In 1995 a band came out of left field and became the favorite band of every elementary school kid that I knew. That band was the Presidents of the United States of America. Their massive hit song Lump became a song that everyone at Pennell Elementary would sing. When the follow-up single Peaches came out, their popularity only grew. They had somehow become a ‘kid’s band’, even performing on Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards (which was weird since the opening track Kitty contains the lyric ‘fuck you kitty you’re going to spend the night outside’ chanted 3 times).

Their debut self-titled album sold over 3 million copies and received rave reviews. The band performed the theme song for The Drew Carey Show, had a decently received cover of Video Killed the Radio Star on the Wedding Singer soundtrack, were parodied by Weird Al and Bill Nye the Science Guy (and later Singer Chris Ballew performed the parody himself) but by 1996 their follow-up album II was a moderate success at best (Peaking at 31 on the Billboard charts) and by 1998 the band had broken up (the first time anyway).

What happened with this band and their former legion of fans? In honor of President’s Day I sat down and listened to their first two albums (Self-titled and II) as well as the rarities farewell album Pure Frosting to try to figure it out for myself.

 

PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (1995)

This is a solid album. I think most of the people who are reading this owned this album and already know it’s good so there’s not much of a reason to dwell too long on it. But there are a few key elements I wanted to cover about the band’s sound that made them so interesting to me 17 years ago (and still interest me today).

In the liner notes of the album, Chris Ballew is cited as the basitar player and guitarist Dave Dederer was listed as the guitbass player. I always just assumed this was a cute joke, but as I got older and started playing guitar I realized that the songs were very difficult to play so that they sounded just like the recordings (specifically songs like Dune Buggy and Back Porch) so I did some research.

These were not just cute names. Chris and Dave both played regular six string guitars, except Chris replaced everything with only two bass strings, meanwhile Dave’s guitar consisted of only 3 guitar strings. This innovation of the group helped create a unique sound that is simple to play (with the right instrument) but difficult to play on a regular six string guitar or four string bass.

Furthermore, re-listening to this album reminds me of how insanely talented of a drummer Jason Finn is. A few years ago I made a joke that Presidents of the United States sound like a less talented Primus and I still stand by this statement for no other reason that Jason Finn’s bizarre drum fills and percussion usage (specifically on the song Candy). He uses various bizarre drums much like Brain or Herb would in Golden Years of Primus.

Lyrically, the album falls into line with most alternative groups in the 90’s. Most of the album is either bizarre songs like Feather Plucking and Back Porch or songs about the expected failure of the band’s musical sounds (We’re Not Gonna Make It, Naked & Famous).

This is a solid album that should already be in your CD collection if you were between 10-15 in the mid-90s and never left the collection.

 

Presidents of the Unites States of America: II

So where did the sophomore album fail? It could be the opening track’s fault. It’s really not a good kick off track at all. It’s very clearly written to BE a kick-off with the title Ladies and Gentleman Part 1. Regardless, it’s only a minute and a half long and the next track Lunatic of Love brings us back up to what we expect from Presidents.

Volcano is exactly what we wanted out of the Presidents. It’s bizarre, but still catchy and fun. Sadly, the single didn’t fare as well as the second single off the album. Personally I think the group made a mistake releasing Mach 5 as their first single off the album instead of Volcano. While it’s a fun song, it’s not particular catchy and doesn’t even have a good melody line. I think that we’re already starting to see where this record went wrong.

All in all it’s a good album and a decent follow up to their self-titled, but it just doesn’t hold the same level of consistent quality as the debut. The biggest problem is that while the songs are all okay the album doesn’t really get great until track: 7 Bath of Fire (excluding Volcano which is probably the best song on the album).

It’s not the worst album of the 90’s or even the worst album of 1996 (Cannibal Corpse, Patti Smith, Quad City DJs and Def Leppard all released albums that year, take your pick). The biggest issue really is that despite the songs being fun they lacked the charm of their predecessor.

However, the album still received mostly good reviews but the sales just weren’t there (despite reaching gold status). After two years of touring, Chris Ballew quit the band to spend time with his family and the band disappeared with him. But they still released one last album together.

 

Presidents of the Unites States of America: Pure Frosting

Almost immediately upon hearing the first minute or two of the opening track Love Delicatessen I realize that had the Presidents had released these songs as their second album, they’d probably have had a longer and more successful career.

While the albums contains two covers (Cleveland Rocks, Video Killed the Radio Star) and two live tracks (Lump, Back Porch) and the rest are rarity tracks, these songs are all simply better than 85% of II. My favorite tracks are Mobile Home, Sunshine and Man (Opposable Thumb).

This album simply contains all of the fun and rock sounds that were missing in their second album. But it was the last album of the band’s career. Or so we thought.

After a two year hiatus/break up, the band briefly reunited for an album in 2000 called Freaked Out & Small where they began playing regular guitar and bass. They never toured after that and remained broken up until 2004 when the band has since made a full reformation (though with a new guitarist) releasing two new albums Love Everybody (2004) and These are the Good Times People (2008). Both albums were well reviewed and the band continues to tour, however none of their albums have made the massive impact that the original debut album did. Which is a shame. They truly were one of the most eccentric and innovative groups of the 90s and are worth giving a second chance.

When he’s not listening to bands that haven’t been relevant in over a decade Matt Kelly also hosts his podcast the Saint Mort Show, blogs at Pure Mattitude and tweets. He also can’t stop watching the Rocco’s Modern Life DVD he found at Walmart last week.