"A journey across a blasted landscape of arid loneliness, interupted by moments of surreal humor...an utterly typical piece of witty Ubu absurdity." - Entertainment Weekly, 7/26/02, p.68

"Thomas's reedy, mass murderer vocals remain as unlikely as they are compelling while the spiky, sometimes challenging music is seldom without a groove....In a cultural climate where anger wears big shorts, all hail the suited Kings Of Being Archly Annoyed." - Q, 6/02, p.120

"Immediate, energised and claustrophobic; redolent of late-night TV and transistor radio rather than the widescreen....It's difficult to think of a more important band currently working." - Mojo, 6/02, p.122

"Straddling the extremes of pure, uncompromising modern art and pure, uncompromising loud rock in the determined effort to meld them into a cohesive whole." - The Sunday Times

"For a different band, this would be a throwback album, one meant to convince fans that time hadn't eroded their mission or authenticity, but Pere Ubu are less interested in revisiting their version of the '70s than they are in adding one more piece of strange territory to the map Thomas has spent his entire career drawing." - Alternative Press, 8/02, p.80

"ST ARKANSAS is the most focused, succinct and downright enjoyable Pere Ubu album to emerge since their reformation in the late 1980s." - The Wire, 7/02, p.60

"A dark, smoky and decidedly lonesome road through the singer's head." - CMJ, 6/17/02, p.11

Release Notes:
Perhaps Pere Ubu's darkest and most dramatic statement yet, ST ARKANSAS is a work of offhand brilliance by a band who often seem capable of miracles. It bends and twists and metamorphoses in fantastic ways. Perspectives shift with swaggering clarity.

ST ARKANSAS possesses at once a ragged warmth and a kaleidoscopic sophistication. The breakneck melodrama of "The Fevered Dream of Hernando DeSoto" slides into the beguiling bleakness of "Slow Walking Daddy" while "Phone Home Jonah" is a stone classic of garage punk and "Dark" is a menacing, relentless 9-minute deconstruction that crystallizes the torment at the heart of this record.

But ST ARKANSAS is also an album of real beauty and excitement. It sounds quite astonishing, its gorgeously disorientating spaces alive with presence, electric with promise, framing superb performances which surprise and fascinate at every turn.

ST ARKANSAS is the 12th studio release from Pere Ubu and the 18th album produced by the group's 27 year history. Its predecessor, Pennsylvania (1998), received rave reviews. America's preeminent critic, Greil Marcus, rated it #1 in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Music Critics Poll for 1998 and devoted a chapter of his latest book of essays to it ("Double Trouble," 2000, pages 163-69).

This version (8.xx) of the group has been together since 1995 and is the longest lived edition. Thomas and Herman are original 1975 members.

The writing of the music was financed, unwittingly, by the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, and the words written by the mighty road from Conway Arkansas to Tupelo Mississippi, I-40 to US 49 to State 6.

David Thomas produced and Paul Hamann engineered at Suma, Painesville OH. Only one Ubu album has not been engineered in whole or in part by either Paul or Ken Hamann. John Thompson at idrome designed the package. Only two of 18 Ubu albums has not been designed by him.

All songs written by Pere Ubu and ©2002 Bug Music.

Band:
David Thomas - vocals
Tom Herman - guitar, organ, backing vocals
Robert Wheeler - EML synthesizer, theremin, piano
Michele Temple - bass, piano, organ
Steve Mehlman - drums, organ
with Jim Jones - organ, guitar

Release History:
spinART SPART 108 (US) 6/18/02 cd.
Bomba BOM 22160 (Japan) 5/26/02 cd.