Pitchfork: Frog Eyes Sign To Absolutely Kosher

Frog Eyes Sign To Absolutely Kosher
Kermit takes strict vow to keep his hands off the pork

[Posted Tuesday, November 11th, 2003 05:45:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

If you don't listen to Frog Eyes, I encourage you to: their sophomore release, The Golden River, is worth your time and money (and possibly the special order because your local record store probably doesn't carry it). However, by switching over to Berkeley-based Absolutely Kosher Records, the demented sounds of former Blue Pine member Carey Mercer (now Frog Eyes' leading man, rumored to be the secret love-child of Bette Midler and Nick Cave) can reach a broader audience than before. This is your mission: go out and find Frog Eyes (the band, please... PETA's already on our ass over Wolf Eyes and Minus The Bear).

With a scheduled appearance at SXSW 2004 as official members of the A-Kosh posse, as well as a new record on deck with help from the producing hands of Colin Stewart (Destroyer, Jerk With a Bomb and p:ano) and Darryl Smith (Godspeed You! Black Emperor), Frog Eyes is slowly rising from their relative obscurity.

The new album has just begun production and its release date is scheduled for September 2004. Carey Mercer said this about their third release and its increased production: "If an album is good, it can be successfully and tastefully recorded on a Dictaphone... however, it is great to be working with these people and be able to hear around the corner of the songs."

Pennsylvania label Happy Home Records will release The Golden River on vinyl, which can be found now on CD from Animal World Recordings, who also plans to re-release Frog Eyes' debut album The Bloody Hand. The band will go on tour next fall to promote the new record (their last tour occurred along the West Coast in August of 2002), but if you want to see them in the near future, they will be appearing... oh... here:

11-26 Victoria, British Columbia - Open Space (w/ The Hidden Cameras)

Of course, it's way too early for a tracklist. Instead, please enjoy these interesting facts about frog eyes:

- Frogs often use their eyes to push their food down their throats while they eat.
- Japanese scientists have made phenomenal breakthroughs in the field of cloning through the replication of frog eyes in test tubes.
- The frog is the most commonly dissected specimen in biology classes. The second is the cow eye.