The Presidents Of The United States Of America
The Presidents Of The United States Of America II
The band: Chris Ballew- bass
Dave Dederer- guitar
Jason Finn- drums
The Presidents of the United States of America scratch that itch that you can't reach. They do and say all those things that you'd like to, but fear what people might think of you. 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. Unfortunately, this is not most people’s opinion of the band. The Presidents are often referred to as “a side show band’ or “wannabes”. It’s this mindless chatter that makes my skin boil. Sure, these guys aren’t one of the greatest bands ever. But they do their thing. The vocals are silly and usually pointless, which is nice because nowadays bands spend so much time working on their vocals, often neglecting the instrumentals, just to have people call their vocals lame or unoriginal. The instrumentals are adequate as well. Decent guitar, a solo thrown in here and there. Jason Finn is no Neil Peart but he gets the job done and keeps the beat which is all I ask.
Band Update: The Presidents dead? Gone, retired? NO! After the controversial election in 2004 the band though it would be a great time to re-unite. And re-unite they did. The buoyant absolutely absurd rockers are back. “PUSA” has already put out another album that some are unaware of “Love Everybody”. The band was given offers from several major record labels. All of which they turned down because they wanted to have more control over their music and careers.
When asked “Does this mean the band is back together for good?” Ballew had this to say. “We’re going to take things at an even pace and not kill ourselves this time. The key is to keep everything fun and in perspective and cherish it and keep it all positive. If we can do that, and I think we can, I really don’t see us ever splitting up. Besides,” he laughs, “we can’t play the break-up card again. We’ve already done that once.”
Overall Sound: Like their previous album this is a very fun listen. None of the instrumentals are overly spectacular but they’re more than listenable. The guitar varies throughout. Some songs are mostly power chords, others use regular chords and others are just riffs throughout. There are a few solos in the album as well. They weren’t great solos mind you, but they kept things from getting boring. As previously mentioned the drums were nothing to rave on and on about, but they had their moments here and there.
Track By Track:
Ladies And Gentlemen Part 1 (4.5/5)- Perfect song to start the album off. Catchy little intro to get things going. The vocals kick in shortly after. The vocals were actually the reason this was the perfect opener. “Good evening ladies and gentlemen” was the first line. I really liked this, it was sort of like being welcomed to the album. The song is pretty simple throughout. The song begins to pick up after about the first forty-five seconds. The guitar switches over to some basic power chords. The song finishes with a few notes that sound like they’re played on piano.
Lunatic To Love (4/5)- Solid track. Starts off with a good fast pace. Splendid guitar. Some nice high pitched bends and things. Superb drums to start things off as well. This song goes back and forth from slow to fast. The slower parts of the song are excellent as well. The vocals are good and there’s some nice mellow riffing under them. Overall, a more than worthy edition to the album.
Volcano (5/5)- One of my favourite tracks by the presidents. Well-written little intro to start things off. I enjoyed the verse. Good flow to it. The chorus was exquisite as well. Some nice little bends and high pitched notes to bring the song up a notch. There was also some nice soloing in here, but it was very hard to here it. Some piano was also included in this track. The vocals in this track were also outstanding.
Mach 5 (3.5/5)- Not the best track on the album, but decent. Basic put chords mostly. Pretty kickin’ bass line actually. Drums were kind of basic. The vocals weren’t quite as good as most of the others on the album. There is some nice riffage in here, but not much. Nothing else to say about this one. Moving on.
Twig (4/5)- Interesting track. Power chords to start things, off with a nice solo-y riff over top. The vocals in this track are a bit lower pitched than usual. Some marvelous bass in this track as well. This track does tend to get a bit repetitive after a while, but the occasional little high-pitched bend seems to keep things going. Hmm, seem to use that trick a lot to keep tracks from getting boring. This is one of few tracks on the album with a solo. It’s pretty short but it’s pretty decent.
