Kudos to You!

Kudos to You!
Studio album by The Presidents of the United States of America
Released	February 14, 2014
Recorded	2007, October–November 2013
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	34:59 (CD) / 38:42 (vinyl)
Label	PUSA Inc. Burnside Records
Producer	Martin Feveyear & The Presidents of the United States of America
The Presidents of the United States of America chronology
These Are the Good Times People (2008) Kudos to You! (2014) Thanks for the Feedback (2014)

Kudos to You! is the sixth and final studio album by The Presidents of the United States of America. It was released on February 14, 2014.^[1]

The album was announced on November 22, 2013. It started as a project through the direct-to-fan platform PledgeMusic, where fans would be able to pledge money on the future album and other rarities such as lyric sheets and other items. The project reached its goal in nine days.

According to their PledgeMusic campaign, The Presidents of the United States of America more or less actively considered These Are the Good Times People to be their final album. Despite this, studio time was booked for October 2013, with nothing really planned. No songs had been written, but apparently the music kept coming. More studio time was thus booked for November.

Also announced as part of this project is a live album, which was released simultaneously. The live album is called Thanks for the Feedback, and features 20 songs from one of the band's performances at their own PUSAFEST '11.^[2]

Pledgers were able to pledge money on a limited edition colored vinyl of the album, where the color of the vinyl version was voted on by the pledgers. The winning color combination ended up being a burgundy and yellow swirl. This vinyl was exclusive to pledgers, limited to 200 copies^[3] and will reportedly not be reprinted once the project is over.

Track listing

All songs written by Chris Ballew, unless otherwise noted.^[4]

1. "Slow Slow Fly" – 3:25
2. "Crappy Ghost" – 2:26
3. "Good Morning Tycoon" – 2:28
4. "Poor Little Me" – 2:39
5. "Rooftops in Spain" – 2:37
6. "Stay with Me" (Ballew, Tad Hutchison) – 2:31
7. "Crown Victoria" – 3:10
8. "Electric Spider" – 2:37
9. "Finger Monster" – 2:39
10. "Flea Versus Mite" – 2:17
11. "Innocent Bird" – 3:04
12. "Ohio" (Ballew, Dave Thiele) – 2:08
13. "She's a Nurse" – 2:59
14. "Truckstop on the Moon" – 3:43 (Vinyl and download versions only)

Song origins

Many of the songs have been previously recorded by Ballew's various projects. These include:

• "Finger Monster" is a Presidents song that began life in 1996.^[5]
• "Flea Versus Mite" is a reworking of the Presidents song "This Is a Blitz", a free-to-download ode to the Seattle Seahawks mascot, with all new lyrics.
• "Electric Spider" previously appeared on The Feelings Hijackers' 2005 album T.F.H.,^[6] although it dates previous to that. However, this version has completely different lyrics.
• "Good Morning Tycoon" and "Stay with Me" were recorded for The Giraffes' Zero Friction album. "Slow Slow Fly" was also previously recorded for a Giraffes album, in this case 13 Other Dimensions.^[7]
• "Poor Little Me" is a song that dates back to the Smell Me Fist cassette, released by Ballew's earlier band EGG in 1988.^[8]
• "Rooftops in Spain" and "Truckstop on the Moon" have both been available as bonus tracks on the album These Are the Good Times People.

Personnel

• Chris Ballew – vocals, bass guitar
• Andrew McKeag – guitar
• Jason Finn – drums
• John Roderick – backing vocals on "Crown Victoria"^[9]
• Martin Feveyear – producing, additional vocals on "Poor Little Me"
• Produced by Martin Feveyear and the Presidents of the United States of America at Jupiter Studios, Seattle, WA.
• Mixed & mastered by Martin Feveyear at Jupiter Studios.
• Recorded by Martin Feveyear, assisted by Jonas G. at Jupiter Studios.
• Tracks 3, 5, 13 and 14 recorded by Kurt Bloch at Chroma Sound, Seattle, WA.
• Art direction and layout by Derek Vander Griend and Evan Bross.

References