Reviews

1340mag.com
Weird. Weird. Weird. I have to admit that I was intrigued to give this one a listen because of the band’s name. I was sort of expecting…well I don’t know what I was expecting. That said, My By Self lived up to exactly none of my expectations.

What you get here is a sort of psychedelic folk odyssey that seems as comfortable pickin’ and strummin’ on the back porch as it does dropping acid and watching fluorescent lights at 2 AM. If They Might Be Giants made an album with Gram Rabbit then it very well could end up like this.

"S’Mores" is one of the highlights here. I don’t get it at all; I just like hearing the singer sing the word s’mores with a vibrato. Although there is a tremendously avant-garde nature to this album, the more musically straightforward moments, most notably "More Than a Nickel" and "Homo Erectus," put to bed any questions you may have about the band’s talent. They are obviously very talented. If you are looking for something WAY off the beaten path then look no farther than Holy Frog.

Key Tracks: S'Mores
Reviewed by: Mark Fisher

Mondo Gordo BBS
February 19,2006  
For the shortest month of the year, why does February seem so damn long? With a high temp of 25 degrees yesterday and a low of 10 degrees overnight and the ground covered with snow and ice, the ConMedia world HQ was one mighty cold place to be this weekend. Didn't stop our intrepid staff from cranking out some hot reviews of new CDs for our beloved readers, though! First of all, we highly recommend the debut disc from Holy Frog and an old gem from pop/rock icons the dB's. Check out reviews of the latest from roots rockers Marah, classic metalists Seven Witches, primal proggers Proto-Kaw and 'core thrashers Ringworm as well as great indie music from Backyard Tire Fire and the Andreas Kapsalis Trio. That should be enough to warm up anybody's week!

Alt.Culture.Guide Vol. III [Aspects of (Un)popular Culture] - If you want to know something about an artist or band, visit their web site. Most anybody involved in the "arts" has a site these days, or at least a page on My Space. However, don't go looking to the band's bio, or even its press page for information. No, for the real 4-1-1, go directly to the band's "links" page. It will tell you a hell of a lot more about the artist or musicians involved than any publicist's words or critic's views. In the case of Holy Frog, a self-proclaimed "surreal rock" band, their favorite links include musicians as diverse as the Meat Puppets and John Lee Hooker, cult comedian Bill Hicks and the Twilight Zone's Rod Serling. These choices speak volumes about Holy Frog and their music.

On the spinning globe of indie rock bands and artists, Holy Frog -- the duo of Kurt Kitson and Tobias Epstein, really -- stand out as true originals. While too damn many alternative popsters attempt to appear fiercely independent even while courting major label deals and magazine covers, the guys in Holy Frog have been sharpening their axes, honing their craft and creating a sound that is as out-to-lunch as anything you've ever heard. Forget about hear-today-gone-tomorrow wannabes like Bright Eyes or the Polyphonic Spree or whatever the flavor is this month...Holy Frog are the shizzle, a unique rock band with the heart of Salvador Dali and the soul of Sun Ra.

My By Self, the band's excellent self-produced debut album, offers a breathtaking, bone-shaking mix of mutant pop, alternative-universe country, psyche-folk and magic-mushroom rock & roll. Holy Frog pursues a fractured sense of instrumentation, with various musical currents crossing one another in mid-stream. The resulting sound is somewhat disjointed and unusual to the ears, but once you wrap your head around the underlying paradox, the fine songwriting and melody reveals itself. It's an innovative technique, sort of a situation where, if you'll "free your mind, your ass will follow," to paraphrase George Clinton.

The band's lyrics, while nowhere near as overtly surreal as their sound, are nevertheless fairly well drenched in psychedelia and peyote dust; purple imagery and cosmic questions abound. My By Self is bookended by two class war screeds, the album-opening "Table" pointing out that "somebody's crowding in at our table." It's the rich and the powerful, throwing us the old bone about having your cake, Holy Frog singing "it feels as though my innocence is gone." The album-closing "Trust Fund Baby" is a hilariously satirical jab at the silver spoon crowd, stating "I wish I was a trust fund baby" because "I'd spend all my cash on hookers, shiny cars and blow." At least they're honest, especially when pointing out that "I'd be rich and you'd get by on meager means, and the differences between us would become obscene."

There's a lot more between these two insightful songs, though, great stuff like the instrumentals "Charlie," with shimmering, shoe-gazing guitars leading into a chaotic miasma of clashing rhythms, taut six-string work and an overall euphoric feeling, and "Song For Odell," a throwback to the feedback-soaked sound of the '60s, Holy Frog channeling Hendrix circa Axis: Bold As Love or, at the very least, early Bevis Frond. The country-folk tune "Going To The Country" speaks of hermitic hippie dreams of self-sufficiency where "I ain't got no neighbors and the government leaves me alone." The melancholy "Lisa" evokes a cross between Lou Reed and Jeff Buckley, speaking as eloquently of alienation and loneliness as any song you've ever heard. The muted vocals of "S'mores" work to the song's advantage, oblique lyrics backed by a hypnotic soundtrack, like staring too long into a blazing campfire.

