David Thomas, Monster Walks the Winter Lake (side A)

While 1986's Monster Walks the Winter Lake gives little hint of Thomas's long-running involvement with early punk innovators Pere Ubu, it definitely does reflect his love of Ken Nordine's Word Jazz.  Thomas tells strange and funny stories here over a stripped-down and largely acoustic backdrop.  Ubu bassist Tony Maimone switches to upright, Daved Hild from the Girls bangs on chairs, and Garo Yellin plays cello.  While the instruments sound a bit processed (it's hard for banging on chairs to sound organic), they're also incredibly clean and well-recorded.  The influence of Rain Dogs-era Tom Waits strikes me here.  Even Allen Ravenstine's synthesizer falls into the mix, with far less of the chaos that it brought classic Ubu songs.  The strange cover design gives no hint of the record's contents.