The Frogs. (Edit -- Dennis Flemion RIP)

You're right-- it is absolutely not. It might help to see them perform the stuff live. They opened tonight's show with Jimmy singing "Now You Know You're Black". It would seem that not being able to get past their use of scatology to see the point of their using it is a big part of why many just don't get it.

Now is their website finally back?

http://my.execpc.com/~mobark/

But then the link provided there doesn't work.)

i made my mom listen to It's Only Right+Natural...she laughed, a lot.

I gather from this thread, their still active - any new websites I've given up looking.

I must be one of a handful of UK fans with all their studio work - I love it all

Racially Yours is good too, but as near the knuckle on race as Right and Natural is with homosexuality

"Who is righteous
What is bold...
Because I'm BALD!"

01 Cherub Rock

02 Rhinoceros/Hey Joe

03 Disarm/Gylcerine

04 I Am One/Immigrant Song/L.A. Woman/Fame/Pets

05 Luna/Jane Says

06 Silverfuck/Violet/Smells Like Teen Spirit/Today/Baba O'Riley/Yer Blues

07 (Cobain's Killer -> Courtney)

08 Sleep On The Street

09 Raped/Weird On the Avenue

10 The Longing Goes Away

11 Fuck Off

12 Whisper

13 Bad Daddy

14 Adam & Steve (with Steve Albini references)

Not defending assholes being assholes. Just in the Frogs' case, it helps to know a bit about their history.

M@tt, was Dennis mean to you after the yoga thing?

...anyway i prolly should just shut up, maybe they are great dudes or something, i just got a sort of assholey "pro" vibe from them, might be an abberation or just me being over-sensitive...carry on!

I just found It's Only Right & Natural on vinyl at my store. Worth getting?

um , YES!!

seriously, grab it before someone else does..

Alright, thanks! The store-owner's ignorance is paying off. Its only within 5 - 8 dollars (forget exactly). Unless thats similar to what it goes for online... Its too early I can't remember much.

You sleazy prostitute!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Frogs-Its-Only-Right-and-Natural-LP-/300462655268?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item45f4f84724#ht_500wt_1154

i only have Hopscotch.. "The Longing Goes Away" sounds like it could have been a huge song really, is it actually deadpan serious?

Unprompted, my sister is playing Bananimals. "I'm EVIL Jack!"

My Daughter the Broad rather. It's all good.

WHERE'S JERRY LEWIS
WHEN YOU NEED THE MAN?

La da da da
La da da dee
La da da dum dum

wtf this alb is amazn.. i never knew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7LS_x_px48

Here comes the watermelon seed up my snoot snout
And that's yr asshole, your snoot snout

What the! Dennis Flemion died over the weekend!

http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/wisconsin/divers-continue-their-search-for-missing-swimmer-in-a-racine-county-lake

awful news!!

From Gerard Cosloy:

http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/2012/07/09/dennis-flemion/

this sucks.

the news, not the frogs.

miss these dudes and miss this guy. i hope hope hope the show i went to (portland ME 2001) will come out. i know it was recorded because they kept talking about posterity until they got in a fight with the soundguy who pulled the plug

That SUCKS, I missed the news story. They were great live. "he played the organ". God bless him. RIP.

"I am listening to the Frogs from a rehearsal tape they did for a show opening up for the Smashing Pumpkins in 1997...doing Smashing Pumpkins songs, very much in their style."

Is this findable? That sounds incredible.

― Walter Galt, Tuesday, July 10, 2012 2:31 AM (1 week ago)

By good chance -- turns out some hyper Pumpkins fan out there has been uploading this very thing earlier today. So I give you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcugjT3BofA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSUu4VHv810

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spUXUQMYASg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-lClqQh3Fk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGSX7wbHlUo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJb5uMYcdA8

Or just a playlist if you like:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL345D3F4CAFD406A5&feature=edit_ok

Thanks for the links Ned; interesting to hear.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2012/08/06/photo-of-the-week-local-chick-fil-a-billboard-gets-banksyd-with-frogs-reference

Been getting aquainted with some less known Frogs numbers which are indeed making my ass stand on end.
Namely 'The Wild Mouth Of The Buck-Toothed Priest' and the truly terrifying 'New In Town Sailor'.

So looks like Jimmy Flemion and Billy Corgan have been doing a few things together lately after Dennis's passing -- here's some stuff just after Dennis's memorial service at his house:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09_7fOgIMAk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIv-1Ejzzls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz3v7rEX5zU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o6q2SOM-9A

And this was the other night in Austin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGaHI7uLBe4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbEhGhafHDI

If Jimmy joined the Pumpkins I would actually go and see them

Via Jimmy on FB/elsewhere:

Hello everybody. I set up a new p.o. box :

The Frogs
P.O. Box 81234
Austin, TX 78708

To those of you who have expressed interest in sending fan mail, tapes and things, I appreciate your thoughtfulness. In the past we have allowed taping @ our shows, with the understanding whoever taped or filmed agreeing to send us a copy. Unfortunately more often then not, those who taped or filmed and said they would send us a copy never did. That was one of the main reasons we reluctantly allowed taping or filming. If some of you are out there, I ask to do the right thing and please, send your tapes, cd's or dvd's to the new p.o. box. It would mean so much to me, especially now.

Also, I've started a blog @ tumblr.com, stay tuned.

