Grandma's Sitting in the Corner With a Penis in Her Hand Going "No, No, No, No, No"
July 10, 2012 10:14 AM Subscribe
Dennis Flemion, founding member of the band The Frogs, has reportedly drowned.
Jimmy Flemion, Dennis's brother and bandmate, has made a statement on Facebook.
The Frogs became popular and controversial in the early and mid Nineties, getting attention from the likes of Beck, Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins promoted the band and produced the album Starjob.
A few songs:
God is Gay
I'm Hungry
Creep at ATP
More on the Frog's Youtube channel.
I'm Sad, My Goat Just Died Today
Jimmy Flemion, Dennis's brother and bandmate, has made a statement on Facebook.
The Frogs became popular and controversial in the early and mid Nineties, getting attention from the likes of Beck, Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins promoted the band and produced the album Starjob.
A few songs:
God is Gay
I'm Hungry
Creep at ATP
More on the Frog's Youtube channel.
I'm Sad, My Goat Just Died Today
.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:21 AM on July 10, 2012
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:21 AM on July 10, 2012
Holy shit.
My dear friend and personal hero Josh Silverman, who played bass with the Frogs for a while, also left us almost a year and a half to the day.
Hopefully they're already working on a pickup band.
posted by mykescipark at 10:23 AM on July 10, 2012 [3 favorites]
My dear friend and personal hero Josh Silverman, who played bass with the Frogs for a while, also left us almost a year and a half to the day.
Hopefully they're already working on a pickup band.
posted by mykescipark at 10:23 AM on July 10, 2012 [3 favorites]
Am I a bad person for immediately thinking that he was carrying a member of the Scorpions across a river, and...
Yes, I expect I am
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:31 AM on July 10, 2012 [16 favorites]
Yes, I expect I am
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:31 AM on July 10, 2012 [16 favorites]
God I hope this somehow leads to their music being more widespread--they are the only band I know that are worthy to be in the same pantheon of crazy music as the Fugs. Sadness.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:32 AM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:32 AM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
I had not heard of this band until the story came out last night about this. Is this a band I should be listening to? Am I going to love this band and be heartbroken?
posted by zzazazz at 10:36 AM on July 10, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by zzazazz at 10:36 AM on July 10, 2012 [2 favorites]
It's Only Right and Natural brings back fantastic memories every time I hear it. One of my favorites. RIP.
posted by evisceratordeath at 10:39 AM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by evisceratordeath at 10:39 AM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
In retrospect I wish I'd made this post from this account.
posted by These Penises Are Alarmed at 10:40 AM on July 10, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by These Penises Are Alarmed at 10:40 AM on July 10, 2012 [3 favorites]
They haven't been around since the 90s really and their music is hard to find and totally offensive, so yeah, probably.
Lambchop, Mountain Goats, the National and a bunch of other bands like that, all took a bunch of notes from their early stuff.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:40 AM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
Lambchop, Mountain Goats, the National and a bunch of other bands like that, all took a bunch of notes from their early stuff.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:40 AM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
According to wikipedia they have 2 albums in the can so actually this is incredibly even more tragic in that they were on the way to a comeback. I hope it's just a really tasteless stunt, but that seems unlikely, even for the authors of Here Comes Santa's Pussy.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:48 AM on July 10, 2012
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:48 AM on July 10, 2012
I hope it's just a really tasteless stunt
It's not unheard of.
posted by snottydick at 11:14 AM on July 10, 2012
It's not unheard of.
posted by snottydick at 11:14 AM on July 10, 2012
The founder of The Frogs has croaked?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:14 AM on July 10, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:14 AM on July 10, 2012 [3 favorites]
God, I love The Frogs. This is sad.
One of the best live bands I ever saw, and a true American original.
.
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:22 AM on July 10, 2012
One of the best live bands I ever saw, and a true American original.
.
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:22 AM on July 10, 2012
i listened to "Smile" from pearl jam last night when I heard about this. Apparently Dennis stole Eddie Vedder's notebook and wrote the lyrics in it.
Listening to it now, the lyrics are kinda sad...
"don't it make you smile?
don't it make you smile?
when the sun don't shine? (shine at all)
don't it make you smile?
don't it make you smile?
don't it make me smile?
when the sun don't shine, it don't shine at all
don't it make me smile?
i miss you already... i miss you always
i miss you already... i miss you all day
this is how i feel...
i miss you already... i miss you always
three crooked hearts and swirls all around... i miss you all day"
posted by ShawnString at 11:25 AM on July 10, 2012 [2 favorites]
Listening to it now, the lyrics are kinda sad...
"don't it make you smile?
don't it make you smile?
when the sun don't shine? (shine at all)
don't it make you smile?
don't it make you smile?
don't it make me smile?
when the sun don't shine, it don't shine at all
don't it make me smile?
i miss you already... i miss you always
i miss you already... i miss you all day
this is how i feel...
i miss you already... i miss you always
three crooked hearts and swirls all around... i miss you all day"
posted by ShawnString at 11:25 AM on July 10, 2012 [2 favorites]
NO
I do believe we listened to It's Only Right And Natural many hundreds of times when I lived in Chicago. Imperiously announcing "I'l put it through your eye socket, young man!" was a good way to guarantee that it was going on the turntable, and all labors would cease as we gathered to sing along and possibly pass something around.
.
posted by louche mustachio at 11:30 AM on July 10, 2012 [4 favorites]
I do believe we listened to It's Only Right And Natural many hundreds of times when I lived in Chicago. Imperiously announcing "I'l put it through your eye socket, young man!" was a good way to guarantee that it was going on the turntable, and all labors would cease as we gathered to sing along and possibly pass something around.
