Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
“The Presidents Of The United States Of America scratch that itch that you can’t reach. They are your inner-child,
but stinking drunk on a half-case of cheap beer. And, with the youthful appeal of the Dead Milkmen, the off-kilter
storytelling of Primus, and a razor-sharp sense of irony, they are utterly undeniable. Now the newly reformed
Presidents are back for a new term and the state of the union is excellent indeed.” - www.amazon.com
"Neither four years away nor a nation on Ritalin has dulled the tuneful exuberance of the Presidents Of The United
States Of America.; Love Everybody sports a slew of singles that approach the catchiness of their hits "Lump" and
"Peaches." - Rolling Stone
Try, if you will, not to sing along with "Lump." It sticks in your brain after the first chorus and won't leave until you hear
something supremely catchy just to scrape the chorus out of heavy frontal lobe rotation. - Adem Tepedelen
Discography
1995 - The Presidents of the United States of America (Columbia)
1996 - II (Columbia)
2000 - Freaked Out And Small (Musicblitz)
2004 - Love Everybody (PUSA LLC)
2004 - 10th Anniversary Edition (PUSA LLC)
2004 - Freaked Out And Small Re-Issue (PUSA LLC)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Yeeeaaaggghhh!!! In the midst of an unpredictable election year, what better band to resurface than the once and, if they have their way, future leaders of buoyant, absurdist rock, the Presidents of the United States of America? The newly-reunited PUSA has been in the studio cooking up a new album, a new platform, as it were, for playfulness in rock, featuring 14 songs including the already hit single Some Postman.
Since the bands their split in December of 1997 fans have been sending letters and e-mails urging the band to reunite and asking why they broke up in the first place. Truth be told, their decision to disband came as a surprise to just about everyone. Twelve months earlier, the Seattle-based trio had released II, the follow-up to their wildly successful 1995 self-titled Columbia Records debut. Recorded for $8,000 and initially released on indie label PopLlama, The Presidents of the United States of America went double platinum, rocketed all the way to #6 on Billboards Top 200 Album Chart, produced three Top 40 hits (Lump, Kitty and Peaches) and a #1 single on Billboards Modern Rock Chart, and garnered two Grammy nominations and a gaggle of critical praise for its sense of pop savvy and quirkiness. Their videos blanketed MTV, they toured the planet, played a live MTV concert at Mount Rushmore, and appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan OBrien, The Howard Stern Show and Dick Clarks Rockin New Years Eve. As if that werent enough, II spawned another top-ten Modern Rock hit, Mach 5, and the band contributed a rocking cover of Video Killed the Radio Star to the platinum-selling soundtrack to Adam Sandlers The Wedding Singer. At the end of the line, Pure Frosting, the bands swan song for Columbia, included a cover of the Ian Hunter song Cleveland Rocks, which was used for many seasons as the theme song to the Emmy-nominated television series, The Drew Carey Show. For the average artist, such achievements usually mark the summation of a long and healthy careerif theyre lucky. The Presidents, however, accomplished all that and more in just a couple of years.
It was an amazing time and were proud of how hard we worked, says guitarist Dave Dederer. But as difficult as it may be to comprehend, it all became a bit overwhelming. Its sort of a be careful what you wish for kind of thing. We went three years without a day off and worked ourselves to exhaustion. Eventually, we reached a point where we had to take a break. In the five years that followed, each President worked on various projects: Ballew formed a band with Young Fresh Fellows drummer Tad Hutchison, cleverly titled Chris and Tad. In addition, he built his own recording studio, where he writes and produces music for advertising, film and television. Dederer played with former Guns N Roses and current Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan in a duo called The Gentlemen and in McKagans band, Loaded. The guitarist also worked on a benefit for Seattle non-profit YouthCare and served as a public relations consultant to Experience Hendrix, LLC. Drummer Jason Finn became a much-sought-after Seattle stickman, serving time with The Fastbacks, The Nevada Bachelors and the Gentlemen, among others. In between, the trio collaborated on a project called Subset, which featured famed Baby Got Back rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot. Though the three friends recorded an album (2000s Freaked Out and Small) for Internet startup Musicblitz.com, the Presidents did not perform publicly for almost five years.
For their new album Love Everybody, the band recorded basic tracks at Egg Studios with Conrad Uno (Posies, Supersuckers, Young Fresh Fellows, et al.) and at Jupiter Studios with Martin Feveyear (Mudhoney, Mark Lanegan). Ballews home studio, a shack in his backyard, is the bands choice for polishing and rough mixing the new tracks. The new songs run the gamut, though one tune, Some Postman, has already proven itself after being leaked onto Seattles KNDD and subsequently turning into a highly-requested local hit. Says Dederer, I was blown away when we played two sold-out shows recently at the Showbox (ed.: a 1200 seat club in Seattle). I expected it when people sang along to the songs from our first record, but the whole crowd was singing along both nights to Some Postman, which isnt even commercially available yet.
The band was offered several record deals, all of which they decided to walk away from in order to have more control over their music and careers, and to keep it all local. They recently hired Seattle-based managers Mike Tierney and David Meinert at The Blue Team Music Management to coordinate the marketing and promotion of their new album which will be released on the bands own PUSA Music label, and distributed through Northwest based NAIL/ Allegro Distribution.
The band will also re-release their eponymous multiplatinum debut this fall along wi
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