I was just treated to a double shot of The Presidents of the United States of America on the iPod (which is set to Shuffle); Old Man On The Back Porch, and Peaches. (Incidentally, I also heard Peaches by The Stranglers before lunch. NB: It’s ‘clitares’, not ‘clitoris’. )
By now, TPotUSA are an oldies band. When were those songs released? 1995? I must admit my music tastes pretty much stalled after I moved away from L.A. in 2003, but I still enjoy listening to their eponymous album. They’re fun to listen to. What do you think? Do they hold up?
I saw Weird Al perform Gump on something like New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. The Presidents of the USA were standing right behind him. They absolutely loved the parody. They were laughing and dancing along.
I remember reading in the 90s that they played with some kind of odd, simplified guitars. Wikipedia claims that they were actually playing a “basitar” and “guitbass”:
Ballew and Dederer/McKeag play a basitar and guitbass, which are regular, six-string guitars with special modifications: Ballew’s instrument has two bass strings (with which he plays bass parts), and Dederer/McKeag’s instrument has three guitar strings (used to play guitar parts). The original idea came from Morphine frontman Mark Sandman, with whom Ballew had previously worked.
Guitars modified in this way use heavy-gauge strings for a heavier sound and are normally tuned in Drop D, though the Presidents play half a step lower in C#. For a basitar, the strings are placed in the D and B positions. Ballew uses a .60 gauge string tuned to C# and a .36 tuned to G#. On a guitbass, the strings are placed in the A, D, and G positions. .54-gauge tuned to C#, .42 to G#, and a .32 gauge tuned to C#.
I saw the Presidents play in Seattle a few times; 1995 sounds about right. The first time was as the opening act for They Might Be Giants, and that was a great show. They’d just been signed to a major label, and their CD was reissued, but a friend of mine had the original on the local Pop Llama label.
Their cover of Ian Hunter’s Cleveland Rocks was used as the opening theme song for the Drew Carey Show for several seasons. Here’s the full-length version of the show opening.
I was a fan of their dumb pop punk rock. I saw them play on a small stage at a local university and it was a ton of fun. I was such a fan, I pre-ordered their third album and my name is proudly listed in the liner notes. So if you are curious about my real name, you can find it there.
I still occasionally put in one of their albums and enjoy it.