“30 Seconds Over Tokyo” by Pere Ubu

"30 Seconds Over Tokyo" was Pere Ubu's first single, pressed in December 1975 on Hearthan Records, David Thomas's own independent label, and folded three years later into the Datapanik in the Year Zero EP. It was never supposed to start anything. Rocket from the Tombs had fallen apart by the middle of 1975, and Thomas, who had written the song with Peter Laughner and Gene O'Connor in that band, simply wanted it on tape before it vanished. That September he pitched Laughner a studio-only group that would cut one single and call it quits.

The plan didn't hold. Thomas hollers over the guitars of Laughner and Tom Herman, Tim Wright's bass and Scott Krauss's drums, while Allen Ravenstine's synthesizer hisses and squalls through the cracks. It's proto-punk that sounds like the machinery talking back.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.