The Frogs were practically tadpoles when they cut these previously unreleased songs in 1986.
The Frogs were practically tadpoles when they cut these previously unreleased songs in 1986. The End of All Music

The Frogs, "Hellsville Baby" (The End of All Music)

If you know the Milwaukee group the Frogs at all, it's likely for their controversial and hilarious 1989 album, It's Only Right and Natural. As I wrote on Slog when that LP received a reissue last summer, "[T]he album unleashed the homosexual id in the bluntest manner to a ramshackle, spindly folk-rock backing. The shamelessly lascivious lyrics were so disarming because they hit you in such a stripped-down context, in a musical form typically associated with earnest, leftist sentiments, heterosexual sentimentality, and love-one-another-right now universality—not the sleaziest aspects of queer culture. Adding further layers of strangeness: The Frogs weren't from San Francisco or New York, but from muthafucking Milwaukee—and they were straight."

Following It's Only Right and Natural's release, the Frogs—brothers Dennis and Jimmy Flemion—became cult heroes, lauded by the likes of Harmony Korine, Beck, Eddie Vedder, Mudhoney, and Kurt Cobain. Now the surviving Flemion brother, Jimmy, is releasing the Frogs' previously unreleased 1986 album, 1st, on April 3. The initial song leaked from this archival dig, "Hellsville Baby," starts like naïve pop hit from the mid '60s, only draped in '80s lo-fi ambiance. But the Flemions disrupt the gentle reverie with ill guitar and bass distortion and uncouth drum bashing, before toggling back to the original winsome melody. Wash, rinse, and repeat. "Hellsville Baby" exemplifies the Frogs' schizoid approach between earnest, folksy songcraft and a Butthole Surfers-esque zest for sonic chaos. Check it out after the jump.

The Frogs perform Sunday, February 15 at Substation with the Gods Themselves and Ball Bag.