On March 21, 1974, a ragtag band of writers from Scene Magazine, then the city’s music and entertainment weekly, took to the stage of the House of Bud, one of many little clubs that popped up here and there across a then-barren downtown Cleveland and often disappeared just as quickly, like mushrooms. Located on the south side of Euclid Avenue between East 18th and East 21st, it typically hosted bar bands as well as groups such as Youngstown troublemakers Left End. On this night, the scene writers — editor Jim Girard, and “Crocus Behemoth” and Mark Kmetzko, who co-wrote a local music gossip column called “Croc’o’Bush” — were going to live out their rock & roll fantasies as the Great Bow Wow Death Band, backed by some of their musician friends.
Girard knew he wanted to cosplay at being Gram Parsons. Crocus — whose real name was David Thomas — wasn’t yet sure what he wanted to be, but he would soon discover. On that night he dressed in foil-covered overalls and a newspaper hat, stomping around the stage and bellowing as he tore off the tin foil. He also won the pizza-eating contest. (It was an open secret that you could score a mention in Croc’o’Bush by bribing him with pizza.)
Thomas was bitten by the performing bug and soon put together a band called Rocket from the Tombs, backed by local comedy-rock ensemble Charlie Wiener and the Fun Buns, which deconstructed tunes like David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream,” the Who’s “My Generation” and the Stooges’ “Raw Power.” The band played its first show at Viking Saloon on Chester on June 16, 1974. It took on a more serious direction in early 1975 when local scene catalyst Peter Laughner became an enthusiastic advocate for Crocus’s talent and joined the band, along with future Dead Boys Johnny Blitz and Cheetah Chrome and Laughner associate Craig Bell. RFTT performed early versions of Pere Ubu songs such as “30 Seconds over Tokyo” and “Life Stinks,” as well as the Dead Boys’ “Sonic Reducer.” Future Dead Boy Stiv Bators also did a brief stint with the band towards the end.
While Bators, Chrome and Blitz went on to become the Dead Boys, Thomas and Laughner spun Pere Ubu out of Rocket’s ashes. They took a strong step away from that band’s satirical past and into something infinitely more ambitious. Its early music was unwieldy and confrontational, but over time Thomas revealed a gift for quirky, stream-of-consciousness, semi-spoken vocalizing although it wasn’t apparent yet on the band’s four self-released singles on its our Hearthen label which featured its noisy aggressive side.
Laughner was kicked out of the band by the end of 1976 for excessive drinking that he couldn’t control (he died in May, 1977) In the open, try-anything climate spawned by punk, the band inked a major label deal and released its debut on Mercury-distributed Blank in 1978. The band was prolific yet troubled (and Thomas notoriously curmudgeonly and difficult to get along with—he kicked bassist Tony Maimone out of the band for wearing an unapproved hat) and it collapsed in 1982. It reassembled in 1987 and has continued, with numerous personnel changes, to this day. In the end, David Thomas was the only original member.
Thomas moved to London although he continued to draw on his memories of a depressed, industrial Cleveland in the 70s for his music, under both his own name and the Pere Ubu tag. has also continued to record and tour side projects such as Two Pale Boys. The band has always recorded at Suma recording in Painesville with Ken Hamann and his son Paul (who has played with Thomas); photographer Mik Mellen has done most of their cover art. Countless noisy, angular, arty, punk-inflected bands have claimed or shown their influence, as have some poppier and more mainstream artists. They are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, although it found a way to sneak Salt-N-Pepa in the side door.
The band’s and Thomas’ output is lengthy and diverse, and not restricted to music; he once performed at the Cleveland Performance Art Festival, founded by CoolCleveland’s Thomas Mulready. You can find all the information you might care to find at the official website, https://ubuprojex.com.
The site UBUprojex.com posted this announcement of Thomas’ death:
David Lynn Thomas, lead singer of Pere Ubu, Rocket from the Tombs and multiple solo projex, has died after a long illness.
On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, he died in his hometown of Brighton & Hove, with his wife and youngest stepdaughter by his side. MC5 were playing on the radio. He will ultimately be returned to his home, the farm in Pennsylvania, where he insisted he was to be “thrown in the barn.”
David Thomas and his band have been recording a new album. He knew it was to be his last. We will endeavour to continue with mixing and finalising the new album so that his last music is available to all. Aside from that, he left instruction that the work should continue to catalog all the tapes from live shows via the official bandcamp page. His autobiography was nearly completed and we will finish that for him. Pere Ubu’s Patreon will continue as a community, run by communex.
We’ll leave you with his own words, which sums up who he was better than we can — “My name is David Fucking Thomas… and I’m the lead singer of the best fucking rock n roll band in the world.” (Frigo Documentary) Long Live Pere Ubu.
Text and photos by Anastasia Pantsios.