https://www.stereogum.com/2305484/pere-ubus-david-thomas-dead-at-71/news/
On Wednesday, April 23 2025, he died in his home town of Brighton & Hove, with his wife and youngest step-daughter by his side. MC5 were playing on the radio. He will ultimately be returned to his home, the farm in Pennsylvania, where he insisted he was to be “thrown in the barn.”
Here. Just take a minute to watch the guy at work.
Now that’s great.
Dave Thomas, via Pere Ubu and other projects, was there being noisy and intriguing for me since the late 70s.
The Guardian also has a good overview of his contribution to music over a half century.
He’ll be missed! I was a lone devotee of Pere Ubu in the '70s, playing their records to all my friends to spread the message of the band that put Cleveland on the musical map. Got to see them at the Cleveland Agora in 1979, when David played percussion by banging a hammer on a block of iron. A one of a kind creative spirit was he.
Ubu’s first ever song from 1975, “30 Seconds Over Tokyo,” is a unique classic that will live forever in some kind of dream-world fantasy.
That’s the stuff, Johanna.
Ahead, the dim blur of an alien land and time to give himself to strange gods’ hands…
When he was just starting out in music with Rocket from the Tombs, David Thomas went by the name Crocus Behemoth. By the time of Pere Ubu’s first album The Modern Dance in 1978, he had gone back to his real name because Crocus Behemoth “made it too easy to be weird.”
Big, big fan. Always an engaging storyteller, always interesting. I think I ended up with about ten Pere Ubu albums and I still cycle through them to this day. sigh I’m getting to the age where 71 seems way too young. Although I gravitated slightly more to the more melodic or harder rocking numbers, even at his most avant-garde he was fascinating to watch and listen to.
Just to continue the parade of clips, more Night Music with David Sanborn and Loudon Wainwright:
I saw Pere Ubu in March 1981. Knew nothing at all about them. But I still have clear memories of that gig where others have faded away. One of a kind.
j
I remember listening to The Modern Dance. I loved “Non-Alignment Pact,” but nothing else really connected for me. I doubt I’d have ever sought them out again, but I was working for my college newspaper when a review copy of Story of My Life became available, so I snapped it up. There were a couple of decent songs, but it was kind of disappointing. Of course, by that point, they no longer had synth ace Allen Ravenstine in the fold, so it wasn’t exactly peak Pere Ubu, I guess.
I have followed Pere Ubu and enjoyed their music for many years. In fact I just picked up the Blame the Messenger album on vinyl last week. This is such a bummer.
I’ve had Mr. Thomas on my mind frequently of late. I guess I had a feeling he was not well.
Here is the clip I was trying to link where they somehow ended up on Letterman. They start playing around 1:55.