Courtesy of DJ Envy/Splizzy. Collage via ILLIONAIRE.

Birdman feat. Lil Kim & Nicki Minaj – Grindin’ Making Money

Some questions I have though:

1. Auto-tune on the chorus? Really?
2. Is Wayne still writing all of Stunna’s bars? He should…
3. Did Lil Kim really get on a song with Baby to sneak diss Nicki Minaj?
4. Why does Nicki rap like that?
5. Who OK’d this shit?

“We need a board” -© Jay-z

Lloyd feat. Lil Wayne & Juelz Santana – Pusha

Via: Nah Right

Pan Pan is Sarah Jerns, the 21 year old Multi-Instrumentalist from Bellingham, WA. Above are a couple of videos supplied to us, the masses by the good people at the You Are We Are blog. The videos are from an October 23rd performance at WWU’s Underground Coffeehouse. You can click over to You Are We Are at the link below to see footage of the whole show as well as “10 Questions with Sarah Jerns.”

youareweare.com

If you’re in the Bellingham area you can catch Pan Pan next weekend:

Friday Nov. 20th 2009
@ The Rogue Hero
w/ The Mission Orange and Rooftops (CD RELEASE!)
10pm- $5

Saturday Nov. 21st 2009
@ WWU PAC Mainstage
w/ The Books
7:30pm – $7 for WWU Students / $10 General Admission

For More Pan Pan goodness:

www.myspace.com/thepanpan

Whew! What a trip, hours and hours of driving, over 600 pictures taken (about 100 good ones, not a bad average really for a concert), and two incredible bands rocking the world and beyond.

Well, I’m back now, only to discover that my Zune doesn’t know how to sync with my computer to let the thing know that my subscription is indeed NOT expired and that I’m still paying my $15 a month, so now my Zune won’t play my freebie downloads. I guess I’ll have to figure out how to fix that when I get a chance, but until then it’s time to talk about an album that I actually ripped from the CD myself, since that’s all I can listen to without a bunch of bother.

Hey, remember The Presidents Of The United States Of America? Did you know they came out with an album last year? Well, here it is:

So exactly how are PUSA doing nowadays, coming out with an album nearly 15 years after their inaugural (eh heh) release? The critics would tell you not-a-so-good, but I say it’s-a-plenty-good.

Of course, of course, it’s not the kind of album the self-titled was, but I’d say it’s probably better than II, but only by virtue of having a little more substance and more “interesting” material than just goofy, lo-fi fun. Indeed, the band never really went back to the kind of chunky sound they used for their debut, and thus this album, like the others, is too polished to have that sort of character going for it. This isn’t to the music’s detriment though, if you’re a PUSA fan, this album should be great, if not a little surprising.

We start off with a song that is kind of “standard fare”, if there is such a thing, with a really catchy subsonic number called “Mixed Up S.O.B.“, which features a video directed by Weird Al (being that, despite him parodying their already humorous style, those guys are the best of friends). The song itself is catchy, fast, cleverly written, and it all boils down to a great line, “She’s a mixed up son of a bitch”. The song’s a little hard to follow, lyrically, because the character of the song dies in the first verse, but the song just keeps on going. It’s like a country song in reverse!

Speaking of a country song, there’s a really great, largely acoustic number on this album called “More Bad Times” (a wonderful counter to the album’s positive-thinking title), which isn’t so much “country”, but I don’t know, it reminds me of something that could be a country song. Here are some lyrics:

You never had rabies
You never gained weight
You never drank poison
You watched what you ate
You never came home with a terrible scar
You never so much as put a scratch on my car
You never got measles
You never got gout
You never got dizzy
And you never fell out
You never suggested we all play charades
You never picked up any live hand grenades

You twisted your ankle
I carried you
You got a divorce
So I married you
You fell off a cliff
So I buried you
I wish there were more bad times to see you through
I wish there were more bad times

It has it all! A couplet rhyming scheme (I think), lyrics about how great this person is, with of course a totally non-chalant mention of the same person dying, and then the little redemptive line in wishing there were more “bad times”. I’m quite impressed with this song, as far away from the typical “PUSA” sound as it strays (for goodness’ sakes, it’s got vocal harmony that’s actually really good in parts!)

