Maybe it was the setting. The dank, suffocating basement of a French villa on the Riviera that used to be the vacation getaway for a high ranking Nazi officer was far from the ideal place to make a record. The guitars were constantly falling out of tune, the rooms were too small, such that musicians would be in different rooms alone, trying to play cohesively despite the maze of electrical cords and wonky acoustics, and the heat and stifling humidity made everyone miserable.

January 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of Pere Ubu’s debut album, The Modern Dance.  Sole constant and leader, David Thomas, would likely dismiss a milestone such as that as not accounting for much in the scheme of things.  Perhaps it doesn’t, but taking a hard left from the New York punk scene of the day, Cleveland based Pere Ubu have made a career of “letting their freak flag fly” and not following the trend of the day if they were ever even aware of what the trend may have been.