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In the middle 1990s, when I found out that Pere Ubu named their 1978 album Dub Housing after architecture in Baltimore, I was inspired to name my DIY basement venue after the album.
I e-mailed David Thomas to let him know and to “fanboy” a bit. It was so cool that the band had named an album after the way sound echoed off buildings in Baltimore! I experienced this phenomenon every time I closed my car door in Bayview.
David Thomas wrote me back to tell me I was wrong.
Dub Housing was about how architectural motifs in Baltimore echo and decay across buildings. The name had nothing to do with “sound effect” I knew.
In the moment, I felt chastened and ashamed.
But it reflects the way David Thomas carved out his career in music. And I very much respect that.
Regardless of our exchange, I had recently acquired the CD box set Datanpanik in the Year Zero along with the Hearpen Singles compilation and was finding much inspiration in the history and music of this uncompromising guy from a dead-end industrial town that generated a scene that made something out of nothing.
Also, physically, I have few peers in punk. D. Boon was one. David Thomas was the other. You look for yourself in the music and art you encounter, and even though punk is about “no rules,” there was a certain “Look Book”, and those clothes just did not fit. Just watch “Birdies” to see someone ruling the stage regardless of the outfit and haircut.
He was a stickler about set times. The one time I saw the second run of Pere Ubu live, in 1998, we got a spiel about how the venue had pushed the start time of the show back, and, yes, they had planned on playing some songs from the old days (cheers from the crowd). But not now. Not at this hour.
When I take the Myers-Briggs, I have a personality type that knows and understands rules and regulations but also sees through them for the game that they are. The professor that gave me this test in college said that it was good news, that I had the makings of a good CEO! Another professor had recently explained that a larger percentage of CEOs are psychopaths than those in the general population.
David Thomas spent 71 years on this earth doing exactly what he wanted, being at the initial rupture of Ohio punk with Rocket From the Tombs, making some of the greatest post-punk records ever with Pere Ubu, then spending the rest of that project’s time smashing it all to bits, always looking forward. No compromises I can detect. Truly, a weird life lived well and to the fullest. May we all see the rules for the game that they are.
