Like Us
Follow Us
The Frogs' Dennis Flemion dies
Sad news to report again as another local music scene veteran passes away.
The Racine Journal Times reported last night that Dennis Flemion, 57, who founded The Frogs with his brother Jimmy in 1980, drowned Saturday on Wind Lake.
Flemion was on a boat and went into the water to swim and did not come back up. Searchers began looking for his body on Saturday before nightfall. The search resumed Sunday and Monday but as of 4:30 p.m. yesterday, the Journal Times reported, Flemion's body was still not recovered.
The Frogs – in which the Flemion brothers surrounded themselves with a cast of some of the city's best musicians of the period – were one of Milwaukee's quirkiest and most influential (both here and beyond the city's borders) post-punk era bands, mixing humor, social issues and a lo-fi sound.
The brothers' style garnered them some big-name attention when Billy Corgan and Eddie Vedder became fans. The Frogs were invited to tour with Pearl Jam and Dennis Flemion spent seven months touring as a keyboardist for The Smashing Pumpkins.
Monday night, Corgan tweeted, "I'm devastated by the loss of my friend Dennis Flemion. Words can't explain the sorrow. A tragic loss. Please pray for his family."
A pair of new studio records – "Squirrel Bunny Jupiter Deluxe" and "Count Yer Blessingsz" – was released last week.
Dennis Flemion will be missed but he will be remembered among local musicians as a friend and as an innovator on the local scene.
Talkbacks
 |
No Talkbacks for this article. Post your comment/review now |
Facebook comments
Disclaimer: Please note that Facebook comments are posted through Facebook and cannot be approved, edited or declined by OnMilwaukee.com. The opinions expressed in Facebook comments do not necessarily reflect those of OnMilwaukee.com or its staff.
Recent Articles & Blogs by Bobby Tanzilo
Inspired by Aimee Mann, Ben Smith salutes The Bronze Fonz
Published May 23, 2013
More melodious love for the Bronze Fonz has arrived from afar. Yesterday, West Chester, Pa.-based singer and songwriter Ben Smith wrote to share one of his tunes with us. It's one that pays homage to the Bronze Fonz, says Smith.
Traveling Slugger show steps up to bat at Miller Park
Published May 23, 2013
If Discovery World's recent "Baseball - Innovations That Changed the Game" exhibit caught your attention, head over to Miller Park as the Brewers tackle the Pirates this weekend, May 24-26. In the stadium's concourse, you'll find a traveling interactive experience created specifically for this series at Miller Park by the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory in Louisville, Ky.
Krause's pamphlet considers the junction of comedy and politics
Published May 22, 2013
It seems, at the outset, like an unexpected marriage: "The acts of thinking comedically and behaving democratically share enough analogous elements that an extended comparison between the two makes each much clearer." But, Milwaukee writer and musician Adam Krause sat down at the intersection of Comedy and Politics to have a think and the result is "The Revolution Will Be Hilarious," which in a mere 41 pages makes a cogent and, in the end, startlingly simple point.
Getting to the bottom of Bay View
Published May 21, 2013
A group of students from MPS' Bay View and Bradley Tech High Schools is working in concert with Discovery World to excavate a lost block of homes in Bay View this weekend.
Scouting the Sherbrooke fish fry
Published May 21, 2013
After a big renovation and a quiet relaunch, Shepherd's on North in Wauwatosa has now been officially re-christened "The Sherbrooke," and I stopped in recently on a Friday to scout the fish fry.
Pabst's enduring pavilion faces extinction
Published May 20, 2013
Thanks to Erik Larson's 2003 bestseller, "The Devil in the White City," yet another generation is fascinated by the 1893 Chicago World's Fair: Columbian Exposition. Despite its enduring - in itself somewhat surprising - popularity, little remains of this by all accounts stunning little temporary city. One survivor serves as the entrance and gift shop to The Pabst Mansion, 2000 W. Wisconsin Ave., and it is in increasingly desperate condition.
The coolest record of the '60s folk revival was made in Milwaukee
Published May 20, 2013
As part of "The Avant Garde Coffee House Project" exhibit currently on view, there's a glass-topped case with some posters and a record. It's a pretty nondescript thing, frankly, with a black and white photo and some not especially artful text. But that little record - "Blues, Rags and Hollers," by folk blues trio Koerner, Ray & Glover - made a big bang when it was released in June 1963. And it was made in Milwaukee.
Former Color Truth frontman Steinbach finds the road back
Published May 19, 2013
It's been a long time since we've heard from Zach Steinbach. Nearly five years ago Steinbach fronted The Color Truth, a Milwaukee band that seemed poised to take the next step with its big, melodic, poppy rock and roll. The band fizzled out a couple years back, leaving Steinbach a bit lost. But now, he's back. He's got a band, and he's got a new solo record. More, than anything, he says, he's got a new lease on a musical life.
Let's put the "front" back in Front Street
Published May 16, 2013
For a variety of reasons, I've been thinking about Front Street, which now seems so ironically named, fronting as it does onto nothing and serving as the ultimate definition of a Milwaukee "backstreet." In my mind, I see something much different that can be seen on the block today.
New Eric & Magill song debuts
Published May 15, 2013
Milwaukee's Eric & Magill, who released an EP called "Two Travelers" in February, will follow it up with a second full-length record this summer. Ryan Weber and Eric Osterman release "Night Singers" on July 23. You can hear the song, "Baggage and Clothes" now.
