Jimmy Flemion of Milwaukee band The Frogs – which he formed with his late brother Dennis in the 1980s – has announced that the band’s long-unreleased debut LP is now coming out on April 3.
Last August, Oxford, Mississippi's The End of All Music reissued the band’s most well-known release, "It's Only Right and Natural," in celebration of its 30th anniversary.
That record helped the band gain fans like members of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, Pearl Jam and others.
Kurt Cobain with Dennis & Jimmy Flemion of The Frogs, Milwaukee, October 26, 1993 pic.twitter.com/hH3etrBYi8 — kurdt kobain (@kcobaindaily) October 26, 2014
"1st" will be released by The End of All Music, too.
The record was made in January 1986 when Minneapolis’ Twin/Tone label offered to release a Frogs disc. The band went into Nexus Studio in Waukesha and hammered out 12 songs in one night, with no overdubs.
But Dennis, who passed away in July 2012, was unhappy with the way the results sounded and the band declined to release them.
In 2018, Jimmy brought the tapes to a studio in Portland, Oregon to clean up the offending reverb that Dennis disliked and remastered the recordings, which are now being released 34 years later.
The 12 tracks recorded for "1st" will be joined by eight bonus tracks for the release.
One song, "Hellsville Baby," was shared yesterday
Jimmy is also taking The Frogs – which will include Evan Dando of The Lemonheads on drums, guitar and vocals – on the road for the first time since Dennis’ death, with gigs in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas and California.
For more information, visit The End of All Music website.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.