Forget costume shopping and candy stocking. UCLA Live has
bookended this weekend with enough idiosyncrasy for both body and
soul to set the stage for this Halloween.
Pere Ubu are draftsmen of hard-edged, experimental garage rock,
which the band refers to as “avant-garage.” Diamanda
Galas reigns as arguably the queen of goth rock. And they’re
both part of UCLA Live’s “Far Out Halloweekend,”
with performances by both artists, including a screening of the
classic Roger Corman B-movie “X: The Man With The X-Ray
Eyes” with a live underscore by Pere Ubu.
Since its formation in the 1970s, Pere Ubu has influenced the
likes of Joy Division, REM, the Pixies and Bauhaus with music that
is simultaneously angst-ridden, moody and founded on a textural and
almost suspenseful use of the synthesizer.
The underscore to “X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes”
provides a skeletal frame of basic melodies and movement. Within
this frame, however, the band will create their own interpretation
of the music from the film, relying greatly on an improvisational
aspect that guides much of their own music.
“There’s no continuity in these things ““
that’s the great thing about B-movies,” said David
Thomas, the lead singer and guitar player of Pere Ubu, as well as
the only remaining original member.
“It’s one person’s weird vision which has
slipped past all the editorial because the budget is so low that no
one in the studio pays any attention to it. … You get
personalized visions, and those are always the most interesting
things” Thomas said.
Pere Ubu originally formed in Cleveland, taking from influences
such as The Stooges, MC5 and Sun Ra. They were founded upon a set
of rules that included “don’t ever audition,”
“don’t seek success,” and “put unique
people together. Unique people will play uniquely whether or not
they know how to play.”
The band has gone through numerous lineup changes since its
creation in 1975. Along the way it has established a reputation
just as much for its dark and contemplative music as its
unwillingness to concede to popular trends.
“We’re very difficult. We’re a totally
uncompromising group. We do exactly what we want to do and we
create difficult music,” Thomas said. “It’s not
some intellectual difficulty and it’s not weird ““
it’s all based on a very hard groove and Midwestern
approaches. … (The music) has a visionary visual approach. At
times it’s pretty dark or obsessive or
personalized.”
As a result, their music has earned itself praise from critics
but little attention from the greater public. Nevertheless, Pere
Ubu retains its edge.
“Now we’re just a bunch of old codgers and still
addicted to brutal rock,” Thomas said. “(It’s not
exactly commercial), but we can rock the socks off any 20-year-old
punk rocker.”
Galas, a classically trained pianist with a 3 1/2 octave vocal
range, begins the event on Friday night with works from her two
upcoming releases, “Guilty, Guilty, Guilty” and
“You’re My Thrill.” Both albums showcase
Galas’ ornate and fierce renditions of songs by classic
singers like Edith Piaf, Johnny Cash and Judy Garland.
“I started to cover these songs by (Marlene) Dietrich and
Piaf and Peggy Lee and it started this whole chase of complete
mania,” Galas said.
Galas performed blues and ’30s standards when she was
younger, both solo and as part of her father’s New Orleans
jazz band. But her recent return to those genres signals a shift
from her previous albums, which were largely motivated by the
atrocity of the AIDS pandemic and the Armenian, Assyrian and
Anatolian Greek genocides.
Having recently witnessed her parents being hospitalized and
their struggle together through what she described as tremendous
anguish, Galas saw the importance these songs held for her
parents.
“A lot of (songwriters for Hollywood films) came out of
classical fields and a lot of different fields of music so they
wrote incredible chord changes,” Galas said.
“They wrote chord changes that alone tell you the story
““ you don’t even have to hear the words. But at the
same time their lyrics were impeccable.”
Although the songs themselves are more familiar, Galas puts her
own spin on them, permeating the melodies with an almost
animalistic intensity and her individual caterwauling style.
While neither of the acts performing this weekend are household
names, Galas feels that the college atmosphere may be well suited
for these types of performances.
“College students are often searching for something new
and interesting or new interpretations of things and they’re
a lot less jaded than others,” Galas said. “A lot of
times college students aren’t (in school) just to drink
““ they’re actually going there to see something
interesting.”