At this point the question is: what can’t frog do? The indie pop duo has been one of the rare hipster favorites that have captured my heart — maybe because they write so convincingly about lived experiences and complex people, rather than navel-gazing. All of that sounds like a country song, and that’s where frog takes us on “420!!”
frog, the passion project of brothers Danny and Steve Bateman, have been pushing the envelope on wildly absurdist pop for some time now. Their upcoming album Grog — out tomorrow — is the duo’s first full-length album since 2015. That’ll happen when you have twins right at the beginning of a global pandemic. As Danny looked around said to himself, “well, what the fuck now?” Grog was born. This is music to throw a jazz funeral too — I mean, if you don’t like jazz, I guess. “420!!” contemplates death even as it sketches high school boredom and the medicine you turn to to curtail it.
If “420!!” hasn’t sold you on Grog, which is out tomorrow, here’s “Maybelline.”
Grog will be out tomorrow, November 17th, via Audio Antihero Records. Check back here for a full review!