I'll miss his cup

never got to see them live but their footage in Urgh is some of my favorite live footage

Really glad I got to see Pere Ubu and RFTT years ago. Thomas was such a presence onstage, completely captivating. And the fact that he was cranky both times (making remarks about the band fucking up when it sure didn't sound like it to all of us) made it even better somehow.

Really happy I caught Pete Ubu maybe 10 years back, playing a set of early stuff. Seeing DT in the flesh was def mesmerizing. Can't count how many times I've cursed myself for skipping out on free ticket a RFTT show about 20 years back.

RIP Crocus

I saw Pete Ubu back in 2007. They played mainly new stuff, and I seem to remember them having like a nu metal drummer (like way too many cymbals and a double-kick pedal). Despite all that, it still managed to rule, largely due to David Thomas’s magnetism. That dude was something else! RIP

Immensely talented but that skill was buttressed by guys like Ravenstine and Maimone. They never topped those first three records. And it's easy to forget that even people like Tim Wright -- who wasn't even in the band for very long -- was still there, geniuses like Charlotte Pressler were hanging out on the periphery. Nothing like that will happen again in Cleveland.

I interviewed him once. I was told he didn't like talking about Peter Laughner, so I asked him about Peter Laughner. To his credit, he said Peter was the most talented person he'd met up until that time, but then disparaged him by saying he was embarrassingly obsessed with NYC -- that might have been partially true. I sensed that David thought Cleveland could do it's own thing without looking up to metropolitan/art-hub cities. I kind of respect that.

He wasn't pleasant to speak with but he was definitely marching to the beat of his own drummer. They hired a PR person who was atrocious. She killed the interview -- we just ran it online as opposed to print. It was the second time I accepted working with PR and it was an even worse experience than the first. I promised to never do it again and I haven't.

He was definitely a genius and his albums (Ubu or solo) were for the most part consistently good. Over that long of a career, that's rare.

a true gemini twin. same birthday as me and Donald Trump! RIP!

a month later

I was thinking about David Thomas' death again today. He carried on the legacy of Laughner, Tim Wright and Jim Jones. That whole Cleveland scene out of the Plaza -- people like Charlotte Pressler, Ravenstine. David Thomas would 100% disagree, but I couldn't care less. Simply a lot of talent in Cleveland from 1970-1980. That's not even getting into Mirrors, Electric Eels, etc.

    5 days later