.
posted by louche mustachio at 11:30 AM on July 10, 2012 [4 favorites]
I saw them on the 2nd stage at Lollapalooza in '94, and I think everyone in the crowd immediately went home and started a band. At least my friends and I did.
.
posted by brand-gnu at 12:54 PM on July 10, 2012 [4 favorites]
.
posted by brand-gnu at 12:54 PM on July 10, 2012 [4 favorites]
They have some lyrics on the CD Baby page for their brand new record which I've been listening to all day (it might be their best, no foolin)... this one is raw:
KISSED LIPS = HELL
All in all I've done well
I've kissed your lips, I've gone to hell
But every time I see a star or the moon
I've gone too far
Fireworks underground
Hummingbirds fly around
Nectar drips from my heart
There's a tale but it's too dark
She draws you in, she takes your eyes
She turns your bed into a butterfly
It's not just me, there's a spell
I've kissed your lips. I've gone to hell
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:32 PM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
KISSED LIPS = HELL
All in all I've done well
I've kissed your lips, I've gone to hell
But every time I see a star or the moon
I've gone too far
Fireworks underground
Hummingbirds fly around
Nectar drips from my heart
There's a tale but it's too dark
She draws you in, she takes your eyes
She turns your bed into a butterfly
It's not just me, there's a spell
I've kissed your lips. I've gone to hell
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:32 PM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
I was just thinking about them the other day and had made a mental note to look up some of their videos on YouTube. I spent many a night in the mid-90s completely wrecked listening to The Frogs, especially 'My Daughter, The Broad'. That they opened for Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins is surprising, those shows must have gone over like a lead balloon.
Sorry to hear of Dennis' death.
posted by BigSky at 2:13 PM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
Sorry to hear of Dennis' death.
posted by BigSky at 2:13 PM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
Fucking awful. One of the greatest bands of all time.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 5:40 PM on July 10, 2012
posted by Joseph Gurl at 5:40 PM on July 10, 2012
.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 5:40 PM on July 10, 2012
posted by Joseph Gurl at 5:40 PM on July 10, 2012
Oh man, "It's Only Right And Natural" hit me like a sideways punch to the head back in my college radio days - this perfect mix of dada insanity, glam, folk, psychedelia and over-the-top fag stereotyping. Lots of folks hated it, but to me it felt like this lost bit of mythological musical treasure, a message in a bottle from the street where that tubercular woman from Van Morrison's "T.B. Sheets" was dying in her room after fucking Ziggy Stardust in an alley while Madame George looked on from the 3rd floor, shaking her head, giving birth to the bastard Baby Greaser George who wandered in leather starving for sleazy sex while high out of his head, carefully avoiding those fucking priests with yeast infections that seem to be everywhere along the sidewalks.
God, I love that record.
.
posted by mediareport at 7:19 PM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
God, I love that record.
.
posted by mediareport at 7:19 PM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
Aww, this is sad news. I haven't thought about the Frogs for a few years now, but they blew my mind when I randomly found "It's Only Right and Natural" as a used CD store; even more so when I found out they were from right here in Milwaukee.
posted by nTeleKy at 9:13 AM on July 11, 2012
posted by nTeleKy at 9:13 AM on July 11, 2012
That's really sad. I saw The Frogs play at ATP last year. When one of the other acts didn't turn up, one of them (I think it was Dennis...) got up on stage and did an impromptu additional solo set instead.
.
posted by Magnakai at 12:06 PM on July 11, 2012
.
posted by Magnakai at 12:06 PM on July 11, 2012
I just heard about The Frogs via The Best Show on WFMU. Oh man.
From the first moments of I've Got Drugs (Out of the Mist) I was transfixed. My jaw remained on the floor for the rest of the album.
When I realized they were doing the gay thing as a laugh, I didn't know how to feel about it. I guess I still don't. But I feel like there's something of my queer self in those songs. Something about the risk, the rawness, the honesty, the audacity, and the strange sense of intimacy.
At this point, I've listened to more than just the songs from It's Only Right and Natural, and I'm still transfixed and fascinated. Some of the stuff would turn me off completely if there wasn't something utterly compelling about the music that I can't quite put my finger on.
And about the satirical queer stuff . . . I was talking to my partner about it, and he remarked that in a time that was less gay-friendly, it was perhaps an empowering thing (to queer people) to have a band with big ambitions do an over-the-top queer album. To adopt a persona/perspective publicly that was only permitted in satire, but to do it so well and with such a fuck-you attitude to the mainstream that it registered as real, with all the risk that entailed.
.
posted by treepour at 10:57 PM on July 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
From the first moments of I've Got Drugs (Out of the Mist) I was transfixed. My jaw remained on the floor for the rest of the album.
When I realized they were doing the gay thing as a laugh, I didn't know how to feel about it. I guess I still don't. But I feel like there's something of my queer self in those songs. Something about the risk, the rawness, the honesty, the audacity, and the strange sense of intimacy.
At this point, I've listened to more than just the songs from It's Only Right and Natural, and I'm still transfixed and fascinated. Some of the stuff would turn me off completely if there wasn't something utterly compelling about the music that I can't quite put my finger on.
And about the satirical queer stuff . . . I was talking to my partner about it, and he remarked that in a time that was less gay-friendly, it was perhaps an empowering thing (to queer people) to have a band with big ambitions do an over-the-top queer album. To adopt a persona/perspective publicly that was only permitted in satire, but to do it so well and with such a fuck-you attitude to the mainstream that it registered as real, with all the risk that entailed.
.
posted by treepour at 10:57 PM on July 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
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posted by Ironmouth at 10:16 AM on July 10, 2012