THE FROGS

"N.Y. Black" / "Adam and Steve" 7"

NY Black
We can't talk about the sleeve, record title or song title in a family catalog. The Frogs got label honcho Gerard Cosloy into enough trouble with a left-wing newspaper in the distant past. We prefer to let the lyrics speak for themselves. Direct all complaints to the NAACP.

"Here Comes Santa's Pussy" b/w
"Merry Christmas" and "Snow Kisses"

Here Comes Santa's Pussy A happy holiday season is guaranteed, thanks to the latest offering from Milwaukee's controversial folk-duo The Frogs. Having returned to the shelves with '94's "NY Black" 7" (Matador) and a CD reissue of their classic 2nd album It's Only Right & Natural (MGM), the Frogs made thousands of new friends and enemies throughout the past year, with exploits including collaborations with Wesley Willis, an appearance on the b-side of Pearl Jam's most recent CD single, and stadium dates throughout the midwest supporting the Smashing Pumpkins. And if that weren't enough for a band blacklisted by the recording industry, the Brothers Frog were paid homage in Pavement's "We Dance" (although the idiot in Rolling Stone said it sounded like Big Star, who have never even met the Frogs).

Burdened by a reputation for being tasteless and insensitive, this Xmas single sheds new light on the Frogs...how could two guys who sing so lovingly of Santa Claus be BAD men?

These songs are exclusive to this 7".

My Daughter The Broad LP/CD

My Daughter the Broad Born Joey Levitch in 1916, the entertainer known as the Frogs began his career in the Jewish resorts of the Catskill mountains. From his start as a bellboy (his experience inspiring scenes in his later classics "Rosy Jack World" and, of course, "Hot Cock Annie"), he graduated to headlining comic (in Yiddish dialect, of course). He even served his tenure as a "Tummler" (wisecracking emcee) and as a pantomime artist. His career, smoldering along in 1945, really caught fire after a series of impromptu pairings with famous drunken crooner Eddie Vedder, who happened to be playing in the same club.(*)

This pairing -- the goofy childlike Frogs playing innocent against a foil of hepster cool -- had tapped a vein of comedy as universal as it was unique. There had been other team acts; Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, Kim and Thurston, but none of them had the spontaneous sparkle, dorky delivery, gymnastic pratfallery and gold lame batwings that Vedder and Frogs had. A short film, "Hades High School" (later released as "Fucked-Over Jesus"), caught the attention of Hollywood, and the team were off.

Vedder and Frogs broke into film in the post-war years, making in quick succession "U Wanna Rock (Go to The Quarry)," "Decency of a Pig," "The Waitress is Stunning" and "All The Bad Guys Smoke Cigarettes." They commanded top dollar on stage as well, earning $150,000 in July of 1950 alone, and their USO tours during the Korean War were such morale boosters that servicemen copulated openly, Government-Issue condoms popping out of their packets like so many Zotz.

Throughout this period, the Frogs made elaborate home movies at his own "studio," inviting friends like Tony Curtis, William Shatner and a sock monkey to perform in the featurettes. These films were presented at elaborate "premieres," and a few were even given critical notice, mostly in jest. Fun though they were, these "made-up songs" would give the Frogs valuable creative insight and experience when he directed his later features.

Eventually ambition and fundamental differences split the team up. Interceding on the Frogs behalf was a savvy entertainment mogul, Abbey Moishe "Gerard" Cosloy, who proved his business capacity by peddling a half-interest in his novelty company for $22 million (roughly $18 million more than it was worth). The Frogs wanted to be regarded as a serious act -- alone -- and Cosloy could make that happen. Immediately he was able to secure the release of several long-languishing projects, including "Baby Greaser George" and "Here Comes Santa's Pussy."

