The music and lyrics of David Thomas and Pere Ubu are rife with literate allusions and references to not just pop culture from their own time, but from the vast back catalog of film, and poetry. That isn’t necessarily a unique perspective on their work – or even unique to bands. And while the Pere Ubu catalog includes countless essential recordings, the accepted view of this band being beyond the avant-garde is hyperbole.

The group’s first album, Modern Dance, spurts forth the lines “I like the Kinks/Life Stinks.” And while the entirety of “Life Stinks” seems like a vague litany of Thomas’ views on his own existence (and it is), the song also serves to connect Pere Ubu to the larger, general pop-culture of America by name checking one of the most famous bands on the radio. Reaching out to the masses seems odd considering the fact that much of Ubu’s musical output stands it firmly outside of society’s acceptable mores. At once the music pushes back at American culture for creating the disturbing circumstances that aided the coalescence of the Ubus, but then draws those people back towards the band with a wink, a nod and a Kinks reference.

On Dub Housing, Thomas works to integrate his own cultural perspectives with those of artists and creative forces from the past that he clearly holds dear. The title of “Caligari’s Mirror” is clearly tied to the German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which focuses around the manner in which a somnambulist is manipulated to do the bidding of an evil doctor. Thomas here juxtaposes general American society with a murderous sleepwalker.

The implications are two-fold. Americans, according to Thomas, are only going through the motions on a daily basis without any forethought, examination of purpose or understanding of consequence. And even if these people did examine their actions, it wouldn’t stop the stifling power vacuum in this country, which has only been solidified since the 1979 release of this album.

Amidst his cultural critiques, listeners find Thomas aping a beat-poetry approach to song writing. There are a few notable touchstones in this specific discipline for Thomas, but Frank O’Hara seems most immediate.

In his book Lunch Poems O’Hara takes his free periods (he was an English teacher) and spends them walking around the New York City observing the normalcy of daily life. In the poem “A Step Away From Them” the following lines appear:

It’s my lunch hour, so I go

For a walk among the hum-colored

Cabs…

This writer is able to remain a solitary figure amidst one of the most populated areas on the earth. His turgid wording is found in much of the writing Thomas does for Dub Housing. But additionally, both writers feel oddly drawn to culture while simultaneously repulsed and rejected by it.

During “Caligari’s Mirror,” Thomas repeats the following lines, each time echoing his displeasure with what American society that he was weaned on and then abandoned by.

Walked around.
Took a bus.
Took a bus.
Walked around.
Took a bus. Walked around.
Walked around. Took a bus.

In other places on Dub Housing, Thomas experiments with more flowery verse, still emulating the style of the Beats – this time more in a Ginsberg/Kerouac style.

I heard the radio sun.

Made the day like a beach.

Lost & in love,

I was sand in the surf.

Living in Cleveland and romanticizing the beach don’t seem to go together, but Thomas’ literary influences are clear. And even though he doesn’t echo them precisely, his writing has a clear antecedent.