This should be about the stupidest thing ever. And yet it's almost the exact opposite. Amazing.

Checking email and having coffee first thing in the morning...and watching this.

I'm not sure how the day will go now...

With this haircut and a relatively fresh face, David Thomas looks like a heavy-set Liev Schreiber.

I'm really digging seeing this again. That Urgh! A Music War movie was a real waste of my time many moons ago excepting this performance and XTC's version of "Respectable Street". Maybe there was one other good performance in it; I can't recall. I do remember being especially bummed when Oingo Boingo showed up onstage. Those guys brought me down faster than maybe any other band in history. Yuk!

That Urgh! A Music War movie was a real waste of my time many moons ago excepting this performance and XTC's version of "Respectable Street". Maybe there was one other good performance in it

The version of "Uncontrollable Urge" in that movie is arguably Devo's peak.

Also, X are dependably awesome and, for sheer what-the-fuck value, you can't beat Klaus Nomi!

The version of "Uncontrollable Urge" in that movie is arguably Devo's peak.

Also, X are dependably awesome and, for sheer what-the-fuck value, you can't beat Klaus Nomi!

Indeed, though I think the most memorable performance (aside from Klaus Nomi and perhaps that Pere Ubu clip, though I like the earlier stuff more) in that movie is actually from The Cramps dong "Tear It Up". The site of Lux Interior almost eating that mic is something else. I do agree that Oingo Boingo were awful, though.

Check out this site:
http://www.myspace.com/pereuburadio

I'm listening to Dub Housing on it now. Currently, I don't have any Pere Ubu on my iPod and I really wanted to listen to one of their records after watching that clip (the song is way better than I remember, BTW) and I found that. Awesome!

Thanks for reminding me of the other winners in that movie, Oats.

Berlyant, you're a great man but I cannot thank you for reminding me of The Cramps. Their performance brought me down almost as much as that of Oingo Boingo. That combination of Vampire Rock and Psychobilly was a real bad idea, at least as my tastes go.

Does anyone else feel like me and think that The Cramps would have been much easier to like if they had dropped that combined schtick and just focused on their garage band/Stooges sensibilities?

Mrclean, please take this as a compliment: I always thought you had what it took to drum for Pere Ubu. The drumming in "Birdies" always reminded me of something you could have pulled off with the Milkmen. None of you was into Pere Ubu, right? I used to think you had a couple of songs that had similar structures of this style Ubu song.

Finally, in watching this Pere Ubu clip again I noted Tony Maimone sporting a beard and letting his curls reach an almost-natural perm state. And he's wearing Rupert Holmes' clothes. Somehow he still looks great. With all apologies to Saturnismine and other dashing, Italian-American rockers on this list, is this guy the Most Handsome Italian-American in Rock or what?

Berlyant, I'm of the belief that Dub Housing is among the 10 greatest albums of all time. We'll talk offlist about the needs of that iPod of yours!

Does anyone else feel like me and think that The Cramps would have been much easier to like if they had dropped that combined schtick and just focused on their garage band/Stooges sensibilities?

Not me. The whole package made them more interesting for me. It was a thrill to play a show with them once (New Years Eve in DC with us, The Butthole Surfers, and the Cramps!)

Mrclean, please take this as a compliment: I always thought you had what it took to drum for Pere Ubu. The drumming in "Birdies" always reminded me of something you could have pulled off with the Milkmen. None of you was into Pere Ubu, right? I used to think you had a couple of songs that had similar structures of this style Ubu song.

Thanks! I was maybe more aware of Ubu than the others but wasn't a "fan". I don't own any of their releases but have heard a few things that I've liked. This video was fun!

Finally, in watching this Pere Ubu clip again I noted Tony Maimone sporting a beard and letting his curls reach an almost-natural perm state. And he's wearing Rupert Holmes' clothes. Somehow he still looks great. With all apologies to Saturnismine and other dashing, Italian-American rockers on this list, is this guy the Most Handsome Italian-American in Rock or what?

Careful! Your man-crush is showing!

Berlyant, I'm of the belief that Dub Housing is among the 10 greatest albums of all time. We'll talk offlist about the needs of that iPod of yours!

You might need to edumacate me too if you please...

Let the man-crush show!

