- Release Info -------------------------------------------------------------- -
Artist: The Presidents Of The United States Of America
Album: These Are The Good Times People
Label: Figit!ve Recordinds
Playtime: 39:06 min
Genre: Rock
URL: http://www.myspace.com/thepresidentsoftheunitedstates Of America
Rip date: 2008-02-23
Street date: 2008-03-11
Size: 62.52 MB
Type: Advance
Quality: VBR kbps / 4410kHz / Joint Stereo
- Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------- -
With THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE, THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA have delivered an inventive, uplifting and often brilliant rock &
roll album. From the opening, celebratory blast of ôMixed Up SOBö--which
embraces the spirit of the bandÆs 4 million-selling eponymous debut--to the
warm, Shins-like lilt of ôLoose Balloon,ö the group commandeers your
attention with fourteen contagious winners.
Simply put, THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE delivers the goods with PUSA
sounding as vital as ever. With the collective strengths of founding
vocalist, basitar player and principal songwriter CHRIS BALLEW, original
drummer JASON FINN and guitbass player ANDREW MCKEAG--who officially joins
the band with this album--PUSA lend their joy and enthusiasm to any and all
within an earshot.
Recorded by Northwest legends The FastbacksÆ own Kurt Bloch (Robyn Hitchcock,
Mudhoney, Les Thugs) and mixed by Martin Feveyear (Epoxies, Amber Pacific,
Screaming Trees), the disc marks an alignment between the band and EMI via
the new imprint Fugitive Recordings. Sharing the landscape with recent,
acclaimed efforts by Ween and They Might Be Giants, PUSA--as masters (and
progenitors) of ôJoy Popö--dig deep and pull off their most diverse and
accomplished record yet.
Case in point is the twangy, swing-informed exuberance of ôFlame Is Love,ö
which effortlessly shares the company of more recent numbers like the
riff-tastic ôPoor Turtleö or the light, countrified ôTruckstop Butterfly.ö As
for the aforementioned ôMixed Up SOB,ö it was originally penned in 1989 and
first existed as ôa slow, 12-string kind of thing,ö says Chris. ôIt wasnÆt
until I decided to Cars-ify it that it came to life.ö
ôChris is very prolific and thereÆs never a lack of new material,ö Finn
explains. ôHeÆs also got stuff from the last ten years on his computers. And
heÆs always sort of rifling through fragments of material from hard drives,
cassettes, Dictaphones, wherever. And every time we do a new record, he goes
through that stuff. And every time I think IÆve heard every song that heÆs
ever written, he pulls out like eight great songs IÆve never heard, and IÆm
like, æWhy the %$@ didnÆt we do this one or that one?Æö
And then thereÆs the glistening, piano-touched pop winner ôMore Bad Times,ö
which is brand new, sort of.
Replete with an a cappella break and a captivating acoustic shuffle, the
song--which canÆt help but be one of the main focal points of THESE ARE THE
GOOD TIMES PEOPLE--is essentially a hybrid of Presidents music and the lyrics
to a song by an old, obscure group known as EdÆs Redeeming Qualities. ôI used
to go see them when I moved to Boston in 1988. They had a ukulele, a violin
and an old man shaking a can of rice,ö Chris chuckles. ôAnd they had a song,
ôMore Bad Times,ö that was very different musically. But I always loved it.ö
ôSo, weÆre goofing around with acoustic guitars,ö Ballew continues, ôand
Andrew started playing a new riff, and all of the sudden that other song came
into my head, and I starting singing those lyrics over it and changed the
rhyme scheme and it just fit. I wound up writing a final verse and discovered
how much fun it is to take an existing song and turn it into something else.
When we finished it I was like, man, this is the feel good hit of the
summer.ö
ôI was just playing this part on this Silvertone guitar that Chris had in his
house and it was tuned an octave higher. And he was like, æKeep playing that!
Keep playing that!Æö Andrew laughs. ôHe started jumping up and down and got
all excited.ö
ôItÆs certainly one of the high points and itÆs in a spot where we rarely
go,ö Finn acknowledges. ôWeÆve gone a little bit further out toward the edges
on this one, but in a totally focused way. Of course, people have always
expected a æmixed grillÆ from us stylistically. Our earliest crowds in
Seattle didnÆt know whether they were going to get loud, soft or all ska on a
given night. That was part of the funàas long as it wasnÆt ska very often.ö
Since the Seattle-based trio first burst into the public eye with its
aforementioned debut û on the strength of radio smashes like ôLumpö and
ôPeachesö û it has been plugging away in fits and spurts with remarkable
success. Look no further than their twice Grammy- nominated debut The
Presidents of the United States of America, which continues to thrive as an
enduring modern rock disc since peaking at 6 on the Billboard Top 200.
Enjoying the kind of longevity shared by eponymous classics of the genre like
Violent Femmes and Weezer, itÆs found a new life on digital services like
iTunes since its rights reverted back to the band in 2003.
1996Æs II rocked just as hard, giving birth to the full throttle, Top 10
single, ôMach Five,ö which fostered PUSAÆs most imaginative and infamous
music video. Meanwhile, accelerated fan favorites like ôLunatic to Loveö and
ôTiki Godö left their imprint on then-up and-comers The Hives.
In advance of a much-deserved hiatus, two well-chosen covers helped leave a
substantial cultural mark. First, a boisterous take on The BugglesÆ ôVideo
Killed The Radio Starö musically defined the smash Adam Sandler flick ôThe
Wedding Singer.ö Next, ôThe Drew Carey Showö adopted the PresidentsÆ
rendering of Ian HunterÆs ôCleveland Rocksö as its theme, bringing the trio
into millions and millions of living rooms across the fruited plain. ôOhio!ö
indeed.
