Before They Were Fancy: The Frog Brigade Part 1

Album: Live Frogs: Set 1
Artist: The Les Claypool Frog Brigade
Genre: Experimental Rock
Year: 2001
Label: Prawn Song

Les Claypool’s solo albums have a notable hit and miss quality to them. In the studio, His Sausage and Holy Mackerel projects both fell under the miss label, though not for lack of trying. Meanwhile, his Oysterhead project with Trey Anastasio (Phish) and Stewart Copeland (The Police) was in the hit category. In similar manner, live albums are usually hit or miss. So it’s impressive to find that this album, being both one of Claypool’s solo efforts and a live album, is a hit. The Frog Brigade went through several incarnations before evolving into the Fancy Band, but this album captures them in one of their earlier forms. Six men strong, the Frog Brigade here is comprised of Jay Lane (drums, also of Sausage,) Todd Huth (guitar, also of Sausage,) Eenor (guitar,) Jeff Chimenti (keyboards, also of Ratdog,) Skerik (saxophone, also of Critters Buggin’) and, of course, Les Claypool (bass.) The Frog Brigade came together after an energy-less and idea-less Primus went on hiatus in the early 2000’s, each member moving to perform solo efforts. Claypool managed to create a project that stood on par with his best work with Primus, while the other members formed No Forcefield, which no one ever heard of till just right now. The sound of the Frog Brigade is similar to Primus, but with more instruments and more grand compositions leading to an overall bigger sound. The addition of keyboards and saxophone gives the music a more adventurous feel then the simple guitar/bass/drums set up.

What Claypool had was the good fortune to ally himself with top-notch musicians who were able to take a collection of unremarkable Holy Mackerel and Sausage tunes and two difficult covers and warp them into a conflagration of Jam Band goodness. Yes, yes. I know. I just used the J word. Well tough, cause that’s pretty much what the Frog Brigade is, a Jam Band. Luckily for everyone involved, there are no stoned, masturbatory solos into infinity and beyond on this record. There are solos to be sure, but they’re all within acceptable time frames, no one hundred and thirty-three minute snooze fests to bring the energy down. At seven tracks in length, the album is roughly sixty-six minutes long, because of the jams. The opening track, a cover of King Crimson’s “Thela Hun Ginjeet” is fourteen minutes long and is used as an opportunity to showcase each and every member of the band’s soloing skills. Chementi’s solo is particularly blistering. As with all Claypool music, the bass is at the center of the compositions, but here extra time is given over to the other members of the band. This is something Claypool is particularly good at, that is, sharing the limelight with the other members of his band and not stealing all the focus. Such talent is evidenced on track two “Riddles Are Abound Tonight” where Skerik’s saxophone takes center stage for two minutes of skronking mayhem. Another example is “Running The Gauntlet” during which Claypool takes time to introduce each member of the band, giving them time to solo. Everyone gets a solo except for Lane, which struck me as odd. As the drummer in this band, Lane holds everyone together and prevents them from losing their place in the grand scheme of things. It’s a common job for the drummer, but not one to be shirked or neglected.

One of the more interesting aspects of this album is that this was recorded before the Frog Brigade had developed original material of it’s own; all the tracks are either covers or from Claypool’s solo albums. The two covers “Thela Hun Ginjeet” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” are impressive because of the audacity with which they are executed. But, in my opinion, the songs taken from the Sausage and Holy Mackerel albums are more impressive, because it shows the Frog Brigade taking some fairly unremarkable Claypool compositions and making them forces to be reckoned with. The best example of this is probably “Hendershot” from the Holy Mackerel album, which on record was dry and uninteresting. But here, on this live record, the song is played with ferocious energy and features Skerik on a roaring Surf Saxophone solo. Of all the players here, Skerik is likely my favorite. Being from Seattle, I feel particular pride that my city produced such a fantastic musician. As I said before, live albums can be hit or miss and to find one that successfully captures a band at their live best is a rare and beautiful thing. Such is the beauty of this album.

To be continued...