Following that is a musically confusing song about falling in love with a miserable French nihilist (“French Girl”), which is also kind of great. That is then followed by an actual country song if there ever were one in “Truckstop Butterfly”, which hearkens back to the oldest, most treasured Presidents tradition: making allegories about love by singing about insects. It’s like coming home, really it is.

Another thing you might have noticed about this album, even if I didn’t mention it or anything, is that The Presidents have a different guitarist now. Long-time veteran (read: sole user) of the “guitbass”, Dave Dederer has been replaced by a usurper called Andrew McKeag. Andrew is credited as being a “guitbass” player, but I don’t know, it sounds an awful like a real guitar at points. I guess I still have a problem imagining how these modified instruments are supposed to work. Either way, a song like “Ghosts Are Everywhere” contains some really good instrumentation for the fact that apparently there are only 5 strings being played between the 2 guitbass/bassitarists in the group.

Just in case you thought that balloon on the album cover was some kind of accident, there’s another little ballad I quite like called “Loose Balloon”, which tells the story of a balloon that a kid loses and the kid cries about it like a moron, and the song explores pretty much all the thoughts about a loose balloon that someone who was possibly high could come up with (space travel makes an appearance, if you didn’t know).

There are actually a whole lot of songs on this album, and pretty much all of them are good. I will say that, even on an album I would consider “touching a lot of bases (basses?)”, PUSA doesn’t mind making an album of 14 songs that kind of blend together if you aren’t paying close attention. Well, songs like the very last one, “Deleter”, are hard to ignore. “Deleter” is an over-the-top funk/soul number featuring a female backup singer who takes over lead vocals at one point (her name’s Fysah Thomas, for those keeping score), a horn section, and a really kickin’ beat, and the song’s 3 minutes are about half of what I would have liked to hear, man what a kickin’ tune.

Either way, don’t listen to those critical fogeys, this album is a lot of fun, and its only flaw is that most of us have heard the band’s amazing debut and yeah this album isn’t a unique and exciting artifact of popular music like the debut, so sue it, right? It’s like the album’s cover says, these are the good times, people, go enjoy life and music and concerts and fancy cameras and fun while you can! Don’t worry about all this “well it isn’t as good as it used to be” stuff, it’s all good except when it’s bad, and even when it’s bad, it could get worse. I don’t even know what this diatribe’s about, I had better cut it off before I start making sense. Until then!

Tere!

Uus kaup ongi valmis ja müügil ka.
Särke, pusasid, maikasid ja paari päeva tagasi tuli ka laar mütse.
Osta poe osakonnast: http://www.pinkbanana.ee/pood.html

Lisaks tuletan meelde, et mitmeid Pink Banana särke ja Kix’i ehteid saab osta ka Tartus PITS’i nimelises poes: http://pits.baas.ee/

Musast kah.
Tallinna biorobotite duo Talbot valmistab kauamängivat ja novembris ilmub sellelt esimene singel. Seda tähistab punt Skandinaavia tuuriga. Enne seda aga mängib koos Tallinn Daggers’i ja Pedigree’ga viimase uue plaadi “Skeletal” esitlusel 18.09 Tartus, klubis Plink-Plonk.

http://www.myspace.com/talbotmusic
http://www.myspace.com/pedigree1
http://www.myspace.com/tallinndaggers
http://klubi.plinkplonk.ee

Järgmiste teadeteni!

Pink Banana
http://www.pinkbanana.ee
Paar pilti ka valikust:

Xsane.co.cc Mengucapkan Marhaban Ya Ramadhan.untuk menyambut bulan ramadhan yang penuh berkah ,penuh ampunan.semoga kita dalam mejalankan ibadah puasa diberikan keihklasan dan mendapatkan rindhoNya Amieeeen

Viikon biisinä jyväskyläläisen Hormonés-bändin versio menevästä biisistä Old Man on the Back Porch. Alkuperäisen The Presidents of the United States of America -bändin kappaleen voit kuunnella esimerkiksi Spotifystä.

Hormonés keikkailee aktiivisesti Jyväskylässä, keikoilla kuullaan bändin omaa tuotantoa ja covereita useammilta yhtyeiltä. Keikkakalenteri ja omia kappaleita löytyy bändin MySpace-sivulta. YouTubessa on myös lisää videoita bändiltä.

