you I think most people see music as a form of wallpaper... white people do- ing reggae. The important factor is this: you have to not copy some- thing. You have to preserve your own voice and your own society and what you're doing.Now, there’s not any know, you have these, I was talking to myself, “What about films?” and I was thinking, “Well, you know, a film director has much more room to propagandize in a film without being noticed than a singer or a songwriter has in a song.” Songs usually expose. Propaganda in songs hardly ever works. You know, that’s not to say thatitdoesn’t. It hardly works because it’s quickly exposed. It’s insincere. Obviously, music is a form that operates below the conscious level. At the same time, it has the ability to operate on a conscious level. Also, itis a form that operates the full spectrum of the human experience, the physical and at the same time it can be poetic or emotional or whatever. It has power. It has subtlety. It has intellectual capability. None of it is dependent on understanding the history of painting technique or the history of symbolism or the history of any particular dogma because it all is ulti- mately translated emotionally. Most of what you hear, for instance, on the radio isn’t music. It’s the selling of an attitude or the commercial for a lifestyle. The major setback for music was obviously ’75, ’76, °77, when punk wiped out the new wave. That great Battle of Stalingrad or whatever it was. That was the point at which fashion triumphed over substance, appearance triumphed over reality in music. The final route of any forces that we were a part of is that music must move forward and become a language of human society. The punk movement was an English aberration. Now, I livein England so I know something of this. There wasn’t one point this year where, of the top fifteen songs, five of them were in the top fifteen because they were the soundtracks to commer- cials. Now, you don’t get that stuff in America. So the point is that the English see things in terms of fashion. This has created some very good music but is, at the core, rotten and will expose itself as it did in the punk movement where every- _ thing was reduced to a Calvin Klein jean commercial and where self-expression was deified. These are all of the worst possible things to have happened. In’76, in 77, in ’78, I was saying these same things. That the New Wave had been something that was the next progression in music. You know, it was as if the North American continent had opened up and people rushed across the land discovering things. Here’s the Grand Canyon, here’s the Tetons, here’s Jellystone Park, on and on and on. That’s why you’re never going to get another David Thomas was interviewd in the Holiday Inn on Howe St. on Dec 13th rules.Obviously, you learn from people. You know, that’s the good thing about people being different all over the world. So, you just learn from people and, you know, you learn musically from other people. What’s bad is copying from other people because then it denigrates the source and it betrays your own poetic heart or something or sells it short. Urban Pioneering Well, the Urban Pioneering movement, as,far as I know, was a very specific point in time, a point in a generation where there was a realization in American, mid-West, indus- trial cities that something was being destroyed that shouldn’t be destroyed. I believe, and I can’t back this up in any particular way, that you can tell about a people by just looking at the land. I believe that people are attached to the land. This is nothing more than just a fanciful idea that I like and I’m not sure how far I can back it up. I’m not an environmental sort of person, where you’re shaped by your environment. I don’t believe that, necessarily. As far as, you know, raising kids and things like that. I don’t think that is foremost, of much importance. I’m talking about just being able to look at a mountain or being able to look out across an expanse of land and understand the national characteristics of a people, that’s all. Why is it important that Pere Ubu continue to make music? It’s not important. Why should Pere Ubu continue to make music? I don’t know. Why does Pere Ubu continue to make music? a) because we get paid to doit. b) because we enjoy it. But I could do anything else much more successfully than this, you know. | just happen to enjoy it and I’m not a materialist enough to care that | could make more money doing something else. I like making songs. . MANIFESTO *A LA UBU Self-expression I'm not into self-expression. I don’t like self-expression. It’s a dead end. It should be left to the professional: opinion. Music as an art form T’man absolutist, I’m not a relativist. Music is a superior art form, clearly. It certainly used to be in the absence of any other dominant art form. It must still be because...it’s any number of reasons. Any time you think you’ve come across a truism, there’s any Planet of the Arts Volume 7 IssueS page 6 Beatles, because you can only discover the Grand Canyon once. It became clear to the brief generational window that we were a part of that the next step was to build the brave new world: the villages and the towns