Throughout My By Self, Holy Frog display the atmospheric space of R. Stevie Moore, the intelligent eccentricities of Frank Zappa, Aquarium Rescue Unit's zeal for musical adventure, Captain Beefheart's sense of surrealism and Spirit's intricate compositional skills. Throw in elements of the Velvet Underground, the Incredible String Band, the Meat Puppets, Nick Drake and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd and you have a lesson in musical history that no multi-national corporation would ever release. What all of these artists have in common with Holy Frog is a certain iconoclastic nature and the ability to see beyond the horizon and dream of creating music that nobody's ever heard. In this, Holy Frog has succeeded and yes -- hyperbole be damned -- My By Self is that damn good.... REVIEW BY REV. KEITH A. GORDON, COPYRIGHT 2006

Smother.Net Review:  When you think of psychedelic folk what comes to mind? Soon your answer will be immediate and it’ll be a resounding exclaim of “Holy Frog!” In the middle of the Midwest in Columbia Missouri you’ll find this crazy duo who aim to penetrate your mind with oddness and bizarre post-modern sounds. Their music may be wildly different from what you normally hear when dudes pick up guitars but it’s not so far gone that you can’t enjoy it without some mind altering substance in your system.  Review by J-Sin

Review [Comomusic Anthology 1990-2005 Volume 2 (Painfully Midwestern Records)]:Comomusic Anthology 1990-2005 Volume 2 (Painfully Midwestern Records)

If Comomusic Anthology 1990-2005, Volume 1 (reviewed here) didn't teach you a thing or two about Columbia, Missouri, Volume 2 is another chance to get schooled. The CD booklet presents a great drawing of downtown Columbia, and a photo collage of the city. Yet the chief focus is of course music; Volume 2, like Volume 1, is an endearing celebration of Columbia's local bands. Where the first set contained numerous bands from the first half of that 1990-2005 date range, this volume is much more centered on the past few years. There are some exceptions, like Sofa Kit XL's excellent manifesto "Sissy" ("I don't want to play in a band / where only the girlfriends dance"), Untamed Youth's racuous surf-rock number "PBR" (actually from 1988), and a track from supergroup At Proper Distance (featuring Dwight Douglas from the beloved Incontinentals on vocals). But the overall emphasis of the 2-cd Volume 2 is to show what's going on in Columbia now, and it certainly sounds like there's a lot going on. The bulk of the bands play rock n' roll, each with its own style and personality. Wes Wingate opens the set with a power-pop song that has echos of a particular Big Star classic in its melody; Holy Frog closes it with an instrumental built from layers of electric guitars that build an atmosphere yet push forward. In between there's a host of loud and wild rock bands - drawing from post-punk, garage rock, punk, metal, and college-rock traditions yet doing their own thing - plus the ocasional trip to another genre (The People's Republic of Klezmerica, for example). In the past the chances that you'd heard bands with names like Miami Dragons and The Convergence Conspiracy Collective Psychoto-Electro Akrestra probably decreased exponentially as you left the Columbia, Missouri area. Thanks to this admirable and enjoyable series ("Volume 3 is forthcoming"), that's no longer the case. Every city had compilations like these the world would be a much better place. Review by Dave Heaton

Splendid Magazine Review: In his Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, hipster/philosophyer Robert Pirsig writes that "The world comes to us in an endless stream of puzzle pieces that we would like to think all fit together somehow, but that in fact never do." That's as fitting description as any for this puzzling, complex and very interesting EP. This psych-blues-electronic duo, comprised of Kurt Kitson and Tobias Epstein, lands lightly on traditional styles like porch blues and folk, but filters them through a bizarre and multiplicitous perspective. Listening to "Robert Pirsig Blues", for instance, is like viewing down-home strumming through insect eyes, the outlines recognizable but individual images fractured into a thousand colliding pieces. Similarly, "Candied Daze", with its Dieter-accented weather forecast intro ("And now, vould you like to touch my mohnkee?"), is shimmering space rock filtered through sunny country blues forms. It's slippery -- you never quite get a handle on it -- but gorgeous, and it leads into the more overtly twangy "Going to the Country". "Homo Erectus" may be the most bizarre cut on this brief EP; its good-time guitar strumming turns psycho with a persistent "This is my cock" chorus (at least that's what it sounds like they're saying). "02.01.03" memorializes the space shuttle crash of a couple years ago in a long, trippy journey that's only sabotaged by an overlay of GW Bush's eulogy.

