26 REDS & A BOTTLE OF WINE

THE FROGS - It's Only Right Snd Natural
01: i've got drugs (out of the mist)
02: i don't care if u disrespect me (just so you love me)
03: hot cock annie
04: these are the finest queen boys (i've ever seen)
05: rosy jack world
06: someone's pinning me to the ground
07: baby greaser george
08: (thank god i died in) the car crash
09: gather 'round for savior #2
10: richard dick richards
11: men (come on men)
12: dykes are we
13: been a month since i had a man
14: homos

I’ve been thinking about writing about The Frogs for a while but I’m not sure what to say.

I guess I could say that The Frogs were originally two brothers: Jimmy and Dennis Flemion, from Milwaukee, who put together something like a band in 1980. In 1983 Jay Tiller join and the Frogs began a limited but interesting tour of the area immediately around Milwaukee. Like lots of idiots they recorded a multitude of home recordings, most if not all of which sound like shit. In 1989 they were able to release twelve tracks or previously recorded boomdoggery as It’s Only Right and Natural. Right after that they released an album of new material (how new is anyone’s guess) called Racially Yours, which featured one of the brother in white face, the other in blackface.

I could go on and on, mentioning the super underground (as in don’t bother looking for it, I’m the only person to have a copy) movie Toy Porno or any other bits of The Frogs info but let’s focus on It’s Only Right and Natural.

The title is a reference to homosexuality, an idea that drips like Santorum from every track on the album. “Being oiled down by furry young men/ I can’t remember when I was so hard” goes a lyrical exchange on Hot Cock Annie, a song about a hermaphrodite hooker. There is no mystery to The Frogs verse, take a look at that track list, any questions. Except of course that they aren’t gay. In fact they are married and straight. The endless multitude of gay references in The Frogs music (“No one knows a homo like us…. We love homos”) are only matched by their junior high school mentality. Childish to the point of pathetic. On a later album a song appears called “Grandma in the Corner With A Penis In Her Hand Screaming No, No, No, No, No”. In which those are the only lyrics.

It’s nearly impossible to explain The Frogs to your adult friends. You come off looking like an idiot at best. Yet it is also impossible to forget The Frogs or their influence. They can be heard on Beck’s track Where It’s At (the voice sample “That was a good drum break” is from a song called I Don’t Care If Your Love Me (Just So You Love Me) off It’s Only Right and Natural”)

Sure it’s more than possible to pass The Frogs off as a silly fad. A minor episode that has collected in the minds of music nerds. I would agree, they are silly and pointless and if you don’t get the joke, they are repugnant. But they are also real. Sometimes something is so pointless it reaches all the way around and smacks you in the face.

I have to thank Perfect Louis for introducing me to The Frogs. P.L.: That was a good drum break!!