The first Frogs project undertaken with Cosloy's help (overlooking a one-off as a replacement for an "ailing" Judy Garland at Hollywood's Palace) was a film loosely based on the classic tale of Pythias, who admired his brother so much he took his place in prison to free him. Originally titled "Persian Cat," the film was finally released as "Adam and Steve," with Billy Corgan playing Damon, a role that was clearly written with Vedder in mind. Corgan in those days was a bankable veteran actor, but was considered something of a hack, as would be made evident by his later appearances in light television fare and as spokesman for American Express.

Still stinging from the breakup, but buoyed by the success of "Delinquent," the Frogs' next project was a send-up of his years of teamwork with Vedder. The plot of "Someone's Pinning Me to The Ground" was the story of a nerdy college professor who discovers a chemical cocktail that transforms him into a dress-wearing, sensitive stage-diving frontman. Though the humor was pointed and bitter, the film established the Frogs as a comic talent to be reckoned with.(**)

A string of hugely-successful films followed, "Layin' Down My Love 4 U," "I've Got Drugs (Out of the Mist)," "Baby Greaser George" and "Dykes Are We," which was simultaneously released in France, where the Frogs, with a whimsical child's voice dubbed in, had gradually been growing in popularity and could now rival local heroes such as Charles Asnavour, Maurice Chevalier, Plastic Bertrand and Shirley "Cha-Cha" Muldowney. (***)

Though applauded loudly for his comedy work, there was a serious side to the Frogs, One pet project, which took an enormous financial toll on the star in later years, was an historical drama about a clown (played by the Frogs, of course) who, like a grisly pied piper, led children into the gas chamber at Auschwitz. Filmed on location in Sweden, edited and ready for release in 1972, "Racially Yours" has still never been released, though Frogs still regards it as a film of quality and the few insiders who have seen it don't dare disagree.

As a long film career tapered off, the Frogs' charity work expanded to fill the void. The annual telethon for Muscular Dystrophy had become a must-see, and with evident drug usage taking its toll, reached heights of surreal entertainment in the wee hours of every Labor Day weekend.

Long after most of the non-French world had stopped taking the Frogs seriously, lightning struck Joey Levitch again, in the form of two unlikely back-to-back successes: a starring (dramatic) role in Martin Scorcese's "My Daughter the Broad," and the lead in a 1995 revival of "Damn Yankees" on Broadway, which made him the highest paid performer in Broadway's history.

-- Steve Albini

TRACK LISTING

reelin' & rockin' #1
children run away (the man with the candy)
where's jerry lewis?
i'm evil, jack
april fools (he had the change done at the shop)
the boys with the boys
gwendolyn macrae
i'm sad the goat just died today
god is gay
i love you (you know i don't)
put your finger in the dike, stop the leak
lifeguard of love
i'm hungry
stand up for your rights (or sit down)
banjo bonnie
candyland joe
which one of you gave my daughter the dope?
reelin' & rockin' #2
who's sucking on grandpa's balls since grandma ain't home tonight?
dreambox
i had a second change done at the shop (now i've added animal cocks)
grandma sitting in the corner with a penis in her hand going "no, no, no, no, no"

The Frogs Discography

The Frogs LP (self-released) 1988

It's Only Right and Natural LP/CD (Homestead, 1989)

"Last Time I Looked I Was Living" on Night Of The Living Dead LP (Massacre At Central Hi, 1992)

"Smack Goes The Dragon" on Bruce Lee, Heroin & the Punk Scene w/Sun City Girls& Zip Code Rapists 3x7" (Massacre At Central Hi, 1994)

"Now You Know You're Black" b/w"Adam & Steve" 7" (Matador 1994)

"Rearviewmirror" w/Pearl Jam 7"/CD5/cassingle (Epic 1995)

"Here Comes Santa's Pussy" on Punk Rock Xmas CD (Rhino,1995)

"Here Comes Santa's Pussy" b/w "Have A Merry Xmas" & "Snow Kisses" 7" (Matador, 1995)

My Daughter the Broad LP/CD (Matador, 1996)

Racially Yours a.k.a. The Black Album LP (Nice, 1996)

Star Job LP (Scratchie, 1996)