Pere Ubu have been called one of the first American new wave bands, but, to be honest, that description doesn’t say nearly enough. Pere Ubu have made a small (but wildly significant) name for themselves playing bizarre, artistic rock music in new and interesting directions since 1975.

That’s the year classic proto-punk act Rocket from the Tombs broke up and its members all went their separate ways. Lead singer David Thomas and guitarist Peter Laughner, however, stayed together and accumulated a backing band out of musicians from the greater Cleveland area. (Unfortunately, Laughner died of addiction-fueled pancreatitis in 1977, before the recording of their first album.) The band, named Pere Ubu after a character from the controversial avant-garde play Ubu Roi, began sending out a series of singles on their own “Hearthan” label. These early singles, coupled with their first two albums, The Modern Dance and Dub Housing, created a deep groudswell of critical support. The band was hailed as one of the singular voices in the American punk scene. However, this never quite translated to actual record sales, so they called it quits in 1982.

After that run, they went their separate ways once more – the rhythm section formed a band called Home & Garden, while Thomas embarked on a notable solo career. After about five years, Thomas ended up using most of the Pere Ubu lineup as his backing band and ended up getting the band back together. In their downtime, the band seemed to have retuned themselves toward a more overtly pop-styled sensibility, as if they were consciously trying to break themselves into the commercial mainstream. They enjoyed some MTV success with the release of their album Cloudland, but, again, it didn’t exactly climb the charts.

The band, however, has managed to stay together since then, despite changing musicians so frequently that the only original member left for years has been Dave Thomas. Still, the band continues to tour and release new music rather frequently.