At first, the Giraffes, the new, wacky "hand puppet"
project from former Presidents of the United States of America leader Chris Ballew,
seemed, well, just a little silly and, yes, even a bit self- indulgent. That is, until you
listen to it.
Following in the familiar footsteps of Beck's early demos, and much of Lou
Barlow's lo-fi inclinations, Ballew -- who actually made lo-fi 4-track bedroom tapes
before hitting multi- platinum status with the Presidents -- cooks up quite the sonic
treat on his first post- Presidents release, 13 Other Dimensions (allstar,
Dec. 19, 1997). The album has been slowly hitting select record stores via My Own Planet
Recordings, and could possibly be picked up by Columbia Records if all goes well,
according to Ballew.
"I've always hung out in my bedroom and made these 4-track tapes and
they've always had a really diverse sound to them," says Ballew. "In fact, the
Presidents started because of a little record I made at my house... The music I really
want to have coming out of me is diverse. One song could be like just a bass and vocals,
and the next could be like a massive production with strings and horns and whatever. The
point is that I really wanted to make records that were more of a sonic joyride than a
document of a band, because a band goes to one place -- bass, drums, guitar, vocals -- and
stays there."
Ballew says he hopes to make two or three more of these kinds of albums.
"I may develop this thing a little further and I may start a band and it may go. But
the point is I just... I needed to take the risk to start over and create something
different that I was happier with. It's like a step backwards, but it's a comfortable step
backwards for me."
Many of the songs -- such as "Brain on Yer Tung," "Every
Crocodile," and "Hopeless (Rub It In)" -- were written 10 years ago, while
others were freshly penned. "I've always written these songs that didn't have a home
in the band, and now I get to kind of resurrect them and finish them up."
Ballew is still under contract with Sony, and says he's allowed to sell up to
10,000 albums of 13 Other Dimensions before the label can opt to get involved.
"The point is to stay creative now and not worry about business because I can sort of
afford not to. I just needed to get back to what I do best, so we'll see what
happens."
As previously reported, the Giraffes have a highly entertaining story behind
them (allstar, Dec. 30, 1997). Ballew made up this story about a fictitious group
from the '70s, who are actually hand puppets, who come back from obscurity and put out
this album. Ballew explains the concept's origins: "I hung out with my brother one
night, who I credit, and when we were kids we used to sit around singing songs -- I
definitely credit those rainy Seattle days -- we were like four or five.
"Anyway, he continues, "we were sitting around one night and
brainstormed and all of a sudden I got this flash -- this band called the Giraffes from
Kentucky. So we got on the Internet and looked up Kentucky and found this town, Bowling
Green, so we decided the band was from Bowling Green and just started making stuff
up."
The album credits one Caspar Babypants as the mastermind behind the Giraffes.
Caspar is a name Ballew recorded under for those older homemade tapes of his, while
Babypants was a name kids on the block once called him after he was seen wearing a pair of
baby's pants on his head as a hat.
Ballew's already looking to the next Giraffes album. Titles he's tossing
around for this one include Thank You for Finding Me and We Hear Music.
"I think I almost have enough [material] for two records right now," he says.
"But I'm going to try to boil it down to one. I don't know when it's going to come
out -- it kind of depends on how things hash out with Columbia and this record."
Ballew has a few other projects up his sleeve, which he'll talk about in part
two of this interview.
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