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. 

According to various histories, Black Sabbath took their name from the 1963 movie of the same name, starring Boris Karloff. Furthermore, the band was noted for making use of the “tritone,” a musical term that I’ll not bore you by explaining save to say that the nickname for such a musical interval is called “The Devil’s Interval.” You can’t make this stuff up. However, my favorite footnote is that Black Sabbath came to be during a period where flower power, folk music, and hippie culture were at their grooviest peak. At this point, I’d like to formally thank the Dark Lord Satan for delivering the music world from hippie music and flower power via the musical juggernaut Black Sabbath.