Ear Candy Magazine gave My By Self and the Blue Banana EP and 1/2 TCBs (3.5 TCBs). Here's their reviews:

My By Self  - While I described their last disc as "psychedelic-Americana", Holy Frog's new disc finds them with a more bluegrass-Americana feel than their previous effort. They haven't totally abandoned their sound , but this time around picture a Gram Parson's influence instead of Syd Barrett ("S'Mores" still keeps this formula). While their last effort was only a 6-song EP, MY BY SELF is a full-length release, and Holy Frog have proven that they can progress in not only sound but in production. My favorite is "Trust Fund Baby" - a catchy little ditty with hilarious lyrics. And as with their last, Holy Frog always delivers something that is worth a listen. This ain't your average "alt-country" act! That's only part of the picture...they weave a collage of sounds that sounds somewhat familiar, yet different.      Review by Ronnie

Blue Banana EP - What if Cat Stevens and Syd Barrett had been born and raised in Middle America and dropped acid together? I imagine they would sound a lot like Holy Frog. Holy Frog dubs themselves "a surreal postmodern acoustic duo", but I prefer to describe them as "psychedelic-Americana-punk". At 6 songs, this CD is way too short, but it gives a tantalizing glimpse of what the band is capable of. Please give us more... Review by Ronnie

ADDreviews of Blue Banana EP (music reviews in 20 words or less): Enjoyably quirky and subtle indie rock from those weird guys you see hanging out in the thrift store.  Review by Laze

Smother.Net review of Blue Banana EP: This quick half an hour six-song EP by Holy Frog is the proper introduction to this crazed somewhat acoustic duo from Missouri. The guitar licks are thick with fevered intensity and the vocals sound like they come from some experienced drinkers. You’ll hear elements of bluegrass as well as their trademark psychedelic rock sound. I love the harmonica and the surreal atmospheres that they weave and paint throughout their eclectic array of songs. Good stuff. Review by J-Sin

Anti-Industry.com has two reviews of Holy Frog's Blue Banana EP...

Katie wrote:

I listen to a lot of indie music, and this is one of the few bands that actually encompasses the true meaning of independent! Wandering over at least 4 genres and without a care in the world for a common thread, Holy Frog's Blue Banana is an album about individuality.

It's almost as if Holy Frog stared at a blank canvas, glanced at paint, and then went into their medicine cabinet and fridge and use a hot glue gun, staples and gum to put their art together. Sounds messy, but somehow they actually pull it off with a sense of direction. Every song is a tiny universe of sound and intent that makes me listen again and again.

This is definitely an album I'd put on in the background. The sound itself is dreamy and almost Phish-ish in the case of 02.01.03, a nice meditative spunk that sets me up to think about people in my life. Injected are sound clips that have had one of the best introductions in the world. It's a far cry from the rap-rock and twitchy, funny noisemaking in Homo Erectus.

What I didn't like so much about the album was Robert Pirsig Blues, which opens up with a teeth-clenching fretattack and moves into a mishmash of harmonica-sounding-western song. The melody is hard on the ears and stays on the same note far too long, but then, I've never liked that kind of music. However Holy Frog is still unabashedly creating whatever moves them, and for that they get kudos.

Favorite Tracks: Homo Erectus, 02.01.03, King George
3/5

Allison wrote:

Holy Frog? Holy. Frog. It only took a few seconds for me to catch onto the fact that this band is nothing if not unique. Any group that describes themselves as a “surreal postmodern acoustic duo” can take that title and fly with it in my opinion. For some reason I am not the type of artsy hippie that gets this type of music. Yeah, I hug trees. Sure I dig music. But that special brand artistry is often lost on me. As a result, I approached this album with hesitation and no small amount of trepidation. But. Surprise! This music is actually kind of good.

The first song that jumped out at me was ‘Going to the Country’. The dominant acoustic guitars are beautiful, and the finger-picking adds just the right amount of country twang to the song. The vocals are raw folk at its best. The backing electric guitar adds a nice ambience with its drift and quaver; this song just feels like blue skies and summer breezes. It sparkles and chirps and rambles along without a care in the world. Toss me a piece of grass to chew on. I’m ready to move to the country!

‘02.01.03’ is another ambient piece that is beautifully constructed. The layers ebb and flow like the pulse of a tide, and the intermingling of theatrical audio snippets is incredibly moving. The attack of the guitars leading up the quotes of George W. pulses with urgency and drama. I know little of the Columbia disaster, but this song still almost had me in tears. I smell a soundtrack!

One complaint I have is the lack of consistency throughout the album. I’m all for versatility and straying from the straight and narrow, but sometimes that can be taken too far. I’m still not sure how ‘Homo Erectus’ fits into the grand scheme of things with its Shaggy-like rhymes and ghostly backing vocals. Similarly, ‘King George’ blasts out of the tranquil state induced by ’02.01.03’ only to leave me on an unsatisfied note. Where’s the closure? Why ruin the grandiose, finale-style ending with less than two minutes of chatter?

There is an obvious amount of talent in this duo that is never embellished, but steeps quietly in the background and grabs your attention through subtlety alone. Kurt Kitson and Tobias Epstein are masters of melding unusual sound effects, instruments and spoken word to form a full, commanding piece of music. The ‘Blue Banana EP’ is an interesting 25 minutes of imagination and dabbling. If you’re looking for something challenging and refreshing, this may be your thing.

Favorite Tracks: Going to the Country, 02.01.03
3/5