Memories….?!
Personally back in 1995 when PUSA broke onto the scene with the fantastically catchy tune, ‘Lump’, it was a huge breath of fresh air for music. Ironically enough, they hailed from the same city that was (arguably) the cause of bringing a doom and gloom rock in the form of Grunge, so amongst the lumberjack shirts, ripped jeans and floppy unwashed locks, we overlooked the suicide of a generation’s idol to sing about ‘Peaches’, ‘Dune Buggys’ and ‘Kitties’…Along with bands like Green Day, and The Offspring they brought forward the simple ethics of catchy rock, threw in amusing or irrelevant lyrics and speeded things up, or kept it middle-of-the-road but fun with a capital F.
Back now with their new album, PUSA have this single to unleash to the world. “Mixed Up S.O.B.”, which is unmistakable in being totally PUSA. Just in case you have never heard of these Seattle boys, and let’s face it, they’ve had nothing of note since 1996’s second album, ‘II’ which wasn’t quite as successful as the debut, then they sound like a mix of Nerf Herder, Fountains Of Wayne with a touch of The Vandals and early Weezer…In ‘Mixed Up…’ we have a song a little like Fountains Of Wayne, which has chugging guitars and clean vocals playing nice and amusing Pop/Punk. “You think she had me in a cage // Like a bird on fire, she flew into a rage // her eyes are permanently crossed // Once you won her, you could swear she made you feel like you already lost…” go the lyrics.
PUSA are one of those bands that often have great B-Side songs, and anyone who bought the single to ‘Lump’ will understand what I’m saying as it had three other songs that seemed to be better than most of the songs that made it onto the album. Here we have the tongue-in-cheek ditty of, ‘Ballad Of The Unstoppable Female (The Anna Nicole Smith Story)’, which starts off with the lyrics, “She was taller than a tower // 50 batteries of power // She was brighter than Paris, France // All the lasers in her eyes // were only a disguise // so spies wouldn’t swarm like ants // She had every amplifier // blowing hot air up inside her // at the helm of her private blimp // and every tape recorder // would record her every order // executed by an army of chimps…” Hmmmm.
Last song, ‘Fire The Pilot’ is about as close to The Vandals as you can get, and could easily have been left out of either of their last two albums. It’s a quick shot of melodic Punk coming in well under 2 minutes, with some quick fire guitars and a feverous drum beat.
The upside to PUSA is that they still know how to write a quick upbeat Punk song, however, the downside is that whereas before they were pioneers in this genre, now there are many, many, many other bands doing exactly the same, and some might say even better. This is for fans of either President’s, or any of the other bands mentioned above. Like a creature of habit, they know what they like, and they play what they know…