The year was 1995. With the exception of the 'punk revival' bands like Green Day and The Offspring, and despite the suicide of Kurt Cobain a year earlier, the same bands still ruled rock radio: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Live, Alice in Chains, yadda yadda yadda. On the one hand, the atmosphere was perfect for a goofy novelty band to take off. On the other, record labels were looking for bands that sounded like Pearl Jam, the biggest seller of the early 90s rock wave. Ironically, I guess, it was a novelty band from of all places, Seattle, that broke through on the strength of quirky songs and an even quirkier sound.

Started in 1990 by the duo of Chris Ballew and Dave Dederer, PUSA was different for no other reason than the fact that their guitars and basses had half as many strings as they normally do: Ballew played two string bass (he also sang lead vocals), and Dederer played three string guitar. Obviously, this led to songs bleeding into each other and blending together. But for one album in 1995, the band's debut, they captured America's hearts with their goofy anthems.

The first song to break the band was Lump, propelled by a simple and peppy drumbeat, and simple fuzzy chords. The energy of the song proved to be infectious, and I can still remember jamming to this song with friends at one of the few high school dances I decided to grace with my presence. The song became so popular that Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of it, about that lovable movie character Forrest Gump.

As big as Lump became, I don't think it ever could've prepared the band for the success the second single would have, especially given the subject matter. But the fact remains that in late 95/early 96, alongside songs like All Apologies and Not For You and My Wave was a song all about Peaches. "Movin to the country, I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches." It seemed so absurd, this song about Peaches garnering the type of airplay that used to be reserved for songs like Livin on a Prayer. But there it was, all over radio, all over MTV with the ridiculous ninja themed video. I guess you could almost say that the lighthearted song almost was a precursor to the big pop explosion of 1997 (i.e. Spice Girls and Hanson). Either way, Peaches is just such a fun song, that if you can't bop along to it, methinks you take yourself way too seriously.

The only other song that garnered any sort of airplay was the lead track Kitty. This song is much more tightly arranged than the other two singles, and I love the fact that the band has meows in the background throughout almost the entire song. In fact, the song in some ways mirrors George Carlin's infamous rants about cats ("he's circling round my ankle..."), and the bridge ("f*ck you kitty you're gonna spend the night (meowwww), "f*ck you kitty you're gonna spend the night (meowwww), "f*ck you kitty you're gonna spend the night...OUT-SIDE") has a great buildup to it.

The album's quality doesn't end there though. Feather Pluckn has a loud anthemic chorus (sample line: "ten million monkeys all pick up guitars, nobody taught them how"), while Stranger has a pretty little melody to it.

The band shows off their punk influences towards the latter-middle of the disc. We Are Not Going to Make It is a simple little jam with plenty of self-deprecating humor ("we're not gonna make it, because we don't have the talent...and we don't know how to rhyme"). The band also rips through a light speed version of the MC5's Kick Out the Jams.

Elsewhere, the band shows their funky side with some of the music on Body and Boll Weevil, before returning to their goofier (if softer) side for the album closing Naked and Famous.

This disc can get tiresome after many many repeated listens, but usually just walking away from it for a few weeks does the trick. I've regularly popped this disc in my player for a couple of spins since buying it in late 1995. If you need something lighthearted and energetic, something you can just shout along to, there is very little from the 1990s decade that fits that description as well as this does.

The band released a follow up in late 1996, although the album didn't sell very well at all. They broke up a year later, releasing the odds and sods collection Pure Frosting in 1998. The band reconvened in 2000 and released their fourth album.


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