Since 1996 I have been one of the pale boys with Keith Moline who plays guitar and guitar controlled electronics. The legendary David Thomas (Pere Ubu) put us together to accompany him in “spontaneous song generation”. Keith now plays guitar with Pere Ubu and i have played with them occasionally.
There is lots of info on Pere Ubu and David Thomas and two pale boys at the excellent Ubu projex website
We have produced four CDs as David Thomas and two pale boys
Two CDs as David Thomas and pale orchestra (one is download only) and two live download CDs
Self-expression is evil.
A song is best the first two or three times it’s played. The musicians are excited and eager and there’s nothing to remember or get right. Nothing can go wrong.
The object of David Thomas and two pale boys (2pbs) is to achieve such clarity without resorting to the sort of rambling improvisation that gives improvisation a bad name. The 2pbs engage in “spontaneous song generation.” Everybody knows what a song is. It’s no great mystery.
The freedom of jazz in its heyday was based on the strictness of the blues structure. Rules provide freedom. After a verse comes a chorus. Everybody knows what a chorus has to accomplish. It can, therefore, be invented, on the spot, with confidence.
Countless nanoseconds exist– more than enough time– for musicians to organize themselves so as to deliver the Good Stuff (structure, focus & dynamics… poetry, vision & passion), and avoid the Bad Stuff (tedium, indulgence & predictability).
Our rule: a song must have 3 things. You got 3 things you got a song.
Andy and Keith have also worked together on an album of Pixies tunes with Frank Black and released an album called “Ley” on the label Entr’acte in March 2012.
Here are some video links of David Thomas and two pale boys in concert.
Dec 2011 in Catania Sicily, at the lomax club performing Surfer Girl/ Around the fire
The Beachland Tavern in Cleveland Ohio on April 10, 2007, David gives one of his entertaining intros where he talks about touring the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME and how Pere Ubu would not make it in, yet he wanted to gain fame by campaigning for YES being inducted. Following the intro, the band performs NUMBERS MAN.