I'll try to remember to work up a love letter to Dub Housing in the coming week, when I - hopefully - get a few more free minutes.

Do we have consensus about Oingo Boingo? Usually you can't condemn any artist around here without somebody piping up with some kind of defense. Can we all agree that they sucked? Is there anyone who will speak up for them, without, and this is very important, WITHOUT bringing up Danny Elfman's soundtrack work. Damn, I just did.

Berlyant, I'm of the belief that Dub Housing is among the 10 greatest albums of all time. We'll talk offlist about the needs of that iPod of yours!

Relax Mr. Mod, though I'd be happy to hear from you off-list on this topic. I own it and I'm pretty sure that I've uploaded it to my hard drive (if not, I have to get on that as well as the rest of my Ubu stuff), but it's just not on the iPod. Why? Because mine's almost 3 years old and only holds 20GB, so it's mostly full of newer stuff I've purchased or downloaded as well as all-time favorites and whatever else I happen to be listening to at that moment (like right now, it's The Feelies).

Anyway, I like Dub Housing a lot, but truth be told, I think The Modern Dance is a better record with more memorable songs. I just love that album. I should definitely have that on my iPod, but I haven't uploaded that one yet. Soon!

Do we have consensus about Oingo Boingo?

Yes. They sucked. They were by far the weakest act on a 5 band bill I saw:
http://www.scarlet.nl/~gugten/s19810822.htm

Do we have consensus about Oingo Boingo? Usually you can't condemn any artist around here without somebody piping up with some kind of defense. Can we all agree that they sucked? Is there anyone who will speak up for them, without, and this is very important, WITHOUT bringing up Danny Elfman's soundtrack work. Damn, I just did.

A friend of mine from California once defended them to me when I told her how much I disliked them, particularly that Urgh! clip. She said that they're a quintessential LA band and I took that to mean that you either had to spend time in LA or grow up there to "get" them (she lived there for a few years, I think, though she's from the Bay Area).

A friend of mine likes 'em, so I'm oddly inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. Plus, I'm quite keen to see the Oingo Boingo movie Forbidden Zone. It's on my NetFlix queue and looks really bizarre. It might be terrible, but it'll be worth watching, I'm fairly sure.

I knew someone who liked them once, but I can't recall who it was... I had one song on a comp which I remember liking for its pop production and hook, but every time I looked for more of same I couldn't find anything unannoying. In that sense, Elfmann's soundtrack "work" is only the blossoming of the seeds sown by Oingo Boingo, in terms of annoyingness.

I'm with Mr. Clean on the Cramps, there wasn't enough musical balls there to survive the schtickectomy. The never sounded like they were quite going to veer off the way Mr. Mod imagines. Though such a band would be fun, if it existed. Altogether, that schtick limited them as far as I'm concerned, but removing it wouldn't have helped. Mostly bands with anything-BILLY in their genre - it's like holding up a low-IQ sign, says the elitist snob.

Good points re: The Cramps, General and Mrclean.

I'm with Mr. Clean on the Cramps, there wasn't enough musical balls there to survive the schtickectomy. The never sounded like they were quite going to veer off the way Mr. Mod imagines. Though such a band would be fun, if it existed. Altogether, that schtick limited them as far as I'm concerned, but removing it wouldn't have helped. Mostly bands with anything-BILLY in their genre - it's like holding up a low-IQ sign, says the elitist snob.

Actually parts of Songs the Lord Taught Us give me a visceral thrill (combining two topics in one post) and it was Mr. Mod, not Mr. Clean, who dissed the Cramps before.

Mrclean didn't diss The Cramps, but he said that the schtick was essential to their act and he was fine with it.

Mr. Mod, Re: Pere Ubu -
Does your enjoyment of David Thomas parallel your fandom of Lou Reed? I mean, do you watch him, doughy and hostile, flickering between high-art and skin-crawling self-consciousness, enjoying the art when it prevails, and when it doesn't, getting inside the chubby iron maiden of his discomfort for a vicarious sensation fix?

Could be, General, but I don't focus on Thomas as much as you might think I do. I really like the rhythm section and the odd guitar riffs as much as anything. I like the way Thomas stands in the middle of the storm. I probably do get some Reed-like mix of what you describe from his performances.