Peaches Lump Dune Buggy The Presidents Of The United States Of America

Peaches Album: The Presidents of the United States of America (1995)
Lump Album: The Presidents of the United States of America (1995)
Dune Buggy Single & Album: The Presidents of the United States of America (1995)
by The Presidents Of The United States Of America

First theory: It's just a song about how peaches are great. Perhaps a little commentary about how natural peaches are better then canned stuff.

Second theory: It's about women's private parts and cunnilingus.

The Presidents Of The United States Of America also have a song called "Kitty," which is about a cat (or is it?). They insist these songs - which they're well aware are full of double meanings - are about the literal explanations.

In an interview with Presidents lead singer Chris Ballew, he told the story behind Peaches. "The key line, 'Moving to the country, going to eat a lot of peaches,' I overheard a homeless man who was walking by the bus stop where I was waiting for a bus," he said. "He was saying it under his breath over and over again: 'I'm moving to the country, I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches.' And I thought, 'That's interesting. I've never heard a homeless guy talk about his future and peaches and the country like that.'

I was on my way to my girlfriend's house and I didn't have a guitar there but the phrase stuck with me. I later got home and put it to a little music. All I had was that, then I was trying to be Nirvana in the verse, gnarly and growly.

So I had a verse and a chorus, and the verses were about how I had taken some hallucinogenic drugs and gone to a girl's house that I had a crush on. I was intending to tell her how I felt but she wasn't home, so I sat in her yard under a peach tree, having a psychedelic experience smashing peaches in my fist, literally like I say in the song, and watching the juice dribble and watching the ants run around. She never showed up, so I never got to tell her, but I bottled it and turned it into that song."

"Peaches" was written by the three band members: Chris Ballew, Dave Dederer, and Jason Finn. Dederer came up with the part that closes out the song:

Millions of peaches
Peaches for me
Millions of peaches
Peaches for free

"The song sounds like two different songs," Ballew said. "It's got my verse/chorus/verse/chorus, and then Dave's end part."

"I love that that song was so popular because it really was a collaborative thing," he added. "Dave and I depended on each other to make that song work. Growing up as I did in the shadow of Lennon and McCartney, I thought it was cool that we had that collaboration."

The Presidents Of The United States Of America were one of the many Seattle bands signed to a major label when grunge hit. Unlike most of these bands, they panned out, selling over 3 million copies of their debut album on Columbia Records.

Their first single was "Lump," which got a lot of airplay and some spins on MTV. "Kitty" followed, then "Peaches." The album was released in July 1995, and the band promoted it relentlessly, making the rounds on radio stations in the mornings while they toured. "Peaches" reached its chart peak in April 1996; they put out their next album, II, in November.

That album didn't produce any substantial hits but still sold 500,000 copies. By this time, the band was burned out, and in early 1998, they called it quits. They reunited from time to time, and lead singer Chris Ballew found an audience as Caspar Babypants, a maker of music for kids. From 1997–2004, their cover of "Cleveland Rocks" was the theme song to The Drew Carey Show.

The band name is ironic, meant to contrast their lo-fi sound with the gravitas of the highest political office in their home country. It ended up being a great marketing tool, especially on Presidents' Day. On that holiday in 1996 (February 19, 1996) MTV aired a 30-minute concert of the band performing from Mount Rushmore.

The music video of Peaches was directed by Roman Coppola, son of The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola. Most of it is just the band performing in an orchard, but it takes a hard turn when a group of ninjas show up and attack them. According to Ballew, Coppola had been watching ninja movies and was keen to shoot a fight sequence.

The peach was a symbol of immortality to the ancient Chinese. They placed bowls of peaches in the tombs of close family members to prevent the bodies from decaying. Giving the fruit as a gift was a sign of friendship. (From the book Food for Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World by Ed Pearce)

Lump follows the story of a woman named (or nicknamed) Lump who lives in a boggy marsh. She's not too bright, but has managed to attract a mate ("Lump slipped on a kiss and tumbled into love").

