It Does Not Pay to be a "Cult Band."
It is a rough life, my friend, let me tell you. To be in a "Cult Band," what does this mean exactly? From my viewpoint, it means to be ageing rather poorly under the awful lighting of some random live performance venue in the Cheese State of Wisconsin. The Brothers Flemion are natives of this State, specifically Milwaukee. There lot in this life is a sad one. And I should make clear that The Brothers Flemion are better known in some circles as The Frogs. A controversial duo, and keep in mind that controversy in music isn't going to make you very many pesos unless you have a penchant for rapping, but I digress. The Frogs formed in 1980 and started improvising material on crude reel-to-reel tape. A love for The Beatles, T. Rex, and Bob Dylan often laid the foundations for their blend of Folk Rock and Hard Rock stylings.
Now then, they started playing local coffeehouses in the early '80's and sold tapes at their shows. I mentioned the word controversy earlier because The Brothers Flemion, or specifically, Dennis and Jimmy Flemion AKA The Frogs; were often of the habit of specifically improvising recordings that would then be compiled onto cassette tapes and sold at shows, keep in mind that the improvised lyrical content was often times quite grotesque indeed. Songs about being endlessly evil and killing random people, keep in mind that these songs were often sung in either a phony English accent or some god awful caterwauling, and even as a crusty-throated senior. The Frogs were purely juvenile in terms of song lyrics, at least often times, as other songs in their oeuvre were very much rehearsed and had a sugary Pop Rock sensibility, lyrics to songs of this variety were very wistful and often croaked of longing for love.
The Frogs in a live setting only added to their controversy. Jimmy Flemion thought it best to construct absurd wings that would rival Batman and perhaps even a hint of lipstick would adorn his hideous lips, the older and somewhat more evil brother Dennis would often wear a wig worthy of Harpo Marx and a repulsive pink sailor suit. And just to break it down for you, Dennis is on drums and Jimmy operates the guitar; they both sing and have had a wide array of bassists in their very long and financially unsuccessful music career. Of course, all of this hard work during the '80's did eventually result in The Frogs S/T and self-released debut, which very much offers the musical flavoring of the shiny Pop Rock I alluded to earlier, and indeed, this nifty little record has a wide array of Pop gems, of course, none of them were hits. Finally, 1989 was a controversial year for Jimmy and Dennis, as it saw the release of "It's Only Right and Natural," this being an album in which The Frogs boasted of being Homo Supremacists, whatever that means.
The album in its still unreleased form actually caught the eye of cranky old Indie Rock guru Gerard Cosloy, and he is the chap that released "It's Only Right and Natural" on his Homestead record label prior to finding greater success as the head honcho behind famed Matador Records. After this brief stint in Underground Rock sensationalism that featured "It's Only Right and Natural" getting many a spin on uber-elitist college radio, the boys then dropped out of sight. In 1996 Beck sampled a cut from "It's Only Right and Natural" entitled "I Don't Care if You Disrespect Me (Just So Long as You Love Me)" for his Jazzy "Where It's At" chart-topper. Of course, a few years prior to this The Frogs were actually resurrected by none other than Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan who produced the EP "Starjob," which unfortunately was not released until 1997.
Greater success shined on these sick puppies when name-dropped by the late great St. Kurt Cobain, during ye olde early-mid '90's Grunge/Alternative clothing and hairstyle revolution. The Frogs also found a helpful admirer in drunken Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder, and indeed The Frogs opened a few arena gigs for Eddie and his respective Pearl Jam. 1994 saw The Frogs take second stage duties on the once rolling joke festival known as Lollapalooza with Billy Corgan holding their hand through it all. The enraged Half Japanese fan Gerard Cosloy came back into The Frogs life at around this very time of Frogs mania, and saw to it that The Frogs got to release a 45" single on his Matador label, this was shortly followed by the more substantial "My Daughter The Broad." As an album, "My Daughter The Broad" featured a series of improvised little Folk Rock gems, some of which were greatly descriptive in explaining the lovemaking techniques of elderly persons and the joys of sex change operations gone awry.
As those gloried and nostalgic schoolgirl days of the '90's waved goodbye, The Frogs sadly greeted the early 2000's largely where they started from...in obscurity. Three albums were released during this time period, although, the record labels that released them have long since gone out of business. These days, it would seem that The Frogs themselves are out of business. Two brothers tucked away in their parents' decrepit mansion, each of them well into his fifties with their collective biological clocks constantly ticking. Jimmy and Dennis Flemion(THE FROGS!)are now a pair of deeply troubled and badly aged sad souls, whose dreams of Rock god status were nothing but childish fantasies. They rarely even play a gig these days, not even in their hometown, and there is not a record label on the planet who wants to touch their creepy material. Not even their Pop Rock toe-tapping numbers would get them label interest at this point, because, alas, they are simply too old.
