Froggy & The Ringes Ringe Rock Pond Scum LP
A word of warning to anyone who dares give this record by self-described “mysterious” UK act a go: be prepared for a lot. Like, I enjoy garage punk bands, and if they want to throw an organ in the mix, great. Shit-kickin’, V-flickin’, overtly Bri-ish punk that’s boarding on faux punxploitation? I can get on board. I even dig dumb, cartoony novelties—one of my favorite releases of the year is almost exclusively about pubic lice. But as I sat blinking through the initial 30 seconds of this record, slowly realizing that I was getting not just all these things at once, but the maximum amount of each, it made me doubt whether I truly liked any of them individually to begin with. This sounds like a cockney Fred Flintstone fronting some Euro-garage punk act like the RIPPERS or MOJOMATICS, doing what sounds like a set of ARMITAGE SHANKS songs that have had their lyrics re-written to cover topics like being a sexy rock’n’roll frog, what it would take to make it with a sexy frog, and other frog-related shit. If that sounds like something that would be up your alley (or on your lily pad or whatever), well, here’s ten whole songs of it!