Whew! One of the longest band names in popular music meets one of the shortest album titles in today’s episode, the sequel to The Presidents Of The United States smash-hit killer-awesome kick-arse debut, The Presidents Of The United States Of America. That album is called II and writing “II” in italics like that makes it look like it’s going to topple over, or else I’m just loopy because it’s 3am and there’s no possible way I will have time to write this later today, so let’s get cracking!

Now, the one thing you definitely don’t want to do when you release an explosive hit kick-arse amazing definitive life-affirming debut album is to follow it up with something simply good. The fact that not a lot of people even know “PUSA” are still around is fairly strong evidence in support of that claim. II is good. Real good. In fact, one key-razy friend of mine even out-and-out declared it better than the debut album, but this is not an opinion I agree with.

Sure, the album was produced better, there’s a lot of glitz and pop going on here, but not in that “I just got raped by Timbaland” sense, just more in the sense of the album sounding more “normal”, separated from that low-fi sound that lent a bit of mystery and fun to their first album. Still, the album is not lacking in fun at all, just maybe not as much “weird”.

For one, the intro, “Ladies And Gentlemen” starts with some keyboards on top of some chk-ey guitar as Chris Ballew sings about rockin’. It’s not a bad song about rockin’, but I have heard better introductory songs, such as “Lunatic To Love”, which happens to come next on the list. “Lunatic” is a lightning fast song with quick singing and those trademark weirdo lyrics that kind of abruptly slows down to the song’s sexy chorus before starting the quick part all over. Yes, once this song is nearly over, one gets that sense of familiarity and warmth that can only come from a recording that sounds a lot like the last recording.

The best part is that this is where the Presidents take the opportunity to give you something both new and exciting, the song “Volcano“. For one, this song has higher notes in it than I think a 3-string guitar allows, but I could be wrong. Either way, this song is kickin’ in ways that only the Presidents can provide, throwing out monotone lines about either a really cool speaker system or who knows, but it brings it all home with the chorus, which is simply, “It’s gonna blow, volcano”.

Just in case that wasn’t enough rock for you, the next song is possibly the best on the album thus far, the legendary “Mach 5“, about a kid’s little toy car. The two-chord guitar line that opens this song is among my favorite little guitar riffs that appear in rock music sometimes, so it’s no surprise that this song wins all around for me. The song slows down to a groove for the verses, and there’s always this kind of feeling of “Hey! Wait!” that I get because I kind of don’t want that driving beat to go away, but it always comes back, so I guess I’m all right with this. Seriously though, check out that music video, it’s one of their best ones.

Next we get a nice swingin’ tune in a minor key called “Twig”, something that “Body” should have been from the last album, because man this song is so much better. The last measure before the chorus features just vocals and drums, and that’s awesome. Also awesome is Chris’ bass work on this song. I think that he is underrated as a bassist, he had a great sense of the instrument, and come on, he only had 2 strings on the thing!

Now, I may have mentioned in the last writeup on PUSA I did that they seem to be fascinated by bugs, so the song “Bug City” shouldn’t surprise very many folk. This riffy classic also ranks among my favorite songs on the album, and in fact I can see people liking this album more than the previous one with songs like this. The chord changes are a little weird, but what can you do?

“Bath Of Fire” marks the third “mid-tempo” song in a row, which is getting dangerously close to slow-down. Of course, the Country-theme and the cowbell keep it from getting boring, but man this song seems like it takes forever because The Presidents hardly ever write songs longer than 3 minutes.

“Tiki God” is a great little number, also in the 3 minute range, but you don’t notice because the song is awesome, I mean check it:

Had a girl and she did me wrong
I didn’t let that kinda shit go on too long
Split the clouds and divided the sea
Showed that evil girl how nasty the Tiki God could be
She didn’t call no more nor bother me
My little Tiki God made sure I’d live in peace
One day I read they found a body in the river
Tiki God why you make me shake you make me shiver all right

Crazy stuff! The song then goes on to explain that Brady Bunch Hawaiian special where Bobby finds a Tiki God, and hijinks ensue. All this, and they still manage to fit in several rounds of “Na na na na na”s in there, now THAT’S how you make a classic rock song.

If PUSA ever came close to writing metal, it would be in the opening to “L.I.P.”, or “Little Indian Princess” as it used to be called. Again, great bass work going on all throughout this track, and lots of percussive imagination all around. Great song!

