David Thomas could be the missing link between Laurie Anderson and The Stooges, or between Tom Waits and Alasdair Roberts. I've got into the habit of buying most of his albums as soon as they come out, and recently I've been enjoying the 'solo' ones more than the Pere Ubu ones.
I don't know this album very well, but I like it. I like the rambling storyscapes, and the unmistakable feeling that this is music to be played after dark. Indeed, Man in the Dark is a live favourite. In 2004 I saw the Pale Boys a few times, but before I moved to London I had to travel some way to see them. I remember going to Fibbers in York for a gig on a wintry Friday early in 2002, when Surf's Up was a relatively new album. It was sparsely attended, and for a while I wondered I'd bothered to go out of my way. Then Andy Diagram (who I've since got to know a bit when we did a couple of Supercollider training courses together) started doing some of his magic on the trumpet and sampler, and David Thomas did one of his lectures-cum-monologues, and I knew the journey had been worth it.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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