The Presidents of the United States of America - Lump (Version A)

JUL 01 1995 · 12:00

The Presidents of the United States of America - Lump (Version A) (1995) Director: Roman Coppola Era: Mid-90s Alternative Rock Breakthrough (1995) - Peak MTV alternative rotation era; post-grunge humor wave, Seattle scene diversification, and major-label debut video culture at full commercial saturation. High. 'Lump (Version A)' is the canonical, MTV-aired promotional video for one of 1995's defining alternative rock hits, directed by Roman Coppola at the outset of his influential music video career. The HD re-upload (2023) preserves the original visual intent with improved fidelity. As a document of mid-90s Seattle alternative crossover culture, early Coppola location-based direction, and the MTV alternative programming ecosystem, this video holds significant value for cultural, genre, and director-study research threads. Context: Released August 1995 on Columbia Records as the lead single from The Presidents of the United States of America's major-label debut, 'Lump' arrived at a pivotal moment when the Seattle grunge hegemony on MTV was beginning to fracture, making room for more playful, humor-infused alternative rock. The song reached number one on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and helped the debut album achieve triple-platinum certification. The video, shot on Elliott Bay waterways in the Pacific Northwest, literalized the song's swamp imagery while foregrounding the band's high-energy, non-serious identity, a deliberate contrast to the earnest weight of grunge contemporaries. Roman Coppola's naturalistic, location-driven direction aligned with his emerging mid-90s aesthetic of grounding surreal concepts in vivid real environments. Director notes: Confirmed as the original promotional 'Version A' video for 'Lump,' released 1995 on Columbia Records. The video was filmed on location in a boggy marsh and on the stern of a large barge in Elliott Bay, Seattle, Washington. It features the band performing amid natural water settings, interspersed with a silhouette performance scene. The production drew from the quirky, high-energy MTV aesthetics of the mid-1990s, blending humor and naturalistic surreal imagery to complement the song's absurdist swamp-themed lyrics. A second, darker video ('Lump 2' / 'Version B') was also produced but deemed too disturbing for MTV broadcast. In 2023, both versions were re-uploaded to YouTube in high definition. The video was listed in MTV's Top 100 Videos of 1995.