Au revoir, you filthy old bastards!
With a little help from Billy Corgan they made it onto an old Smashing Pumpkins VHS release, they're still poor though...
Good lord...
Now then, they started playing local coffeehouses in the early '80's and sold tapes at their shows. I mentioned the word controversy earlier because The Brothers Flemion, or specifically, Dennis and Jimmy Flemion AKA The Frogs; were often of the habit of specifically improvising recordings that would then be compiled onto cassette tapes and sold at shows, keep in mind that the improvised lyrical content was often times quite grotesque indeed. Songs about being endlessly evil and killing random people, keep in mind that these songs were often sung in either a phony English accent or some god awful caterwauling, and even as a crusty-throated senior. The Frogs were purely juvenile in terms of song lyrics, at least often times, as other songs in their oeuvre were very much rehearsed and had a sugary Pop Rock sensibility, lyrics to songs of this variety were very wistful and often croaked of longing for love.
The Frogs in a live setting only added to their controversy. Jimmy Flemion thought it best to construct absurd wings that would rival Batman and perhaps even a hint of lipstick would adorn his hideous lips, the older and somewhat more evil brother Dennis would often wear a wig worthy of Harpo Marx and a repulsive pink sailor suit. And just to break it down for you, Dennis is on drums and Jimmy operates the guitar; they both sing and have had a wide array of bassists in their very long and financially unsuccessful music career. Of course, all of this hard work during the '80's did eventually result in The Frogs S/T and self-released debut, which very much offers the musical flavoring of the shiny Pop Rock I alluded to earlier, and indeed, this nifty little record has a wide array of Pop gems, of course, none of them were hits. Finally, 1989 was a controversial year for Jimmy and Dennis, as it saw the release of "It's Only Right and Natural," this being an album in which The Frogs boasted of being Homo Supremacists, whatever that means.
The album in its still unreleased form actually caught the eye of cranky old Indie Rock guru Gerard Cosloy, and he is the chap that released "It's Only Right and Natural" on his Homestead record label prior to finding greater success as the head honcho behind famed Matador Records. After this brief stint in Underground Rock sensationalism that featured "It's Only Right and Natural" getting many a spin on uber-elitist college radio, the boys then dropped out of sight. In 1996 Beck sampled a cut from "It's Only Right and Natural" entitled "I Don't Care if You Disrespect Me (Just So Long as You Love Me)" for his Jazzy "Where It's At" chart-topper. Of course, a few years prior to this The Frogs were actually resurrected by none other than Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan who produced the EP "Starjob," which unfortunately was not released until 1997.
Greater success shined on these sick puppies when name-dropped by the late great St. Kurt Cobain, during ye olde early-mid '90's Grunge/Alternative clothing and hairstyle revolution. The Frogs also found a helpful admirer in drunken Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder, and indeed The Frogs opened a few arena gigs for Eddie and his respective Pearl Jam. 1994 saw The Frogs take second stage duties on the once rolling joke festival known as Lollapalooza with Billy Corgan holding their hand through it all. The enraged Half Japanese fan Gerard Cosloy came back into The Frogs life at around this very time of Frogs mania, and saw to it that The Frogs got to release a 45" single on his Matador label, this was shortly followed by the more substantial "My Daughter The Broad." As an album, "My Daughter The Broad" featured a series of improvised little Folk Rock gems, some of which were greatly descriptive in explaining the lovemaking techniques of elderly persons and the joys of sex change operations gone awry.
As those gloried and nostalgic schoolgirl days of the '90's waved goodbye, The Frogs sadly greeted the early 2000's largely where they started from...in obscurity. Three albums were released during this time period, although, the record labels that released them have long since gone out of business. These days, it would seem that The Frogs themselves are out of business. Two brothers tucked away in their parents' decrepit mansion, each of them well into his fifties with their collective biological clocks constantly ticking. Jimmy and Dennis Flemion(THE FROGS!)are now a pair of deeply troubled and badly aged sad souls, whose dreams of Rock god status were nothing but childish fantasies. They rarely even play a gig these days, not even in their hometown, and there is not a record label on the planet who wants to touch their creepy material. Not even their Pop Rock toe-tapping numbers would get them label interest at this point, because, alas, they are simply too old.
Au revoir, you filthy old bastards!
With a little help from Billy Corgan they made it onto an old Smashing Pumpkins VHS release, they're still poor though...
Good lord...
Labels: the frogs
1 Comments:
You've really out done yourself this time Mozart Breath.. ;)
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