Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Rocket From the Tombs reduces "Sonic Reducer" — again

Black Record covers covers

Rocket From the Tombs elbows its way out of its own grave...
Rocket From the Tombs elbows its way out of its own grave...

“You’re not my friend/ and that is fine,” croak-warbles David Thomas for starters. Circa 35 years ago, longtime Thomas-watcher Greil Marcus summed up the then-new music of Thomas’s Pere Ubu band, as someone who’d been up in his apartment a long, long time — long enough to recall no other life — and who’d decided, finally, to open his door. To come down to the street. To forsake safety for communication.

Video:

"Coopy"

...off of Rocket From the Tombs' <em>Black Record</em>

...off of Rocket From the Tombs' Black Record

Circa 35 years later, Pere Ubu awakes from another nap of protean dreams and Thomas’s older band Rocket From the Tombs elbows its way out of its own grave, and Thomas, who at last reckoning lived above a pub in England, ventures, personawise, at least, out to the street. A little like Peter Sellers in Being There, except Thomas, personawise, is no innocent and hates it when a joke is on him.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Rest of Rocket responds in kind. Redoing one of your own classics, usually a horrid idea, but the solo guitar on the front end of the new “Sonic Reducer” summons loneliness, hatred of loneliness, and unkempt desire for companionship, before the rest of the band relieves it. Thomas gives the other singers some, but hangs ten at the edges of the vocal mix, snorking monster movie noises through the Sonics cover and elsewhere. By the end he wants to change someone’s tires. He’s figured out that auto-garage help could equal love. He might have a friend. And is that fine?

  • Album: Black Record
  • Artist: Rocket From the Tombs
  • Label: Fire Records
  • Songs: (1) Waiting for the Snow (2) Welcome to the New Dark Ages (3) Strychnine (4) Sonic Reducer (5) I Keep a File On You (6) Nugefinger (7) Spooky (8) Coopy (Schrödinger's Refrigerator) (9) Hawk Full of Soul (10) Read It and Weep (11) Parking Lot at the Rainbow’s End

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

In-n-Out alters iconic symbol to reflect “modern-day California”

Keep Palm and Carry On?
Next Article

Syrian treat maker Hakmi Sweets makes Dubai chocolate bars

Look for the counter shop inside a Mediterranean grill in El Cajon
Rocket From the Tombs elbows its way out of its own grave...
Rocket From the Tombs elbows its way out of its own grave...

“You’re not my friend/ and that is fine,” croak-warbles David Thomas for starters. Circa 35 years ago, longtime Thomas-watcher Greil Marcus summed up the then-new music of Thomas’s Pere Ubu band, as someone who’d been up in his apartment a long, long time — long enough to recall no other life — and who’d decided, finally, to open his door. To come down to the street. To forsake safety for communication.

Video:

"Coopy"

...off of Rocket From the Tombs' <em>Black Record</em>

...off of Rocket From the Tombs' Black Record

Circa 35 years later, Pere Ubu awakes from another nap of protean dreams and Thomas’s older band Rocket From the Tombs elbows its way out of its own grave, and Thomas, who at last reckoning lived above a pub in England, ventures, personawise, at least, out to the street. A little like Peter Sellers in Being There, except Thomas, personawise, is no innocent and hates it when a joke is on him.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Rest of Rocket responds in kind. Redoing one of your own classics, usually a horrid idea, but the solo guitar on the front end of the new “Sonic Reducer” summons loneliness, hatred of loneliness, and unkempt desire for companionship, before the rest of the band relieves it. Thomas gives the other singers some, but hangs ten at the edges of the vocal mix, snorking monster movie noises through the Sonics cover and elsewhere. By the end he wants to change someone’s tires. He’s figured out that auto-garage help could equal love. He might have a friend. And is that fine?

  • Album: Black Record
  • Artist: Rocket From the Tombs
  • Label: Fire Records
  • Songs: (1) Waiting for the Snow (2) Welcome to the New Dark Ages (3) Strychnine (4) Sonic Reducer (5) I Keep a File On You (6) Nugefinger (7) Spooky (8) Coopy (Schrödinger's Refrigerator) (9) Hawk Full of Soul (10) Read It and Weep (11) Parking Lot at the Rainbow’s End
Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

In-n-Out alters iconic symbol to reflect “modern-day California”

Keep Palm and Carry On?
Next Article

Syrian treat maker Hakmi Sweets makes Dubai chocolate bars

Look for the counter shop inside a Mediterranean grill in El Cajon
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader