Pere Ubu - Drive, He Said 1994-2002 (2017)

4LP hard box, includes fold out poster and download postcard. Drive, He Said 1994-2002 brings together the albums Raygun Suitcase (1995, winner of CD Reviews Editors' Choice Award), Pennsylvania (1998, voted no.1 in Music Critics Poll (1988), Village Voice), St Arkansas (2002, prompting Mojo to summarise their review with 'It's difficult to think of a more important band currently working') and a 12" disc of extras, Back Roads . Back Roads features live studio, jam sessions and newly remixed tracks, including Electricity (with the original vocals that were discarded at the time as too brutal ), an outtake from Pennsylvania and a live recording of SAD.TXT from Transmusicales Festival in France, 1998.
These albums were the catalyst to finally uniting critics and the establishment to recognise that the band's music was a force to be recognised, prompting four day festivals at the Royal Festival Hall in London, The Knitting Factory in NYC and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's event, 55 Years of Pain, honouring Pere Ubu along with fellow icons of the Cleveland scene, 15-60-75, in 1999. With current band members Michele Temple, Robert Wheeler and Steven Mehlman joining David Thomas here for the first time, it is a defining period for Pere Ubu. All studio albums and the 12" disc Back Roads were remixed and engineered by David Thomas and Paul Hamann at Suma, in June 2016. Raygun Suitcase (1995) 'If underground rock had a Hall of Fame that gave awards for influence and creativity, Pere Ubu would be more decorated than Magic Johnson.' Rolling Stone, 05/95 / Pennsylvania (1998) 'From the beginning they obviously understood the nuts and bolts of popular music, and then loosened them.' Mojo, 04/98 / St Arkansas (2002) 'Uncompromising is an epithet bandied around with frightening abandonment these days, and one which should really only apply to those who strive to push beyond musical boundaries and bend the parameters of modern music. Bands such as '70s art-punk collective Pere Ubu.' Kerrang!

Tracklist:

Disc: 1

01. Folly of Youth
02. Electricity
03. Beach Boys
04. Turquoise Fins
05. Vacuum in My Head
06. Memphis
07. Three Things
08. Don't Worry
09. Red Sky
10. Montana
11. My Friend Is a Stooge for the Media Priests
12. Down By the River II

Disc: 2

01. Wooly Bully
02. Highwaterville
03. Sad Txt
04. Urban Lifestyle
05. Silent Spring
06. Mr Wheeler
07. Muddy Waters
08. Drive
09. Indian Giver
10. Monday Morning
11. Perfume
12. Fly's Eye
13. Wheelhouse

Disc: 3

01. The Fevered Dream of Hernando DeSoto
02. Slow Walking Daddy
03. Michele
04. 333
05. Hell
06. Lisbon
07. Steve
08. Phone Home Jonah
09. Where's the Truth
10. Dark

Disc: 4

01. My Name Is Ellipsis
02. Surfer Girl
03. Horse
04. Electricity (Board Mix)
05. Dr. Sax
06. Slow
07. The Duke's Saharan Ambitions
08. Ray Gun Suitcase
09. SAD. TXT