The Debut Album-Feather Pluckin' Insane (Presidents of the USA In General)

Member Name: jennystevenson

Product:	Presidents of the USA In General
Date:	08/08/01 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unique, Funny

Disadvantages: Not everyones cup of tea

The Presidents of the United States. Three guys, a guitar, bass (both with various strings missing!?!), drums and one surreal sense of humour. Short and snappy songs about chickens, peaches and various other strange subjects. Makes a change from love though doesn’t it? I have to admit I know nothing about the band members themselves, but I do know this album makes me smile. As bizarre as it is, I’ll attempt to describe it.

 Kitty
Grown men meowing like cats? Yep, it’s the intro to ‘Kitty’, a little indie/rock ditty about a cat coming in from the cold. Having “Kitty on my foot and I want to touch it” confusing your ears, you know that this is going to be a strange experience. Cat’s outside getting wet, cat comes in purring, cat scratches your leg, cat gets thrown out, then write a song about it.

 Feather Plucking
Ah my favourite, probably because it’s so stupidly surreal it’s funny (in a Vic and Bob kind of way). Very upbeat rock song about frogs, chickens and monkeys playing instruments, I’m not sure why they did this song but why not? Perhaps trying to figure out this band is best left untouched. For example, “Flies like to fly cause they don’t like to stay. Buzzing in the ears of a chicken all day. Chicken understands and he picks out the code. Sends a subsonic signal through the snot in the middle of an elephant’s long, wet, cold grey nose.” By now you’re probably either confused, amused or completely put off this band.

 Lump
One of their better known songs, it was fairly successful as a single release. Faster, more pop orientated and less likely to frighten small children. I have no idea what Lump is about, but with lines such as “she’s lump, she’s in my head” can you blame me?

 Stranger
As a parallel to Lump, this is less frantic, quiet and the lead singer declaring how he fell fo
r a stripper. Well, this is as far as The Presidents go towards love. “You seem cool for a naked chick in a booth, lets be pals someday. In other words, put some clothes on and call me” has to be one of the best lines in the song.

 Boll Weevil
Bearing no relation the previous song, this is about a friend called Boll Weevil who sits around at home on his arse all day. Makes you laugh and have an overwhelming urge to do strange dances around the house...well it does with me anyway. “Boll Weevil get out of your home” they shout in the strange land of the Presidents.

 Peaches
I love peaches, so do these guys. Unlike them, I have never had an urge to write a song about how much I love them. If you’ve heard of this band, you’ve probably heard this song. Much more rockier and fast paced, probably inspired by the love of peaches. “peaches come from a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory down town”. I swear this should be used for a peaches advert.

 Dune Buggy
Apart from the humorous lyrics, this doesn’t add much to the album. Not the most memorable songs in style or tune, more remembered for singing about Spiderman driving a little dune buggy. Someone must have spiked their drinks before they wrote this one, it’s not the input from a san mind.

 We Are Not Going to Make it
It’s nice to hear a band having such faith and confidence in themselves, but sometimes they get too cocky, complacent and irritating. At least this track proves this band have a sense of humour and can laugh at themselves (I could never imagine Robbie Williams singing this one). “We don’t have the talent and we don’t have the time. We don‘t have the patience and we don‘t know how to rhyme.” Ah, bless.

I’ll try not to bore you for much longer, but the rest of the tracks are ‘Kick Out The Jams’, ‘Body
’, ‘Back Porch’ (country style tune about an old man surrounded by animals playing instruments), ‘Candy’ (comparing the female species to the temptation of sweets) and finally ‘Naked and Famous’. About everyone wanting to be naked and famous. Of course.

So there you go, each song is short and snappy, all wandering off in surreal directions. There may be a few weaker tracks on here, namely ‘Dune Buggy’ and ‘Naked and Famous’. This is compensated for, because as soon as you start to lose interest, it’s onto the next song. This band has such a unique appeal to me. How can you not like a band that adores chickens and frogs?

Summary: