The insanely weird yet talented antics of the Frog Brigade

By LEROY BARNETTE III
Contributing Writer

Live Frogs Set 1 is a good album. It's not immediately appealing, it's weird and at times it sounds like musical anarchy, but it's good. It's kind of like a piece of sour candy. At first it's too tart, then it becomes less tart and then it starts to taste really good.

Set 1 marks the debut of Les Claypool's (Primus, Suasage, Oysterhead) newest side project Les Claypool's Frog Brigade. "The concept" as Claypool explained in the May issue of Guitar Player, "was to put together a collection of the most monster musicians I could possibly find, who would be able to go and play anything." To say that these guys can play would be an understatement.

The Frog Brigade are tight. All of the grooves on this album are monsters. It doesn't matter whether it's a funk groove ("Girls For Single Men" or "Riddles are the Gauntlet"), a surf groove ("Hendershot") or a prog-rock groove ("Shine On You Crazy Diamond"), Claypool makes sure that all the tunes are strong.

Live Frogs Set 1 was recorded live in last October at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. The 70-minute set consists entirely of cover songs: three by Sausage, two by Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel, King Crimson's "Thela Gun Ginjeet" and Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"easily the most accessible song on the album. Live Frogs Set 2 will be a live performance of Pink Floyd's Animals.

Live Frog Set 1 is an amazing display of musical interplay between very good musicians performing off-the-wall music. Fans of short, melodic and catchy pop songs will not like this album. This is an album for fans of Les Claypool, fans of extended live jams and music lovers who like their music strong and eclectic.

Copyright 2001 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 142, No. 59 (Monday, April 16, 2001), on page 10.