With a post-punk sound before punk even happened, Pere Ubu were crazily ahead of the game. The absurdist Ohio band led by ex-Rocket from the Tombs singer David Thomas drew inspiration and borrowed stage theatrics from local legends Electric Eels, but it was Thomas’s taut, expressive warble that stood them apart. The mysterious B-side to the avant-garage band’s third single is an angsty slice of small town frustration, built around simple guitar chords, preening bass and an unearthly distorted bass drum. Pianos tinkle in the gaps before its neurotic mantra (“I don’t get around/I don’t fall in love much”) sees literary professor’s son Thomas lamenting both a lack of wheels and a partner (the two seemingly being mutually exclusive), using brutal economy and repetition to make his point. ‘My Dark Ages’ reinforced the otherworldliness of preceding Ubu singles ‘30 Seconds Over Tokyo’ (a retelling 1942’s Doolittle Raid on Tokyo) and ‘Final Solution’ (an extreme riposte to teenage acne and outsized trousers). Like many I first came to Ubu via Twin/Tone’s 1985 compilation Terminal Tower, a cool entry point for a prolific band that have reinvented themselves in ever more confounding ways since.