In 2000, Chris, Dave and Jason reconvened for the vibrant studio-only effort
Freaked Out and Small, which boasted the airwave favorite ôTiny Explosions.ö
Giving PUSA a chance to record songs that Chris had crafted outside of the
bandÆs unconventional 2-string, 3-string format, the project included the
riotous track ôJupiterö and live in-studio performances on the accompanying
DVD. ôWe werenÆt officially working again at that point, Jason explains. This
Musicblitz company appeared out of the ether and offered us a chance to make
a record with no touring obligation. Sounds like a hoot, says us, and we had
a blast recording it for 10 days, then didnÆt give it another thought.
Neither did Mudicblitz, who went out of business a couple of weeks after
putting it out.ö
A full reformation followed a series of reunion gigs for 2004Æs Love
Everybody, and while critics were handing out four star reviews and ôSome
Postmanö was a radio favorite, the band ultimately realized that operating as
a touring band and maintaining its own PUSA record label was a huge
undertaking. As Finn puts it, ôBeing our own label was interesting, but
ultimately the day-to-day realities of managing a retail operation were
taking too much of our rocking time. Plus, during our frequent DIVA tantrums,
it was less fun calling and screaming at ourselves!ö
With Love Everybody, Dave stepped away from the band for touring purposes and
ultimately passed the guitbass to McKeag, a Seattle music vet and longtime
friend of the band who was initially introduced to the group by Dederer years
ago and who first served as a roadie for The Fastbacks when they opened for
PUSA on their June 1996 U.S. tour.
ôAfter 200 shows in the band, IÆve finally earned my stripes. Woo-hoo!ö
Andrew laughs. To which, Finn adds, ôAndrew is a huge, huge guitar player. He
takes the rock & roll of the band and capitalizes the æRÆsÆ.ö ItÆs a notion
upheld by the punchy, rollicking ôFrench Girl,ö the quirky and undeniably
sharp ôFangsö--which boasts JasonÆs finest harmony vocals to date--and the
blistering, forceful anchor track ôGhosts Are Everywhere.ö
Then thereÆs ôDeleter,ö a bona fide funk song with horns that the band built
from a beat that Finn had been playing at soundchecks for years. ôOne day at
practice we put it together but I couldnÆt make any lyrics fit,ö Chris
explains. ôThen I remembered an email I had from Robyn Hitchcock--who IÆve
been friends with and whose records IÆve been playing on for a while--and he
asked, æDo you still have that horn part you did?Æ So I wrote back, æNo man.
If I know youÆre not going to use it, I delete it. IÆm a deleter.Æ And he
replied, æSheÆs a deleter.Æ So we started riffing back and forth. That banter
became the chorus. I wrote the verses and we finished it.ö Soul singer Fysah
Thomas rounds out the song with the first ever guest vocal appearance on a
Presidents album.
With a cover image of a hand with a pin coming in to pop a balloon, Ballew
says the track ôLoose Balloonö fostered the album art. It was also the first
song he wrote for THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE. Written on Christmas Day
2005, the first he spent alone after his marriage dissolved and his kids were
off with their mom, Ballew says, ôThe split was a positive one but that day I
was really bummed. My whole life was changing. And that song came out as
therapy.ö
When itÆs suggested that although it came from a dark place, it still
translates as a song of strength, Chris is quick to explain. ôWhen you write
a song and you play it live you have to live it,ö he says. ôIf you tell a sad
story, you have to live it over and over again each night. So my version of
musical therapy isnÆt to wallow in the sadness but find that little bright
spot and turn up the volume on it.ö
That sentiment lends itself to the title of the record: ôWhenever we were on
tour over the last couple years and things were sucking and weÆre sitting
backstage somewhere, cold and eating whipped turkey in some strange third
world country, everyone would be quiet and I would say, æThese are the good
times, people.Æ Like, this is it! This is what we signed up for! And it sort
of mutated into the record title, when I thought that without the sarcasm, it
could be used as a positive statement. ô
Perhaps that outlook also explains why PUSA have persevered and remain able
to make inspiring music on their own terms long after so many of their æ90s
alt-rock peers have gone by the wayside. With an average age of show-goers at
around 20, the bandÆs high energy shows continue to pack venues all over the
world, selling out shows in London, Amsterdam, New York, Sydney and Seattle
on its last world trek.
With THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE, new and old fans alike should find
little problem joining the party with PUSA circa 2008. ôI know this stands up
strong against our entire catalog. And I hope our fans agree. WeÆve finally
gotten to the point where we can let the vibe come to us and then we jump out
at it and reel it in. I think weÆve really brought our æAÆ game to this
album. I feel like weÆve given as much as we ever have on this record.ö
Forgoing the director role he has assumed in the past, Ballew says a
democratic dynamic steered the project and greatly improved the energy of the
band. Playing to their strengths on THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE, Chris
concedes, ôIÆve just kind of learned over time that itÆs a lot of stress for
me and I donÆt necessarily end up with something better. I just decided to
lay back and not care while caring deeply, letting the cream rise to the
top.ö
- Track List ---------------------------------------------------------------- -
01. Mixed Up S.O.B. ( 3:05)
02. Ladybug ( 2:34)
03. Sharpen Up Those Fangs ( 3:05)
04. More Bad Times ( 2:59)
05. French Girl ( 3:04)
06. Truckstop Butterfly ( 2:04)
07. Ghosts Are Everywhere ( 4:08)
08. Loose Balloon ( 2:45)
09. Flame Is Love ( 2:39)
10. So Lo So Hi ( 2:18)
11. Poor Turtle ( 2:48)
12. Rot In The Sun ( 2:25)
13. Warhead ( 1:55)
14. Deleter ( 3:17)
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -