The Modern Dance

The Modern Dance
Studio album by Pere Ubu
Released	February 1978 (1978-02)[1]
Recorded	October 1976-November 1977
Studio	Cleveland Recording Suma, Cleveland, Ohio, US
Genre	Experimental rock[2] art punk
Length	36:20
Label	Blank
Producer	Pere Ubu Ken Hamann
Pere Ubu chronology
The Modern Dance (1978) Dub Housing (1978)
Singles from The Modern Dance
"Street Waves" Released: October 12, 1976[3] "The Modern Dance" Released: August 25, 1977[4]

The Modern Dance is the debut album by the American rock band Pere Ubu. It was released in February 1978 through the label Blank Records.^[1] A 5.1 surround sound version was later released as the DVD-Audio side of a DualDisc in 2005.

The album was featured in the book, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.^[9]

On October 12, 1976, Pere Ubu released "Street Waves" backed with "My Dark Ages," as a single, with the A-side later being featured on their debut album. Cliff Burnstein, the A&R man for Mercury Records in Chicago later came across the single. After expressing interest, he told the band that Mercury was not the right fit. Shortly after, when Chrysalis Records in the UK reached out to Pere Ubu, Burnstein quickly recontacted the band proposing they sign to what would later become Blank Records instead, a new Mercury imprint he was forming.^[10] By early 1977, Pere Ubu performed their first gigs outside of Cleveland at New York's CBGB venue and Max's Kansas City, which showcased songs that would later appear on their debut album.^[11] The Modern Dance was released in February 1978.^[1] It was originally scheduled for release in January, but was delayed as the record label had to change its name because its initial name, Dip Records, was in use by an evangelist.^[5]

To promote the album, an American tour with labelmates the Suicide Commandos was scheduled to begin on February 18, 1978, with a show in Cleveland promoted by Johnny Dromette.^[10][12][13] During this time, drummer Scott Krauss temporarily left the group for the first of the three times he would do so over the decades, and was promptly replaced by Anton Fier of the Feelies, though Krauss rejoined two weeks later, with Fier stepping down and rejoining years later during recording of Song of the Bailing Man.^[11][14][15]

Pere Ubu recorded most of their debut album in November 1977 at Suma Studio with engineer Ken Hamann as financed by Burnstein.^[16] The album's cover art and track "Chinese Radiation", were inspired by Maoism and Chinese nuclear weapons testing, with David Thomas stating^[10]:

"[...] it was said that Cleveland had the highest population of Maoists outside of China, an urban myth probably but that was the talk [...] When China tested its A-bombs, the fallout traveled in the high atmosphere to finally descend... on Cleveland."

During the recording sessions, Pere Ubu drew inspiration from avant-garde music, garage rock, performance art, and the Rust Belt of the American Midwest.^[17][18] Songs that would later appear on the album were recorded between numerous sessions in October 1976 and later January, August and November 1977, with "Street Waves" and "The Modern Dance" being released as singles several months prior.^[10] Ravenstine and Thomas described the songs as being already written and easy to record.^[19]

"Life Stinks" was originally written by former guitarist Peter Laughner and previously performed live by Rocket from the Tombs, while "Humor Me" was written in response to his death, as a play on his last name, "Laugh-".^[10] "Street Waves" was inspired by a stack of used tires on Detroit Avenue.^[10] The track "The Modern Dance" featured field recordings made by synthesist Allen Ravenstine in Downtown Cleveland, an earlier version of the song was later released as "untitled" on Datapanik in the Year Zero.^[20] Additionally, Ravenstine stated "Sentimental Journey" was a take on the 1945 Doris Day song of the same name, with the impromptu sounds of breaking glass bottles acting as a harsh and angry juxtaposition to the suburban lifestyle evoked by the original song.^[20][21]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[22]
Christgau's Record Guide	A−[23]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[24]
The Independent	[25]
Mojo	[26]
New Musical Express	10/10[27]
Q	[28]
Record Mirror	[29]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[30]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	10/10[31]
Uncut	[32]

Robert Christgau reviewed the album for The Village Voice in 1978, writing that: "even though there's too much Radio Ethiopia and not enough 'Redondo Beach,'" he would be "listening through the failed stuff—the highs are worth it."^[33] In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), he reaffirmed that "the highs are worth it, and the failed stuff ain't bad" in his revised review.^[23] Ken Tucker, writing in Rolling Stone, called it vivid and exhilarating, even if "harsh and willfully ugly".^[34]

On March 18, 1978, writer Ian Birch of Melody Maker stated "It's a devastating debut...this album has struck me with a vengeance. Because it delivers such a powerful, complex and open-ended punch, it's almost impossible at such an early stage to explain why or how in full detail."^[10]

Jon Savage of Sounds magazine reviewed the album on November 2, 1978, stating: "Uh-oh, this is getting frustrating, trying to tell you how good this is - black and white is an inadequate substitute for the impact heard ... This is a brilliant debut. Granted it lacks the superficial accessibility of lesser works, but this time around the aroma lingers. This is built to last! Ubu's world is rarely comfortable, full of the space beyond the electric light and what it does to people, but always direct and unwavering. And courageous."^[10]

David Stubbs of Uncut reviewed the album in August 2006, stating: "This is a far more cerebral, imperishable proposition than a mere local cry of urban discontent. The Eraserhead-style sad-clown persona of singer David Thomas, Tom Herman's nerve-shredding slide guitars and Ravenstine's abstract electronics combine to form a rock music as visceral and essential as the Stooges, yet which reaches parts of the brain untouched by their peers, predecessors or successors... An album that's only gotten more awesome with age."^[10]

Fact magazine placed the record at number 31 on its list of the 100 best albums of the 1970s.^[35] Followed by, NME who named The Modern Dance the 11th best album of 1978.^[36] The Guardian stated, "[...] had this son of a literary professor stopped at The Modern Dance, he would have already sealed his legacy as one of rock’s great outsider innovator-pioneers."^[37]

Pere Ubu

• David Thomas – vocals, musette, percussion, production
• Tom Herman – guitar, backing vocals, production
• Allen Ravenstine – EML 101 and 200 analog synthesizers, saxophone, tapes, production
• Tony Maimone – bass, piano, backing vocals, production
• Scott Krauss – drums, production

Technical

• S. W. Taylor – sleeve artwork
• Ken Hamann – engineering, production
• Mike Bishop – engineering assistance
• Paul Hamann – engineering assistance
• Mik Mellen – sleeve photography

• The Modern Dance at Discogs (list of releases)