Presidents frontman Chris Ballew came up with the lyric. "It was just a visual, an image I had in my head," he said. "When I thought of 'she's lump, she's lump,' I wondered, 'What could that be?' and I just wanted to paint a very surreal picture. It's a little bit 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.'" Growing up with Sgt. Pepper's being such a massive part of the landscape of my imagination, I think it was sort of my 'Lucy In The Sky,' you know, 'Lumpy In The River.' I just saw this scene, this weird jungle with this woman in a housecoat, an overweight, 50-something woman with her hair in curlers smoking a cigarette, sitting in the river and dumbfounding the piranhas who normally would eat her, but they can't make heads or tails of her.

Everyone would always say, 'What is 'Lump' about?' I'm like, 'Just listen to the lyrics. That's what it's about.' It's literally about this vision, a fancy flight of imagination."

"Lump" was the first single from The Presidents Of The United States Of America, which had the good fortune of forming in Seattle in the early '90s when the music scene there was red hot. In 1994, they released an independent album and were building a following. The record labels came calling, and they chose Columbia, which issued their debut album in 1995. In America, "Lump" wasn't sold as a single but was pushed to radio and MTV, a strategy that encouraged album sales. The song is a bit of a novelty, but unlike, say, Green Jelly ("Three Little Pigs"), their quirky hit was not their last. Presidents also landed with "Kitty" and "Peaches." The album ended up selling over 3 million copies.

Their next album was less successful but still sold 500,000. By 1998, the band was burned out and called it quits, but viewers of The Drew Carey Show could hear their cover of "Cleveland Rocks" every week as the theme song.

The band re-grouped from time to time, and in 2016 announced they were stepping down. Lead singer Chris Ballew emerged as "Caspar Babypants," a maker of music for kids and families. Caspar tracks like "Run Baby Run" and "Stompy The Bear" have streaming counts in the millions.

A cello player named Lori Goldston (who played on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged special) had a hand in the development of "Lump." She was Chris Ballew's neighbor, and when Chris hit on the idea for the song, she let him borrow her 4-track recorder so he could work up the demo.

Lump music video takes place in a swamp, and we never see Lump. Instead, we see the band in their presidential suits performing the song in the water. It was directed by Roman Coppola, who went on to co-write the screenplay to the movie Moonrise Kingdom.

Because it was the band's first video, they wanted to be the focus so fans could get a good look at them and see what they're about: high energy and good vibes.

It's easy to understand every word in this song. That's by design. Presidents had a unique sound, with lead singer Chris Ballew playing a 2-string guitar through a bass amp, and guitarist Dave Dederer playing a 3-string guitar through a guitar amp. Sonically, this opened up a big hole for the vocals, which come through loud and clear.

Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of this song called "Gump" with the lyric reworked to be about the movie Forrest Gump. In the video, Al portrays lead singer Chris Ballew, but performs in a fountain instead of a swamp.

When Lump took off, a popular narrative was that the band's arrival signaled the end of grunge and a homogenization of the Seattle sound. Chris Cornell came to the band's defense, explaining that the city has always had groups representing a wide array of musical genres, but any that weren't grunge got overlooked in the early to mid-'90s. Presidents even opened two shows for Soundgarden at Mercer Arena in Seattle in 1996.

"Lump" was ineligible for the Hot 100 chart because it wasn't sold as a single, but it did go to #21 on the Billboard's Airplay chart, and also topped their Modern Rock chart.

The song is short and sweet, clocking in at just 2:14. Around this same time, Weezer was on the charts with one of their quirky hits: "Buddy Holly," which runs 2:39.

"Lump" comes in hot, with a drum hit immediately followed by vocal. It also has a cold ending, which means disc jockeys couldn't talk over the song at all.

"I was trying to imitate a Buzzcocks song," Chris Ballew said of Lump. "Originally the guitar and the bass were in from the very beginning, but I wanted it to sound like a song where the beginning of it could sound like it's already been going on for three minutes, like it just drops and it's on. But Conrad Uno, the guy that helped produce the first record, had the idea of muting the guitar and the bass at the beginning and have it just be drums. So that was a great decision because it's iconic, the way it starts."

"Dune Buggy" is a song released as the fourth and final single from their self-titled debut album (1995) on July 8, 1996. The song reached number two in Iceland, number 15 in the United Kingdom, number 16 in Australia, and number 29 in Ireland.