How better to close out a year that saw the triumphant return of Frog with the fantastic full-length GROG than to celebrate how the New York outfit got to where they are today? We invited Jamie Halliday from Audio Antihero back to give us the lowdown on all the gems and sleeper hits from the Frog oeuvre in a new two-part feature. The ideal Christmas gift for any Frog fanatic in your life, or indeed a newcomer looking for a primer.
Here’s part two, digging a little deeper into the marshy ground to unearth those songs which might have passed you by.
Since their inception, Frog has always been a DIY operation, regardless of whether it was Bateman and Tom, Bateman solo, or Bateman and Bateman. Since 2015, they’ve been a part of my Audio Antihero label. To call myself an: “independent record label” would be quite generous, so all things considered, we’ve been pretty fortunate to have had this long journey together and to have reached the audience that we have. In part one of this two-playlist set, I shared a version of “Frog’s Greatest Hits.” That one was for the uninitiated or those who had just joined the party after November’s excellent GROG album.
This playlist offers a deep dive into the swampy waters of Frognation, where we can find lesser-celebrated album cuts, b-sides, remixes, radio sessions, and “nearly” singles. You might find something you haven’t heard before, you might find a new favourite, or you may retreat in revulsion to your Count Bateman cassette. There’s no wrong response.
Naturally, we’ll begin with Frog’s stunning and bizarre self-titled debut. This is the least listened to of Frog’s discography, perhaps because of its age and so many of their fans only discovering the band in recent years. That’s something I’d love to see change, but when people do talk about that record, it’s usually ‘Nancy Kerrigan‘ or ‘Rubbernecking‘ that gets the nod. Songs like ‘Arkansas‘ and ‘Jesus Song‘ are also still so brilliant. They deserve some credit for helping to develop that original little UK following that allowed Frog to grow into something bigger.
‘Irish Goodbye‘ and ‘God Once Loved a Woman‘ are gorgeous and inspired fan favourites, but within the album format, they had to compete with the songs that got the music videos or playlist support. They’re a reminder that there’s often vital and emotional work beneath the top five.
‘Rainbow Road’ is a song Bateman regrets giving me as a b-side for the ‘Judy Garland‘ single (see also: ‘Chicka Cherry Cola‘ from the ‘Photograph‘ single)—and he’s probably right to do so. Three years after the single was released, ‘Rainbow Road’ blasted glorious over the end credits of Frog’s Kings of Blah documentary. For many watching, this was likely their first time hearing it. I love b-sides, and so do the die-hards in the Frog Discord server, but in a digital age, it’s hard to justify deliberately relegating a song to obscurity.
‘California‘ is a great little ripper and one of the two Frog songs sung by Tom (the other being ‘Everything 2002‘). It’s currently exclusive to a Dandelion Radio session recorded in 2015. The session also included ‘King Kong‘, ‘Photograph‘, and ‘Expiration Dating‘, another otherwise unreleased song. I love radio sessions—they fill my heart.
Remixes and Frog aren’t necessarily the most obvious combination—but I think there have been some pretty good efforts. In 2016, we figured we needed to release a single to promote the band’s tour of England and Scotland. We went with ‘Catchyalater‘ (one of my favourites) and justified releasing another single from an eight-month-old album by adding on a microscopic new b-side (‘God’s Tinnitus‘) and two remixes of the a-side (it would have been three but Broken Shoulder turned his in a bit late). Of the bunch, it’s Benjamin Shaw’s that I listen to most. We just so happened to premiere these on Various Small Flames.
We repeated this trick when Magana got an opportunity to make a video for the beautiful ‘Inches Apart‘ ten months past the song’s original release date. We had to promote it somehow, so we accompanied this delightful video with a single featuring two exclusive remixes, including a surefire club hit from the mighty Frog. I love it. This too was featured and documented by VSF.
GROG is the new album, and it’s doing well, so it feels silly to treat anything on there as though it’s “deep cut”—but I have been feeling recently that maybe ‘Gone Back to Stanford’ should have been a single. Who knows?
Speaking of songs that could have been singles, ‘Fucking‘ was intended by Frog to be one of the singles from Kind of Blah before I made the push to go with ‘Photograph‘ instead. I made the case that if we were wanting these songs played on the radio, a clean edit would be redundant if the DJ couldn’t say the song’s name on air. As a living, breathing bucket of cold water for all Audio Antihero artists, my “Best Practice” cop role can be pretty embarrassing when radio ignores the record anyway—but thankfully, Frog got their spins on BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music so I didn’t look too daft in front of my new American pals.
Frog’s new GROG album and back catalogue are available now via Audio Antihero. Dive in! And be sure to head back to the first part of this feature for the lowdown on all the smash hits.
Photos by Collin Heroux