Bug City (4/5)- Love the intro. It actually makes me want to dance. Unfortunately I can’t dance, so I’ll just sit and bob my head. Fabulous verse, very catchy. I enjoyed the chorus, also. It had a nice beat and the piano thrown in underneath was an attention grabber. After a brief little bridge we enter the outro, which is pretty much just a repetition of the phrase “And we’re all going to bug city for the night”. Doesn’t make to much sense, but nothing on this album really does.
Bath Of Fire (3.5/5)- Nothing overly special about this track. Some fairly decent bass in the intro. If I’m not mistaken I do believe I heard some cow bell in there, as well. I didn’t much like the flow of this track. Some of the riffs didn’t go together as well as they should have. There was a nice little solo in here. If it were not for that it may have been a three or 2.5. Nothing more to say about this one.
Tiki God (4/5)- Fantastic intro. Nice and fast just how I like it. The verse was similar to the intro in the sense that it was also quite fast. Not really a big fan of the chorus in this track. I suppose there wasn’t really anything wrong with it. I just don’t like it for some reason. There’s some nice bluesy soloing with some vocals over it near the end. Overall not really a stand out track, but still not bad at all.
L.I.P (4.5/5)- One of the albums finer moments. Stupendous intro. Starting with some harmonics, then getting into a good flowing riff. Verse slows things down some, but nothing wrong with that. Chorus was superb but still pretty damn good, catchy and all that. Neat little riff in between verses. As can be said for most of the album the drums were nothing to speak too much about. But they had a moment here and there in the early going of the song.
Froggie (5/5)- One of the more instrumentally sound track of the album. Very busy throughout. It was almost like every instrument was soloing together. Except for the drums which again didn’t do much. I’m a big fan of the vocals in this song, quite funny and I like frogs. Some nice effects come in when there’s about a minute left and the song slows down. Caught my attention for sure. The things start to get more enthusiastic again and from there on there’s just some vocals and then it’s done.
Toob Amplifier (5/5)- First few seconds oft he song are very melodic. The we get into the presidents classic fun sound. Good flowing track throughout. There’s a nice little riff after the chorus that sort of mimics the vocals. Good stuff there. About half way through the song it virtually starts over. It found that to be a little strange but it didn’t take away from the song at all. The drums in this track were actually a bit of an improvement from some of the other tracks on the album, but still not too spectacular.
Supermodel (4/5)- Outstanding track. Mainly because it talks about sexy girls. Tee-Hee. But seriously there were some pretty good instrumentals in here. I enjoyed the bass in the bridge. Wasn’t the most guitar oriented song on the album, but the guitar was still pretty catchy. I enjoyed the vocals to an extent. Not the funniest on the album but I smirked here and there. Nothing else really special about this one. Moving on.
Puffy Little Shoes (5/5)- One of my favourites from the album. Enjoyed the intro. The dead notes were effective. Pretty mellow track. It has its rising moments here and there but nothing too rockin’. Catchy little chorus, nothing too fancy. The bridge in this song was simply marvelous. There was also a short little solo that was quite impressive but the second solo closer to the end was better. Also, props to this song for making puffy shoes sound fashionable.
Ladies and Gentlemen Part 2 (5/5)- Excellent wah soloing to start things off. Probably some of the best guitar work these guys have ever done actually. Then it gets into a repeat of the starter track. With the words slightly inverted to make the song about saying goodbye. If you want a further description of the song from here on out refer to the first track as the instrumentals are the same
Hidden Track:
Basketball Dream (3/5)- This wasn’t anything special. I can almost see why they hid it. It was just a little acoustic riff with a child talking over top of it. The kid was probably about 6. That’s it for this one.
Overall Rating: 4/5
Pros: The vocals
Fairly well written tracks
Fun sound
The album finishes strong
Cons: Some more solos would have been nice
Some songs were a tad simple
Well that’s it. My review. Hope you enjoyed it. This is a truly under-rated band. Well worth looking into. They’ve been one of my favourites since my early child hood and to this day they’re still one of my favourites. I think a lot of you out there will like this. Unless you’re like a hardcore metal fan and don’t listen to any other genres of music or something like that. So, until next time keep your stick on the ice.
Metallicaman
