Members Of Seattle’s Presidents Break Up

The Presidents of the United States of America, a Seattle rock trio known for its upbeat, irreverent tunes about cats, bugs, fruit and seminaked celebrities, is finishing up its last term.

The break up is amicable, manager Staci Slater said. Band members Chris Ballew, Dave Dederer and Jason Finn could not be reached for comment.

“They all want to do different things, particularly Chris,” Slater said by phone from Los Angeles.

“(Chris) wants to be a father and a husband and he’s got a home studio where he does all kinds of fiddling. … He just wants to be home. That’s where a lot of (the group’s) songs came from. So who knows in a few years what might come out of this.”

Since the mid-‘80s, the group has been one of Seattle’s most popular and entertaining bands, selling more than 5 million copies of its two albums worldwide.

In 1996, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award (along with Seattle’s Foo Fighters) for best alternative music performance.

At many shows, the song that best represented the band’s zany, carefree spirit was “We Are Not Going to Make It,” written by a college friend of Ballew’s: “We are not going to make it/Because there are a million better bands/With a million better songs.”

Chief songwriter Ballew’s winning wit came through on such original songs as “Peaches,” “Dune Buggy,” “Mach 5” and “Tiki God,” a comical tune about a statuette that gives its owner extraordinary powers:

“I had a girl and she did me wrong/I didn’t let that kind of (stuff) go on too long/Split the clouds and divided the sea/Showed that girl how nasty the tiki god could be.”

Adding to the quirkiness of the band were Ballew, Dederer and Finn’s instruments. Ballew played a two-string “basitar” while Dederer played a three-string “guitbass.” And Finn’s drum kit had only one cymbal.

On stage, Ballew and Dederer often jumped around as if on pogo sticks, sometimes trading sides of the stage in a manic mix of music and comedy.

“We’re entertainers, not artists,” Dederer once said in an interview.

The group had an extraordinarily eventful and fun-filled career after forming in the early ‘90s.

The Presidents’ breakup follows the collapse in April of another major Seattle band, Soundgarden. Last December, the Presidents came to Soundgarden’s rescue, filling in for Rocket From the Crypt during a show at Mercer Arena.

On Friday, the Presidents filmed a video for “Video Killed the Radio Star,” one of the group’s favorite cover songs. It will be the first single from the soundtrack for the upcoming Adam Sandler movie, “The Wedding Singer.”

Next spring, the group will release a third album, a collection of outtakes from previous recording sessions.

In the meantime, Finn will operate the new The Asteroid Cafe in Wallingford with fellow musicians-turned-restaurateurs Marlin Hathaway and Michael Wells, formerly of the Walkabouts.

Dederer will work on recording projects and play with other bands.

“They all have their little side projects,” said manager Slater.