Pulling out all the stops today. Crocus Behemoth talks Peter Laughner and early Pere Ubu in 2006.
Interview by Ryan Leach
This interview originally ran on www.razorcake.org
Ryan:Â Getting Rocket From The Tombs together, it seemed like that really solidified when Peter Laughner joined the fold.Â
David: Well, he was the best musician that I had worked with. I remember running into him at a sort of folk club. And he knew who I was because I was sort of known at that time (through Thomasâ writing). And he came up to me. He had heard that I had this sort of band with other people at the newspaper; that it wasnât a serious bandâI donât mean that it was comical, it just wasnât a serious bandâbut he wanted to play with me. So it developed from there. Once he got into the band, it was clear that there was this big difference of quality and ability, within him and everyone else. And the band began to change. People began to leave or be kind of pushed out. And it transformed itself into what is considered the classic version of Rocket, which really only lasted about six or seven months.
Ryan:Â And you were familiar with Cinderella Backstreet (Laughnerâs previous band)?Â
David:Â I had seen them. Yeah.
Ryan: You and Peter saw Television really early onâŚ
David:Â Not me. Peter.Â
Ryan:Â Oh, just Peter.
David:Â I didnât see them until they came to Cleveland.
Ryan:Â Oh, okay.Â
David:Â I think. I canât remember. I donât think I saw them till then.Â
Ryan:Â As an outsider looking in, there seemed to be camaraderie there, like you were two bands on the periphery: too erudite for your own commercial good. I remember Tom Verlaine said that he had a deep respect for you in an interview from â79, that you were the only band or individuals doing anything interesting at that time.Â
David: Yeah, I didnât really know those guys. Peter was really buddies with them. And I didnât really like anything from New York. I just didnât like New York or their scene. I was really into doing our own thing. And Peter had sort ofânot a slavish, but too much of a puppy dog sort of added enthusiasmâfor it. And that kind of put me off. So I never wanted to go to New York. Peter was the one who said, âOh, come on. Letâs go to New York. Letâs play New York.â And I would go, âAhâŚâ So he was much more into it than I was. He was the one that brought Television to Cleveland; or at least strong armed the promoter to bringing them in; nagged him more like it.
Ryan:Â Peter was gone from the band and then he died. And then you went to record your first full-length record. Did you tack on âLife Stinksâ as kind of a nod to your pal who died?Â
David:Â No. I donât think so. It was just a song we were doing and it was a great song. We didnât particularly think in those sorts of terms. It was part of the set.
Ryan:Â Speaking of thatâitâs widely recognized that Peterâs death had a profound effect on Lester Bangs. What was that to you? Did it symbolize the end of a mindset?
David:Â No. It was a long, drawn-out process that was very tiresome and painful. Thatâs why Tim (Wright, early Pere Ubu bassist) and I in â76 had the meeting with Peter and had the parting of the ways. It was clear to us that he was on a self-destructive path. And his doctors had just said, âIf you keep doing this, youâll be dead in a year.â And we didnât see any way that he would not keep doing it. And we didnât want to be part of the process. It was really becoming unbearable to work with him and put up with the nonsense. We just didnât want to be the enabler to do this stuff. So we had a meeting with him. It was one of those meetings: âMaybe itâs time you go your way and weâll go ours. No hard feelings, blah, blah, blah sort of thing.â That was the way it was. We were friends and everything. But Peter was heading off somewhere that no one really wanted to accompany him to. Because it wasnât going to lead anywhere. It was pointless and we didnât want to be part of it.Â
Ryan:Â Getting on Mercury with the first recordâcan you tell me how Blank Records came about?
David:Â Well, I got a call one day from Cliff Bernstein who was the head of A&R at Mercury. And he said that he had found our first two singles in a record shop in Chicago and really loved them and the music. And he said that he just wanted to call to say that. He said, âIâd love to sign you, but Mercury is not the label for you and you shouldnât do it. But Iâm here to help. And if you ever want to talk to someone about something, give me a call.â
So about two days later, somebody from Chrysalis called and said, âWeâd like to sign you.â And I called Cliff back and said, âBlah, blah, blah.â
And he said, âOh, well, wait a minute. Donât do anything for a week. Iâll get back to you.â
And in that week he worked out a deal to have Blank Records. Initially, I guess, it was kind of our label. And he signed a few other people to it. But it was sort of a means to do that kind of music on Mercury at that time. I think, in the end, it didnât pan out for him. He was frustrated by it all. By that point he had become our manager and he moved us over to Chrysalis.
Ryan: Speaking of those three records you cut (with the â78 to late â79 lineup), I really like Dub Housing.Â
David: I think Dub Housing is the masterpiece of that period.
Ryan: Iâd have to agree with you. I think it was a culmination of things. You were solidifying what you wanted to do on the first one and on New Picnic Time the cracks started to show. But Dub Housing really seemed to come together for you guys. Do you remember that being a really vibrant, creative time?Â
David: Well, it was a very busy time. We had effectively three albums come out in one year: The Modern Dance, Dub Housing, and Datapanik in the Year Zero. We did an initial tour of Europe in the spring, and then did a very long tour in the fall. In between there was an American tour and recording Dub Housing over the summer. We were constantly doing something at that point. I think in the end, in the winter of â79, we started Picnic Time. I think Picnic Time is a great album. Itâs just very weird. It was meant to be very jungle-like. I think there were a lot of problems with generating material that quickly. Plus, we had this idea that we didnât want to do Dub Housing again, and we werenât necessarily sure where that was going to go. So we tried to do something that was extremely dense. Itâs got problems, that record, but itâs not a bad record at all. There are a lot of people that itâs their favorite record of that period. So it canât be all hideousness.Â