and the canals and the railroads of this land that had been discovered. So that was ‘our mission and that was the mission of the New’Wave. That was a group of people all around the world who had asked for the torch to be passed on to them and were going to take rock music to the next step. Well, this was all smothered in the cradle, as you know, by thi is why I've also always been very much aj You know, I believe everybody should just stick to what they know. I hate number of coinei-[ dental, collateral) reasons that ap-| pear, justifications re'isae''s:: T think most people see music just thinking last) night as I was drift- ing offto sleep, that, you know, certainly | music has, I was] thinking, “Well, | what about film?” 1] was thinking, youl as a form of wallpaper white people do- ing reggae. The important factor is this: you have to not copy some. thing. You have to preserve your ‘own voice and your own society and what you're doing.Now, there’s not any know, you have these, I was talking to myself, “What about films?” and I was thinking, “Well, you know, a film director has muck more oom to propagandize in a film without being noticed than a singer or a songwriter has in a song.” Songs usually expose. Propaganda in songs hardly ever works. You know, that's not to say that itdoesn’t. It hardly works because it’s quickly exposed. It’s insincere. Obviously, music is a form that operates below the conscious level. At the same time, it has the ability to operate on a conscious level. Also, it is « form that operates the full spectrum of the human experience, the physical and at the same time it can be poetic or emotional or whatever. It has power. It has subtlety. It has intellectual capability. None of it is dependent on understanding the history of painting technique or the history of symbolism or the history of any particular dogma because it all is ulti- mately translated emotionally. Most of what you hear, for instance, on the radio isn’t music. It’s the selling of an attitude or the commercial for a lifestyle. The major setback for music was obviously °75, °76, "77, when punk wiped out the new wave. That great Battle of Stalingrad or whatever it ‘That was the point at which fashion triumphed over substance, appearance triumphed over reality in music. The final route of any forces that we were a part of is that music must move forward and become a language of human society. The punk movement was an English aberration. Now, [live in England so I know something of this. There wasn’t one point this year where, of the top fifteen songs, five of them were in the top fifteen because they were the soundtracks to commer- cials. Now, you don’t get that stuffin America. So the point is that the English see things in terms of fashion. This has created some very good music but is, at the core, rotten and will expose itself as it did in the punk movement where every- thing was reduced to a Calvin Klein jean commercial and where self-expression was deified. These are all of the worst possible things to have happened. In 76, in °77, in "78,1 was saying these same things. That the New Wave had been something that was the next progression in music. You know, it was as if the North American continent had opened up and people rushed across the land discovering things. Here's the Grand Canyon, here’s the Tetons, here’s Jellystone Park, on and on and on. That's why you're never going to get another David Thomas was interviewd in the Holiday Inn on Howe St. on Dee 13th rules.Obviously, you learn from people.You know, that’s the good thing about people being different all over the world. So, you just learn from people and, you know, you learn musically from other people. What's bad is copying from other people because then it denigrates the source and it betrays your own poetic heart or something or sells it short. Urban Pioneering Well, the Urban Pioneering movement, was a very specific point in time, a point in a generation where there was a realization in American, mid-West, indus- trial cities that something was being destroyed that shouldn’t be destroyed. I believe, and I can’t back this up in any particular way, that you can tell about a people by just looking at the land. I believe that people are attached to the land. This is nothing more than justa fanciful idea that [like and I’m not sure how far I can back it up. I’m not an environmental sort of person, where you're shaped by your environment. Idon’t believe that, necessarily. As far as, you know, raising kids and things like that. Idon’t think that is foremost, of much importance. I’m talking about just being able to look at a mountain or being able to look out across an ‘expanse of land and understand the national characteristics of a people, that’s all. sefar as I know, Why is it important that Pere Ubu continue to make music? 10's not important. Why should Pere Ubu continue to make music? I don’t know. Why does Pere Ubu continue to make music? 8) because we get paid to do it. b) because we enjoy it. But Teould do anything else much more successfully than this, you know. I just happen to enjoy it and I'm not a materialist enough to care that I could make more money doing something else. I like making songs.