Now it’s time for a song about “Froggie”. This is one of those strange little kind of faux-rockabilly songs a little like “Back Porch”, and it’s more-or-less about Elvis Presley, but the interpretation could be a little more abstract than that. I’ll leave that for the scholars.

“Toob Amplifier” is one of those kinds of songs that was probably written because they ran out of ideas for songs. The punk beat lends strong evidence to this.

“Supermodel” also seems to be kind of that way as well, except the lyrics are a little more clever (perhaps for the Darth Vader name drop), but again we’ll leave that to the scholars.

Finally, we get the longest PUSA song in history to “almost end” the album with, the 5 minute long “Puffy Little Shoes”. It would be wrong of me to call this song “irritating” because that’s kind of the nature of The Presidents, but I will say that I usually don’t make it past this song on a regular listen. In fact, given the array of annoyingly plasticky lead guitars spread all across “Ladies And Gentlemen Part II”, I pretty much end the album there. I will say I love the line “Goodbye Ladies and Gentlemen, that’s all the songs that we know”.

Also if you let the album keep going from there you’ll hear a little kid sing about basketballs, which is precious.

So yeah II kind of seems to fall apart towards the end, but the front part of it is so strong that I will tell you that you probably can’t go wrong with this album in your collection. If you loved PUSA’s first album but, like me, decided to go half your life without even bothering to check up on their other releases, this is the album that you owe yourself, and if I have time I will check up on the other albums they put out between that and their newest, which is also great. Now that I’ve written the word “Presidents” a million times, I am going to go read about Martin Van Buren. Good night!

these are a few of my favorite…

- bran + lotsa tuna

- cookies

- tilapia

- andok’s litson manok

- fresh cold water

- kneading and purring

- purring

- purring out loud

- purring like i can cause an earthquake

- back scratch during ulalay time

- hide and seek with human

- running around playing tag with human

- biting human

- scratching human

- licking human

- pawing beetles and bugs that get into the house

- back ear rubs

- brushing

- soft beds

- even softer pillows

- old run-down scratch post which i now seldom see (it’s in another house)

- human’s laptops (purrfect heat source)

- staring at human’s mommy for 10 seconds (gets me all the food i can munch)

- staring at myself in the mirror

- human waking up in the middle of the night to put a blanket on me

- waking up human by sitting on her head, pawing her cheek

- *nosetaps* with human

- *headbumps* with human

- watching kitty lolo (semi-stray) try to get inside the house

- occassional strolls with human outside of jungle city

- kodak moments by human

- weekends – so that human stays home

- holidays – so that human stays home

- weekdays after 630pm – so that human is finally home

- blog time like this, sometimes human types for me

- twitter, it’s fun reading the tweets of different anipals around the world… i’m about to hit the 300 anipal mark… wow…

- xmas, so i get great gifts from human

- birthdays, so i get great gifts from human

- talking, whining, screaming

- saying “wow”

- teaching human to “meow”

- teaching human to ***purr***

- and human… well… she is my human…….

catch you later!!!

Birthday ni Mike.  As usual nagiinuman ang mga magkukumpare.  May lakad si Judge kaya nagpaalam na.  Bago pa nakaalis sa bahay ni Mike ay pinakuha ang bill ng mga ininom nila sa tindahan ni Cora.  Pagkabigay ng bill sa kanya ay kinapa ang mga bulsa at hinahanap ang salamin.  Hindi makita ni Judge.  Napangiwi si Panday habang ang lahat ay nag aabang kung mahanap ni Judge ito.  Naalala tuloy niya ang kuwento ng salamin ni Judge.

<Flashbak to 3 years ago>
Alas siyete ng umaga.  Sabado.  Dumating si Judge sa talyer ni Cora.  Hung over. Magpaayos ng sasakyan.  Nawawala si Panday.  Tinawagan ni Judge.

Judge:  Hello?

Panday: Hello sir? 

Judge:  Nasa talyer ako.  May paayos ako.  Malala mo kagabi? Pagbaba ko sayo dito sa tapat ng talyer may biglang tumawid na pusa ata o aso ata. Di ko naaninag.  Tumama sa sasakyan ko.  Pa pokpok ko lang sayo.

Panday:  Ako po yun.  Sunduin nyo po ako sa ospital.

Noong sumunod na lunes, nakinig na si Judge.  Dito na siya nagsimula mag salamin.

