THE FROGS

I first heard of these guys from a Smashing Pumpkins video Vieuphoria - their act was shown in one of the clips placed in between live performances, performing warped, often sexually explicit songs. I thought they were a complete joke, and they are, but they're an often hilarious complete joke, a popular, and controversial, cult band led by Jimmy and Dennis Flemian, two flamboyantly gay songwriters (or at least they want us to think that they are) with a flair for exaggerated vocal delivery and lyrics.

--Nick Karn

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IT'S ONLY RIGHT AND NATURAL (1989)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

Hmm... after several listens to this album, the Frogs' breakthrough cult classic recorded after shifting from their early power pop sound, I'm still not really sure whether I actually like it much or not (the same is true with the next one), but at least it's an interesting approach, which is more than you can say for most music ever recorded.  It's basically two guys singing often really, really openly gay lyrics in folksy pop arrangements over very low key production (with mostly acoustic guitars and light drums, and only occasional outside instrumentation), and there's also the eye-opening song titles to back this up, like "Dykes Are We", "These Are The Finest Queen Boys (I've Ever Seen)" and the self-explanatory "Homos".  It kinda goes without saying that if you're offended by the concept of this, you might as well quit reading this review.  As for me, I have to admit some of this is pretty amusing, and even occasionally catchy.

As for the highlights, the opening "I've Got Drugs (Out Of The Mist)" is a quite infectious duet dealing with, well, drugs and prostitution and stuff, plus the way backing vocals appear randomly from the background out of the 'mist' into the front of the mix is a neat trick.  The notorious "Hot Cock Annie" has absolutely disgusting lyrics, of course, but they're occasionally funny ('the cock and vagina combined'... ha!), and the backwards acoustic guitar sound they get is pretty cool, while "Men (Come On Men)" is almost a New Wave type song, with a repeating keyboard pattern and dancey rhythm (though low-key sounding, still), only with more of those typical lyrics you should be well acquainted with if you made it this far through the album.  The most hilarious song for me, though, is the aforementioned closer "Homos", a song about umm, boys in the locker room and their closet sexual preferences.  It's catchy as hell, with an addictive rhythm to go along with it.

Really, though, it isn't so much the lyrics and music that are the attraction to The Frogs as it is the way the lyrics are delivered in such an uproariously exaggerated fashion, as if they're almost mocking the gay community.  This approach ensures several songs are at least fun to some degree while they're on, which is good, since I can't really recall very many of the melodies here (though those songs I mentioned have fairly good ones).  There's also the problem of this quite often getting a bit too, err, gross and unfunny for my tastes ("Someone's Pinning Me To The Ground", "Baby Greaser George", etc.), but hey, if you have a spot for comedy this outrageously twisted, this is an absolute essential.  I only have that spot for the album to a limited extent, though - blame experiences with perverted high school peers and the part of my personality that thinks this kind of stuff is an offense to good taste for that.

OVERALL RATING: 6

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MY DAUGHTER THE BROAD (1996)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

For whatever reason (record company problems, maybe?), The Frogs were prevented from properly releasing a followup to It's Only Right And Natural for a full seven years, but in that time period, they had tons of songs in the can, often ones that were made up as the band went along, and this album is basically 52 minutes of the best of that stuff, I guess.  The material is pretty much in the same vein as the last one, only more openly 'shocking', and with a few piano songs added in as well.  They even employ electric guitars in opening and closing the album with some two part parody of the oldies classic "Reelin' & Rockin'", an absolutely hysterical listen and an effective opener, with grandpa vocals blurting out such sexually perverted lines as, "looked at my watch and it came on one... ehh, so did I!"    

The "Reelin' & Rockin'" tracks are the only ones that stray from the musical formula here though, which are all acoustic or piano songs that lie somewhere between being absolute riots to listen to -- especially when that "grandpa" character is featured in such tunes as the heartbreaking piano-led emotion [heavy sarcasm here] of "I'm Hungry" and "I'm Sad My Goat Just Died Today", as well as quality comedy like "I Love You (U Know I Don't)", "Grandma In The Corner With A Penis In Her Hand Going, 'No No No'", and "I'm Evil, Jack" and downright disgusting songs that are simply shock for shock's sake. Overall, though, a good amount of this crap is capable of having the listener fall into unparalleled hysterical laughter, but a lot of it is just a bit too perverted for my liking (and apparently most listeners), although it's still worth a listen just for the entertainment value (at least for those who can handle it), which is always an important thing to music listeners all around.

OVERALL RATING: 6

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COMMENTS

[email protected] (Andrew McQuillan)

Is this the album with 'Love Me or Die Bitch'? I love the end of that song where the piano gets pounded out of nowhere. I just rewound it over and over again and kept playing it. I assume one of the sick songs you mean is 'April Fools'. Aw man, I love that song. Absolutely ridiculous. The art of shock value is a fun listen. Unfortunately, since it's impossible to find in most stores, I download the Frogs from Audiogalaxy and places like that.

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