R.I.P. David Thomas, founder and frontman of Pere Ubu

David Thomas, founder and longtime frontman for eclectic, avant garde Cleveland post-punk band Pere Ubu, has died, according to a report from The Guardian. He was 71.

A post on the band’s Facebook page reads, “On Wednesday, April 23 2025, he died in his home town of Brighton & Hove, with his wife and youngest step-daughter 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.'”

Thomas lived with kidney disease, and the post also said that he was working on an album that “he knew was to be his last.” It will be released posthumously.

Thomas was born in Miami, Florida, in 1953, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He formed the proto-punk group Rocket from the Tombs in 1974, though the band was only together for about a year. Not long thereafter, he formed Pere Ubu with Rocket from the Tombs guitarist Peter Laughner, and they released their first single, “30 Seconds Over Tokyo,” in 1975. The band’s debut album The Modern Dance followed in 1978, showcasing a blend of Stooges-like proto-punk energy along with avant garde sensibilities and influences from free jazz and musique concrète.

The group released four albums in their first three years, following up The Modern Dance with Dub Housing (1978), New Picnic Time (1979). The group’s lineup changed constantly over the years, though Thomas remained the only regular member. In the late ’80s, after a brief split, the group released a handful of major label records on Fontana, including 1989’s Cloudland, which featured the single “Waiting for Mary,” which was one of the rare Pere Ubu singles to receive exposure on MTV.

Thomas also released a number of albums as a solo artist featuring various collaborators, including The Golden Palominos, Richard Thompson, and members of Henry Cow. Pere Ubu’s last album was 2023’s Trouble on Big Beat Street.