<Back to present>
Pagbalik ng diwa ni Panday sa kasalukuyan, napansin niya na wala na ang mga kainuman niya.  Pagtayo niya para umuwi sa talyer ay napansin niya may naupuan siyang isang salamin.

1. Persiapan Ruh dan Jasad.
Dengan car a mengkondisikan dir i agar pada bulan Sya’ban (bulan sebelum Ramadhan) kit a t elah t er biasa dengan
ber puasa. Sehingga kondisi r uhiyah imaniyah meningkat , dan t ubuh sudah t er lat ih ber puasa Dengan kondisi seper t i ini,
maka ket ika kit a memasuki bulan Ramadhan, kondisi r uh dan iman t elah membaik, yang selanj ut nya dapat langsung
menyambut bulanRamadhan yang mulia ini dengan amal dan kegiat an yang dianj ur kan. Di sisi lain, t idak akan t er j adi lagi
gej olak phisik dan pr oses penyesuaian yang kadang-kadang dir asakan oleh orang-or ang yang per t ama kali ber puasa,
seperti: lemah badan, demam atau panas dingin dan sebagainya.
Rasulullah saw menganj ur kan kepada kit a agar kit a memper banyak puasa sunnah pada bulan Sya’ban ini dengan car a
member ikan cont oh langsung danaplikat if . ‘Aisyah RadhiyaLlahu ‘anha ber kat a: ”Rasulullah saw ber puasa, sampai-sampai
kami mengiranya tidak pernah meninggalkannya”. Demikian dalam riwayat Bukhari dan Muslim.
Dalam riwayat lain dikatakan bahwa: ”Beliau melakukan puasa sunnah bulan Sya’ban sebulan penuh, beliau sambung bulan
it u dengan Ramadhan”. (Hadit s shahih dir iwayat kan oleh par a ulama’ hadit s, lihat Riyadhush-Shalihin, Fat hul Bar i,
Sunan At-Tirmidzi dan lain-lain).
Anj ur an t er sebut dikuat kan lagi dengan menyebut kan keut amaan bulan Sya’ban. Usamah bin Zaid per nah ber t anya
kepada Rasulullah saw. Katanya: ”Ya Rasulullah, saya tidak melihat engkau berpuasa pada bulan-bulan yang lain sebanyak
puasa di bulan Sya’ban ini?” Beliau saw menj awab: ”Itulah bulan yang dilupakan or ang, ant ar a Raj ab dan Ramadhan,
bulan ditingkatkannya amal perbuatan kepada Allah swt Rabbul ‘Alamin. Dan aku ingin amalku diangkat sedang aku dalam
keadaan berpuasa”. (HR An-Nasa-i).
2. Persiapan Materi.
Bulan Ramadhan mer upakan bulan muwaasah (bulan sant unan). Sangat dianj ur kan member i sant unan kepada or ang lain,
bet apapun kecilnya. Pahala yang sangat besar akan didapat oleh or ang yang t idak punya, manakala ia member i kepada
orang lain yang berpuasa, sekalipun Cuma sebuah kurma, seteguk air atau sesendok mentega.
Rasulullah saw pada bulan Ramadhan ini sangat dermawan, sangat pemur ah. Digambar kan bahwa sent uhan kebaikan dan
sant unan Rasulullah saw kepada masyar akat sampai mer at a, lebih mer at a ket imbang sent uhan angin t er hadap bendabenda
di sekitarnya.
Hal ini sebagaimana dicer it akan oleh I bnu Abbas RadhiyaLlahu ‘anhu: ”Sungguh, Rasulullah saw saat ber t emu dengan
malaikat Jibril, lebih derma dari pada angin yang dilepaskan”. (HR Muttafaqun ‘alaih).
Sant unan dan sikap ini sudah bar ang t ent u t idak dapat dilakukan dengan baik kecuali manakala j auh sebelum Ramadhan
telah ada persiapan-persiapan materi yang memadai.
3. Persiapan Fikri (Persepsi).
Minimal persiapan fikri ini meliputi dua hal, yaitu:
1. Mempunyai persepsi yang utuh tentang Ramadhan dan keutamaan bulan Ramadhan.
2. Dapat memanf aat kan dan mengisi bulan Ramadhan dengan kegiat an-kegiat an yang secar a logis dan konkr it
mengantarkannya untuk mencapai ketaqwaa

For more information about “Mga Pusang Gala (Stray Cats)” kindly click the poster above this note.