My greatest challenge is communication, as well as my greatest reward.

From my heart to yours,
Jimmy

And that tumblr he mentions is now up:

http://jimmyflemion.tumblr.com/

La da da da
La da da dee
La da da dum dum

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, July 20, 2011 2:13 PM (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

^^^^ i had that song stuck in my head today out of nowhere, prolly haven't listened to these dudes in 10 years

oh charming rabbit slut boy
where did you come from
was it england or TOKYO?

Abandoned first album coming out soon. The preview song is great, more like the live show than anything on the records I've heard. Jimmy and Evan Dando will do a short tour billed as 'The Frogs". I feel like Dennis would think Dando was a funny enough replacement.
https://onmilwaukee.com/music/articles/the-frogs-1st.html

After owning It's Only Right & Natural on LP for 10 years now I can officially say I don't understand the appeal beyond being a silly novelty record. The way people talk about it I always assumed it was supposed to transcend that. I suppose at this point I need it explained to me.

Hm, well, maybe this'll help? I posted it on FB just now along with some photos I took:

So the other night, I saw the Frogs, or rather the current version -- Jimmy Flemion plus, on about half the tracks either on guitar or drums, Evan Dando. Honestly didn't know what to expect, or even how to feel about them these days, though I'd seen them a couple of times back in the 2000s, wrote a number of AMG reviews, etc. My sis, however, is a massive fan, and I thought, well, why not? Just the other day a thread was revived on ILX wondering if it was all just cheap novelty in the end, and I've been pondering more with time and the years about jokes, their goals, who gets to tell whose story and more. And none of those thoughts have gone away.

Still, I gotta say this -- it was really good. Often great. Jimmy came out with a feathery headpiece for the first song -- a cover of Three Dog Night's "One," which, sung as early video of Jimmy and Dennis played behind him, really did feel poignant in new ways. He switched to a hat for the next song -- Evan joined in at that point -- but otherwise appeared for the rest of the set as is, no wings, head shaven, simply dressed nattily enough. And he was in very fine voice throughout -- years ago I called his approach that of a 'sweetly vile troubadour' and I'll stand by that, positively. But it makes the heartfelt songs when they appear -- and they did -- all that much more so. (Near the end he did a number about Dennis and his death and the damn thing was really lovely.)

The cover choices were especially intriguing -- doing Bowie's "Starman" made perfect sense, there was always something about them that was _Hunky Dory_-into-Ziggy and Jimmy is absolutely no slouch on guitar in that vein, plus T. Rex's "Cat Black (The Wizard's Hat)" and in the encore a stellar "Sometimes It Snows in April" by Prince. Of course, plenty of _It's Only Right and Natural_ cuts and more besides, and I got a clear sense that any number of older gay couples (and I'm guessing singles) in the crowd loved it all without irony. Who can say?

And it's gotta be said -- Dando's aged very well. (My sister was even more vocal on the matter.) He seemed to have a little frustration with his drumkit and I'm not sure if he normally sits out half the show, but he was great when he was onstage and I was mildly surprised when at one point he sang "It's a Shame About Ray" with backing from Jimmy. I've only ever seen the Lemonheads the once, back on a KROQ summer radio fest bill in 1993, but they did that then, and him doing it now was strange but affecting nostalgia I didn't expect.

So anyway, I bring all this up because per a Twitter post by Jake Fogelnest earlier this afternoon -- I'll link it in comments -- there's apparently a Frogs documentary in the works. I'll be especially interested in seeing that.

(Said Tweet:

Hi, Dennis. We spoke after this tweet (which sadly was your last before you passed away). Wanted to let you and everyone know, OF COURSE they're making a documentary about The Frogs. I just filmed my interview. I'm sure you're pissed it's not done and hasn't already won an Oscar. https://t.co/BJazF5xznp

— Jake Fogelnest (@jakefogelnest) February 21, 2020

Etc.)

So it turns out there's a new Frogs album as such, which apparently had been in the works for a while

https://thefrogs.hearnow.com/

Hi everyone. The Spiritual album is here.
Damaged Goods / Sinned in Reverse.
Out now! Finally. Our album that has been talked about in interviews & the works for the last 30 years. Today digitally available everywhere.

— Jimmy Flemion (@JimmyFlemion) July 7, 2021

It amuses the shit out of me that my "successful fiasco" line about one Frogs concert I attended in Milwaukee is still quoted on Wikipedia for some reason with a cite back to ILM. My proudest moment as a college DJ was getting to play their single "Have a Merry Christmas" over the air across Houston. For some reason at KTRU we had no restrictions on profanity after a certain hour of night, which is weird because our signal covered all of Harris County as far as I was aware. Their music makes me so happy.

that's just FCC broadcast regulations, i believe. when i did radio we were "allowed" to play uncensored music after a certain time of day per the law but they just asked for the station's legal sanity to avoid doing it.

Copy/pasting it would take forever but Jimmy's FB story about the newly expanded digital reissue of It's Only Right and Natural is a read and a half.

Thanks for dropping the post earlier about Damaged Goods/Sinned in Reverse, Ned. I had no idea about its release and bought it immediately when I saw that when I thought of posting in this thread. I've found it pretty rewarding so far although its length means I gave it one thorough listen and since then have been content to have tracks show up on shuffle as they play from my computer and phone playlists.