Boo Frog

Boo Frog's lyrical garage oblivion is stamped with just a kiss of the hoodoo, enough to spellbind even the most skeptical of our city's storied punk scene. Not that Chris Newman needs to employ folk magic to impress. The legacy of his former band, Napalm Beach, is one whose influence will not soon fade away. Along with Dead Moon's Fred Cole and the Wipers' Greg Sage, Newman helped create the Portland punk offshoot that prefaced the '90s movement we all know as "grunge." But those days were long ago, and since then Newman's been through the mill, even spending a few years in Tarp Town, San Francisco. Meanwhile, his music has only gotten better. It's evolved into a distinctly swampy version of itself, as though it's been dredged through the pits and rescued at just the last moment: nearly fossilized and slowly dripping. CHRIS CANTINO - Portland Mercury, Portland

Boo Frog is the Portland band that best pays tribute to both the Fuggs’ whimsical, poetic ’60s humor and Ween’s psychedelic mid-’90s silliness. Drenched in reverb-strewn low-fi credibility, Boo Frog eschews songwriting convention and puts its songs first. With members who’ve shared the stage with every punk band that mattered from Portland’s 1980s music scene—co-founder Chris Newman is perhaps better known for his work in Napalm Beach—Boo Frog knows the music is all that matters. Always independent, the band just released Better Than the Rest on vinyl in July of this year, followed shortly thereafter by the Undead at Satyricon live cassette. So if you want to see some real-deal musical history that the cool kids were into when you were just a pup, check Boo Frog out. JOHN ISAACSON, Willamette Week - Willamette Week, Portland

Song of the day – 128: Boo Frog - by Everett True

Despite the assertion from the editor of Mess And Noise that my blogging is all “NME this, or Franz Ferdinand that”, my desk seems to be currently sadly bereft of new releases from major labels, or even major indie labels.

Instead, I’m reduced to scrabbling around among the scrag-ends of cultural abandon – or, as the chairman of the board of judges for the AMP put it, “dwellers on the fringes of society” – sorting through the remnants of CDs put aside to listen to that should have been listened to damn years ago but sadly a life spent devoted to “NME this, or Franz Ferdinand that” doesn’t seem to be paying the bills so I’ve only just got round to buying a new computer that actually plays CDs. It seems appropriate that the first such search should throw up Portland’s Boo Frog – pond-dwellers and scum-suckers like myself, wallowing in the deep primordial ooze that once spawned The Cramps and all that nastiness. The music is raw and timeless, psychedelic and trippy: all fuzzed guitars and mean gruff male vocals and Dead Moon-flecked female. One suspects there’s only a minimum of musicians playing, because Boo Frog clearly understand the way silence and the space between the silences can unsettle. There’s no bass. Why would there be? Why would there be? Reverb, as ever, is their queen and castle and legacy and floating jetsam pushing aside the barges of woe.

The search also threw up a press release that indicates Boo Frog formed in the spring of 2009 at a Lux Interior memorial, and recorded all the tracks on their debut deep-end swamp rock album Boo Frog during the three hottest days in Portland’s history, which seems relevant but now I retype these words I can’t quite put my finger on it somehow. Ah yes, context. I dunno. This seems like everything The Racounteurs could be, but are not in any shape or form. I kept expecting ‘Crushed’ to break into 13th Floor Elevators’ ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me‘. Boo Frog are hard. Boo Frog are heavy. Boo Frog crush.

And so it goes.

