Presidents of the United
States
Official Promotional Bio
The mesmerizing musical trio that made
up the multi-platinum selling group The Presidents of the United States
of America has re-formed! The band's three original members, Chris
Ballew (guitar/bass/keys/vocals), Dave Dederer (guitar/bass/vocals) and
Jason Finn (drums/vocals) will release a brand new album entitled Freaked
Out and Small in-stores on September 12, 2000. Fans can pre-order
the album now on MUSICBLITZ (www.musicblitz.com)
through a special promotion called “Fan Edition.”
The Presidents first came together as a
threesome in late 1993. Friends since junior high, Ballew and
Dederer had been writing, recording and performing together for years.
The band formed when Ballew finally returned to Seattle for good after
stints in New York and Boston, where he had played in a variety of bands,
including Supergroup with the late Mark Sandman. The two started
performing around town again as a duo. Finn, then playing with Love
Battery, had seen an earlier band of Ballew and Dederer’s and had been
begging to play with them for years. His addition finalized the lineup
that would catapult them to the top of national and international charts.
Within months of forming, the trio was
playing the Northwest club scene regularly to sold-out crowds. They
made their debut with their self-titled record that same year on the Seattle-based
indie label PopLlama, while the major labels courted. “Within a year,
we went from playing birthday parties for our friends and families to being
chased down the street in Australia while on tour,” says Dederer.
“It was an unreal time.”
In June 1995, the band signed a deal with
Columbia records and shortly thereafter re-released their self-titled album.
It yielded three Top-40 hits (“Lump,” “Peaches,” and “Kitty”) and went
multi-platinum that same year. The following year, the band released
II, which featured the hits “Mach 5” and “Volcano.” In 1997, The
Presidents put out an album of B-sides and outtakes entitled Pure Frosting,
which contained such fan favorites as the remake of the Buggles’ “Video
Killed the Radio Star” (recorded specifically for the movie soundtrack
“The Wedding Singer”), and a version of Ian Hunter’s “Cleveland Rocks”
still in use as the theme song for “The Drew Carey Show.”
With three top-selling albums, three years
of playing to sold-out crowds around the world, and Grammy nominations
in 1995 and 1996 under their belts, The Presidents called it quits in December
1997. Their last show was a benefit for the Chicken Soup Brigade
(a Seattle organization providing services for those with AIDS and HIV)
at Seattle’s Paramount theater on January 31, 1998.
In the years since the split, everybody’s
been busy. Finn has been playing with a number of local bands, including
The Nevada Bachelors, The Pin-Ups and The Congratulators; all three of
these acts have recently recorded and released albums. He is also
an investor in the Asteroid Café, a Seattle eatery. Dederer
has done some  production
work and recorded solo material for release on Orange Recordings. His current
obsession is road bike racing, and he has joined a team and trains daily.
Ballew has been busy with a variety of musical projects, including The
Giraffes and the Chris and Tad Show (with Tad Hutchison of Young Fresh
Fellows fame). The Giraffes have a new record out on Orange Recordings,
and the Chris and Tad Show will have an album out within months.
In addition to all the work noted above,
in early 1999 the three joined forces with Seattle rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot
to form Subset. The quartet released a song through MUSICBLITZ titled
“Addicted to the Fame,” and played a 12-date West Coast tour in early 2000.
“It’s a melting pot, Led Zeppelin meets Stax records, Otis Redding kicks
John Lennon’s ass – musically very challenging and energizing,” says Dederer
of the Subset collaboration.
It was while Subset was recording a single
for MUSICBLITZ that they lightheartedly recorded one of Chris’s songs as
The Presidents -- it sounded so good that MUSICBLITZ put together a deal,
and the band signed on. “We just rolled tape after a Subset session," Ballew
recalls. "And it felt really good. We were all smiling.”
The band has expanded their range on Freaked
Out and Small, with a more raw guitar-driven sound dominating. Described
by Ballew as “eclectic pop with a wink,” their latest album is an exciting
new path that The Presidents have traveled down together. “We wanted
to avoid lazy, mid-tempo rockers,” says Dederer, “so we tried to make the
rock songs hectic and explosive, and to make the slow songs spacious and
strange.”
The talents of the singing/songwriting
threesome are fully explored on the new record, which was recorded in Seattle
at Jupiter Studios this Spring  in
just 10 days. “We didn’t rehearse at all, just went in and recorded.
Lou Reed says he likes to record a song before he knows it, reading the
words off the lyric sheet – I like that approach and I think it works for
us.” says Dederer.
Joining The Presidents on bass for the
track “I’m Mad” on Freaked Out and Small is Duff McKagan of Guns n' Roses
fame. “That was fun,” says Dederer. “Duff just dropped in,
learned the song and we cut it. Probably took about twenty minutes
total.”
Being back together is a good place for
The Presidents, though they are taking it one project at a time. "We just
have some kind of magic when we play together," says Dederer. "I can't
describe it, can't define it, and I don't think any of us can take credit
for it. It's just plain dumb luck to find that kind of synchronicity,
and it shouldn't be trifled with."
The new album from The Presidents is available
now on MUSICBLITZ at www.musicblitz.com and in-stores on September 12.
The Presidents are the first band to feature MUSICBLITZ’s Fan Edition,
a concept that brings fans into the virtual studio to make them a part
of the recording  process,
providing them with the opportunity to purchase Freaked Out and Small before
it hits stores, as well as a video backstage pass into the making of the
album, where users can watch exclusive in-studio footage of the recording
process, download free MP3’s from the record, and purchase limited edition
signed posters, t-shirts and personalized gold CD’s. In addition,
fans who pre-purchase the album will be recognized with their name printed
in the CD liner notes.
The Presidents are excited about the opportunities
offered to artists and fans by the Internet. "It's definitely a way the
Web can be used that’s a little more interactive and not just an extension
of regular retail models," Dederer enthuses. "I’d like to think we’re participating
at least a little bit in the current trend of transferring power from the
label to the artist."
More
Presidents of the United States!
Download
an MP3 of I'm Mad!
Get
more info on the band at MusicBlitz.com and preOrder the new CD
Photo and artwork courtesy
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