The Frogs
Driftin'Along
Posts: 1,403
Does anybody have any of their records? Where can you find them? I am having a really hard time finding them in Phoenix. Can someone help me out and maybe recommend a certain one or two to start off with. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
"Not only do you have sunshine but you have better thunder...fuckers." -Ed, Phx 10/21/00
PJ * 10/21/00 - Phx * 6/7/03 - Phx * 6/29/06 - Milwaukee * 6/30/06 - Milwaukee * 11/19/13 - Phx *
EV * 11/4/12 - Phx, AZ *
PJ * 10/21/00 - Phx * 6/7/03 - Phx * 6/29/06 - Milwaukee * 6/30/06 - Milwaukee * 11/19/13 - Phx *
EV * 11/4/12 - Phx, AZ *
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
Neil asked for permission to snake that line from the Frogs
Other than that i'm pretty inexperienced by them too.
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
Actually he snaked "Rust Never Sleeps" from Devo. Jeff Blackburn (most famously from Moby Grape, also played with Neil in the Ducks) came up with the line you quoted.
The Frogs are a hilarious folk band who do a cool cover of Rearviewmirror (I'm sure most know that). I believe their albums are all out of print, but you can find a used copy of something on amazon.
Walk on with hope in your heart
YNWA
There's some fine deductive reasoning.
Their music is comedic, it's supposed to be funny (and most of it's hilarious). I wouldn't take their name, or anything else, too seriously.
You can get their albums here directly from the band!
http://www.thefrogsarchive.com/store.html
Here's some descriptions of their albums:
The Frogs - 80's-style pop music (studio)
It's Only Right & Natural - improvised songs about homosexuality (home)
My Daughter The Broad - various improvised songs (home)
Bananimals - more improvised songs (home)
Racially Yours - songs about race relations (home)
Starjob - songs about fame (studio)
Hopscotch Lollipop Sunday Surprise - their latest studio album
To start off I would reccommend "My Daughter The Broad" and "Starjob".
You can also get the "made-up songs" series which collects all of their improvised home recordings.
i dunno where i got the frogs from.
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
PJ * 10/21/00 - Phx * 6/7/03 - Phx * 6/29/06 - Milwaukee * 6/30/06 - Milwaukee * 11/19/13 - Phx *
EV * 11/4/12 - Phx, AZ *
I've seen the Frogs open for Pearl Jam twice, and I was really unimpressed. I didn't get it - it was almost like they didn't even seem talented, or could barely play their instruments. I know that can't be the case though, perhaps it was just a gag. If so, it didn't go over very well. I also saw their lead guitarist, I think the guys name is Jimmy Flemion, sitting in on guitar with the Smashing Pumpkins in Phoenix a few years ago. Yes, he was wearing his bat wings. He was more serious then, he played pretty well I thought.
So I was also reading about them on Wikipedia. Here's part of what it says: "In 1997, Jimmy Flemion joined Sebastian Bach's touring band. Rather than stripping Jimmy of his trademark bat wings, the whole band adopted costumes as well. Jimmy also recorded a side project called The Last Hard Men with Bach and Kelley Deal. Bach also performed with the band on an imfamous MTV appearance that resulted in The Frogs being banned from MTV."
What I can't find anything about is, what the heck did the Frogs do live on MTV to get themselves banned??? Does anyone have a video? Youtube? lol. Whatever it was I'm sure I'd love to see it. If I find it I'll post a link unless someone else does it first.
Dan
As for the MTV thing - it wasn't live, it was pre-taped - they were performing on the show Oddville - the producers and staff at MTV were reportedly pricks to them - gave them a list of stuff that they weren't allowed to do -
- don't stop the performance
- don't touch the host
- don't leave the stage
- don't trash the stage
- don't curse
...and they proceeded to break every one of those rules. MTV only aired the first 15 seconds of their performance and then cut to commerical - the complete performance exists on bootleg though (Bach managed to get his hands on a copy...)
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
I saw them open for PJ at Denver 1 & 2 in 1994. What I remember is they were just up there dicking around, pretty much barely playing their instruments and singing like total crap. The crowd reaction was pretty much "you suck". In fact, at Denver 1 the "you suck" chants got so loud that Ed actually came onstage with them and did a pretty twisted version of Jeremy with the Frogs - that definitely got the crowd to quiet down. Never thought about this before now, but I wonder if that exists anywhere on a bootleg? That would be cool to hear again, Ed fronting the Frogs, doing Jeremy... lol. Somebody find that! Please!
Dan
That's interesting. I would like to hear those Denver shows to see how bad they were. I do have video of Ed coming out and singing with them in St. Louis. The audience was chanting "you suck" and Ed came down in a bat wing suit suspended from a harness and sang "The Longing Goes Away". I think Ed says something to the crowd like "you wouldn't know good music if it bit you in the ass". I don't think anybody has seen this, it's beautiful footage. I'll have to figure out a way to put it up on You Tube.