Do yourself a favour. Quit reading all my blog entries about Franz Ferdinand and NME for a second, and have yourself a little listen to Boo Frog. Pulverise that brain. - Collapse Board, Brisbane, Australia

Okay, so the Cramps made their greatest records with no dang bass player – they didn’t need one! Boo Frog operates on a similar premise, I think. There’s so much great guitar here it takes awhile before the listener even notices there’s a rhythm instrument that’s usually there that ain’t. I haven’t even said a word about the songs – if these were JUST Chris Newman songs, it’d be a great album. But add Erika Meyer’s songwriting, guitar playing & singing into the equation – AND Paul Vega’s drumming (and great carny/Suicide/Jim-Carroll-esque vox on “Mind Bender”), and we’ve got a truly excellent album here. Erika’s “Anabasis” could be a riot grrrl outtake from 1994 (I hope the band doesn’t edit THIS part of the review out – I mean it as a compliment!), and then “Jake the Alligator Man”, complete with theremin from engineer deluxe Mike Lastra, is a psychedelic masterpiece that would fit in between the Seeds & the Lollipop Shoppe on a 60s mixtape. Seems like Erika sings a lot about dead people… and hey! Do I know “Bad Pam?” Newman has been making music for Portland & beyond for the last 30 years now, and will hopefully continue for 30 more – this record proves that his best work isn’t behind him yet. He’s been on a writing/recording/playing-live rampage the last 4 or 5 years, and this newest band of his, Boo Frog, raises the ante further. - Jeff Larson - Sonic Recollections, Portland

OO FROG : s/t CD ( Skullman rds. )
From the dust of the Untouchables / Napalm Beach & various local bands …. the gatherin’ of Chris / Erika / Paul …. BOO FROG ‘s born . Voodoo / Garage punk zone emerge from this band from Portland area . Just imagine their faves bands ‘re the Seeds / Gun Glub / Cramps. Personnaly , Y ‘can dig B ‘ Frog music’spirit if u ‘re into Dead Moon / 13th Floor Elevators music trend . Listen , “crushed ” / ” in the beginnin ‘ ” among 11 more tracks & u ‘d understood what BOO FROG ‘s able to dig . Better than ever ( the rest ) …here’s BOO FROG ….. ! A must! Feb. 2011 - Garage Band revisited ‘zine, Soubielle, France

At the place where garage rock meets catching flies with your tongue, there lies Boo Frog. The three-piece is celebrating the release of its self-titled debut, but these are no newcomers to the music scene. Boo Frog is co-fronted by Chris Newman of the legendary Napalm Beach, and Erika Meyer who's done time with Serpentone. The third member is drummer Paul Vega (of bands like Wadsworth and Lost Acolytes), and if you imagine the garage punk of Pierced Arrows steeped in muddy swamp water for a year or two, you get something like Boo Frog. NED LANNAMAN 2 October 2009 - Portland Mercury, Portland

Boo Frog are a trio of old school Portland rockers who’ve been around the block a time or two. This is a gathering of some laid back guitar slinging rock originals. Imagine a sort of voodoo-bluesy stroll colliding with class act rock n roll.

They are comprised of a two-guitar-and-drums garage rock trio featuring axe-mastermind, Chris Newman on guitar and vox, Rock bad girl Erika Meyer also on guitar/vox, and Paul Vega on drums. Chris and Erika share song writing duties.

Boo Frog was spawned from a one-time Lux Interior tribute show performed April 2009. After the tribute, Chris Newman (formerly

Erika Meyer

of Napalm Beach, Snow Bud and the Flower People, Chris Newman Experiment, Divining Rods etc..), and Erika Meyer (formerly of Serpentone) and drummer Paul Vega (Wadsworth, Subarachnoid Space, Diesto, Lost Acolytes) decided to continue playing together. Lucky for us they decided to keep it together and move forward.

Chris Newman

Boo Frog’s original songs feature fuzz and reverb-laden guitars. They have been compared to early Cramps, (vintage gear and no bass) style. Boo Frog’s sound has also been likened to bands such as The Seeds, Velvet Underground, and Gun Club.
For me Boo Frog is a gravelly mix of down and dirty swamp rock on a lazy afternoon, kickin up the dust on a hot summers day. They have a soul grazing kick back sound that crawls up your spine and growls at you… - Counter Culture UK