Oh, hey.

Tony, Jason and I drove out to Syracuse last night to catch The Presidents of the United States of America. They’ve been one of my favorite bands since around 95 or 96, and I think all three of us were pretty excited for the show.
Lots of material off of the first album. Straight from the group’s message board, user Downtown recalls the setlist:

Love Everybody
Kitty
Flame is Love
Dune Buggy
Ladybug
Bug City
Sharpen Up Those Fangs
Back Porch
Lump
Bad Times
Zero Friction
Volcano
Rot in the Sun
Feather Pluckn + More Than A Feeling // Gin And Juice // Free Fallin
Froggie
Mach 5
Peaches
Kick Out the Jams
— Encore —
Video Killed the Radio Star
Body
We’re Not Going To Make It
(Ace of Spades)

Yeah, that’s some Boston AND Motorhead. Great time. Hopefully I’ll have a review published soon.

In the meantime, here are my pictures:

Chris Ballew of The Presidents of the United States of America - apblake.com

Belfast’s Oppenheimer opened the show. They were incredible. Hell, they even played some Motorhead too.

Oppenheimer - 4/22/09 - apblake.com

I just fried my eyes while editing these for two hours in a stank library on campus, so that’s gonna be it.

This is how far my catmania has led me. Here is the word for cat, in different tongues.   (I really grok the species, in any language.)

Esperanto–kao                                     Zulu–ikati                             Sweden–katt

Polish–kot                                             Philipino–pusa                    Welsh–cath

Ukrainian–kotak                                  Eskimo–pusi                        Italian–gatto

Can you name a few?

En la era de Obama, los Presidentes con más swing en la historia de los USA. Ni el alcalde rockero les hace sombra. Su último video “Rot in the Sun,” en su línea pero con distinto bajista. N-joy

And the winner for longest blog post title goes to…

I figure, on our first day of having a new President of the United States of America, we should celebrate with probably the best album having to do with that particular office ever. Also we’re apparently in a time of great change what with our first-ever black President, and indeed the album we’re talking about is the very first rock album I ever liked, so we’re touching on all kinds of newness here.

I noticed that almost everyone I know has heard or owned this album at some point, so perhaps I will be saying nothing new about it. It dates back to the time when I was young and impressionable and largely unconcerned with any particular type of music (I had Classical cassette tapes and enjoyed the Blues on television occasionally and of course my Mom’s occupation bringing a constant influx of Christian music which I will get to in later entries). I wasn’t really provided with any rock music, due to my Dad largely giving up on listening to anything he hadn’t already heard a hundred times (he had a 10 year lapse in listening to any kind of music with the advent of The Dark Age of music, the 80’s), and that I didn’t like anything Mom listened to for the most part. Hence, it was up to my evil twin (my cousin who was much more fun than me and only 7 hours younger) to introduce me to an album that, probably more than other, changed my gol’dern life.

We weren’t “allowed” to listen to the first track, “Kitty“, very loudly, since it contains that most terrifying of words, the dreaded F-word. It’s really too bad that it would take me until I owned the album for myself before I could really get to listen to that song worry-free, because it’s a fucking great track.

“Kitty” and the next song, “Feather Pluckn“, introduce a lyrical element to The Presidents’ sound I have always enjoyed, the fact that they sing a LOT about animals. “Feather Pluckn” in particular really throws in a lot of critters in their song that is about who-knows-what. I will say that I recently discovered the breakdown where they are saying “Everybody’s super-nova” started out as a tribute/ripoff to the Beatles’ song “I’ve Got A Feeling” where they break it down toward the end. I didn’t know this before because Youtube hadn’t introduced me to a live version of the song where they sing the exact lines, and also I only listened to the Beatles for the first time about a year ago.

The next song is probably the best one on the album, or at least the most popular given the Weird Al parody, “Lump” is a pretty incredible song. It really has an impressive tonal quality, probably given that The Presidents didn’t even have a full guitar’s worth of strings between them. The lead singer plays a 2-string bass, and the guitarist plays a guitar with only 3 strings, yet somehow they wind up sounding as full as bands containing several guitars.