The only complete "opening for PJ" boots that I have are the Milwaukee 95 sets, which are pretty good. The audience was respectful, if not indifferent. I also have a video of them opening for the Pumpkins in Lousiville in 93, and the audience loved it. The opposite is true for the Aragon 93 shows, where the audience was totally repulsed, and they bombarded the stage with garbage a'la Indio '93. I've seen a few video clips of that but I don't think the whole thing was filmed. There's a great shot of Billy on the side of the stage, laughing and holding his sides while the band dodges flying objects and yells at the crowd for being morons.
So I don't know what the deal was in Denver. It's very possible that they "dicked" around too much. Dennis told me once that he hated opening for Pearl Jam because they made the band members spread accross the stage. He wanted the band to be very close together, in the center of the stage, like in a small club, but the Pearl Jam crew wouldn't allow it. This made it very hard for them to play a tight set.
That would be great to see that video. If there's any way you could encode it at a higher quality than YouTube allows and just post it someplace for download that would be awesome, but if not YouTube is always fine. Thanks in advance.
My exposure to the Frogs is pretty limited. I only saw them the couple times in Denver, then I saw Jimmy playing with the Pumpkins in Phoenix ... and I've heard the Rearviewmirror cover. I think I also saw a video of them singing "Miss World".
The fact that so many people vouch for this group's talent, Ed being foremost, combined with the fact that Ed also came out and sang with them at another show makes me think that possibly their opening sets were sometimes Andy Kaufman-like gags ... maybe just to get the audience riled and give Ed an excuse to come out and play with them and mess with people. I know I was kind of offended in Denver. I'd come a long way (from Phoenix), and then these guys were up there just pretty much wasting everyone's time. I have to believe they do have talent based on what people say and what I saw when Jimmy played with the Pumpkins ... I just wish I'd been in on the joke when they were opening for PJ - I probably would have just laughed along rather than been one of many who were shouting "you suck"...
I'm also thinking of a bit that's in the Nirvana video, "live tonight, sold out" - where the band goes on Top of the Pops or something and just totally screws around, playing like total idiots. Maybe the Frogs were just doing the same thing. I laughed at the Nirvana video, but that's because I already knew those guys were great and were just screwing around - what they were doing was funny. However I knew nothing about the Frogs at the time, so like I said I was just kind of offended.
I'd like to see them again sometime, do they still play together?
The Frogs haven't toured in a while - they've been playing some local shows in and around Milwaukee, usually acoustic shows as a two-piece.
I'll see what I can do regarding that video. I'm not able to make DVD's but Dennis might do that someday with the footage I mentioned. I do have a friend who likes to upload stuff on youtube, so maybe I'll dub a VHS of random stuff and have him upload it, just a sneak peak for a future project (hopefully).
Cheers,
J
Thanks for the info. It would be great to see that video - when it's posted let me know, I definitely want to check it out.
Thanks!
Dan
I found the video in question and I'm working on having it transferred. There is indeed footage with Eddie from Denver, St. Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee. The Denver footage is the least interesting. Dennis asks the audience, "Do we suck? (YES!) Do you suck? (NO!) Of course, not you're perfect! This is a song called Jeremy" and then Eddie comes out after some coaxing. Eddie gets dressed up and stuff in later footage. I was looking at the tour history, and if I'm not mistaken, Denver might be the first time they opened for Pearl Jam, which would make it the first time they played in a venue that large and spread out that far apart on the stage, which may account for the suckiness that night. They seemed to do a lot better when they played in smaller venues with the Pumpkins and so forth. (Except at the Aragon, which was a disaster, although I do know a few people who left the venue as huge fans that night, just because of Dennis's funny banter and attitude.)
The Frogs played a brilliant set once at the Double Door in Chicago, opening for the Pumpkins, where the whole band dressed up as Billy Corgan (zero shirt, silver pants), and they played a set of Pumpkins songs as medleys with other songs that sounded similar...for example: I Am One->LA Woman->Born To Be Wild->Immigrant Song...and so forth...fucking brilliant...and Dennis says that people still booed and threw shit like at the Aragon. Nobody seems to have recorded this set...the stupid soundman forgot to...so I'm praying that somebody taped it and someday it will surface.
That's awesome. It was 12 years ago, but the way I remember it was everyone was shouting "you suck" (they were actually sucking - although that's probably no excuse for being rude), and then the Frog guy starts yelling back, "no - YOU suck." Then I think I quit paying attention for a bit and was talking with my friend ... suddenly something sounded different and actually GOOD coming from the stage - it was Eddie. What a shock. I just looked up and there was Ed standing there singing Jeremy with the fricking Frogs.
Anyhow, thanks again for finding that video - I'd love to see it and the other stuff too.
Dan
~it is shining it is shining~