The album slows down a bit for the song “Stranger”, so it’s probably no surprise that I was unimpressed by it as a 12 year old. I have only now, in my half-way-to-old age come to realize that it’s necessary to slow these albums down a bit for Grandpa. Indeed “Stranger” is a good song about Carla the Stripper, but I am still not terribly impressed with it.

The next song, however, stands as the anthem to my childhood. Many a trampoline-jumping session was spent singing “Boll Weevil” at the top of my lungs. I really wonder what would have happened if I listened to a lot of straight-up funk in my youth, I would have probably found it incredible, because the awesome bass-line intro (you may remember that I LOVE those) introduces a funk element that one wouldn’t think could be accomplished with a 2-string bass. Even now, I am impressed by how well The Presidents did with the variety of fun sounds on this album. It’s rare for a power trio to really do much with their sound other than reproduce it endlessly (see: Green Day), but I didn’t know that at the time, I just knew this song was one of the best things to ever happen to me.

I may have been wrong about “Lump”, I think the song most associated with PUSA is “Peaches“, a song that gets away from the topic of animals and strippers to talk about a delicious fruit. Now that I think about it, I wonder how many people you could sing “Movin’ to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches” to that wouldn’t jump in with you immediately in a moment of comradery. This could very well be the solution that our new President is looking for! Let’s just bring the entire nation, nay, the world together in a chorus of “Peaches”, then maybe all our problems will be instantly rectified, even the really tricky economical ones. Don’t ask me how, that’s not how these dreams work.

Then we go back to animals with another excellent track, “Dune Buggy“. I really hate spiders, but for this song I always make an exception. There’s an undeniable quality to the Presidents’ lyrics where the syllables work well together to create a poetic flow:

I got a rubber band motor, hummin’ on the beach, ready for fun
Quit spinnin’ that web and come out and play in the sun
Eight thimble-size cylinders, to be as smooth as you please
Spider’s badass fat old abdomen stuck in the buggy seat

These guys aren’t messing around. Particularly with their lost-cause anthem, “We’re Not Going To Make It”, where their humor is suddenly brought down to self-deprecation level, which is fine, since that’s one of my favorite kinds of humor. Plus the song is rocking, and only builds up from there.

Next is a psuedo-cover song, “Kick Out The Jams”, which was originally played by MC5. The Presidents’ version contains almost entirely different lyrics save for the song’s title, and is only 1 minute and 20 seconds long.

Then another song about animals, this time a slowed-down song about finding dead animals, which convinces me, probably more than the other songs, that this band are all quite obviously kids on the inside just letting it all out. It might be that they are talking about dead animals to subvert the “I can’t get your body out of my mind” line of the chorus to not be about what you think it’s about. I don’t much care for this song, however, it causes late-album fatigue like nothing else man, and you don’t want that fatigue to cause you to stop listening before you get to two really great songs, “Back Porch” and “Candy”.

“Back Porch” is a great lyrical counterpart to “Body”, since it’s less like a curious child and more like a really old man sitting on the back porch. This song is also a great throwback to the rest of the album, since a lot of the earlier songs are subtly referenced. I enjoy the song quite a lot, particularly about his friends bringing “2-string, 1-string, and no-string guitars”.

We’re then treated to an excellent love song entitled “Candy”, which starts off kind of slow but has one of the best breakdowns I’ve ever heard towards the end, since it contains heavy fast drums and either a woodblock or a cowbell, I can’t quite tell. I can not but approve of it, though.

Then, finally, “Naked And Famous”, which is a nice slow-ish note to end on (Well, until the sped-up portion towards the end). I can’t tell you what it’s about, mostly because I can’t figure that one out. The Presidents liked to use interesting ideas to piece together to make songs that are nearly indecipherable, but that’s a pretty cool move, if you ask me.

All in all, this album looped twice while I was writing about it, which means it’s fairly short, but that’s the perfect length for an album if you want to make a really good impression on a 12 year old. I owe most of my capacity for writing and appreciating clever music to these guys, even though people typically assume I’m most influenced by They Might Be Giants. Funnily enough, when I heard TMBG for the first time on Tiny Toons Adventures, I had already heard The Presidents and it was the similarities I drew between the two that made me even interested in TMBG. Also, since I had no idea what TMBG looked like until some time in the late 90’s, I pictured them as two Mr. Clean-looking bald giants. Oh to be 12 again, eh?