Frogstomp (1995)

Frogstomp is the debut studio album by Australian rock band Silverchair. It was released on 27 March 1995, when the band members were only 15 years of age, by record label Murmur. The album features the band's most commercially successful single, "Tomorrow", which was first released on the band's debut EP of the same name six months earlier on 16 September 1994. Music videos were made for the album's four singles: "Tomorrow", "Pure Massacre", "Israel's Son", and "Shade".

Recording

According to drummer Ben Gillies and vocalist and guitarist Daniel Johns in 1996, Frogstomp was recorded in nine days. Gillies stated the album took "even less days to mix." Prior to recording Frogstomp, Silverchair were previously named Innocent Criminals and consisted of drummer Ben Gillies and vocalist and guitarist Daniel Johns, with bassist Chris Joannou joining shortly after the band formed in 1992. Second guitarist Tobin Finnane was also in the band, though he later left. Demo versions of the songs "Acid Rain", "Cicada", "Pure Massacre", and "Tomorrow" were recorded by the band at Platinum Sound Studios in early 1993. In December 1995, Johns said about the recording of the demo songs, "It cost about $75. We weren't in there for more than an hour."

In July 2007, when asked about the grunge sound of Frogstomp and the band's musical influences, Gillies stated: "We were definitely influenced by the whole Seattle sound."

In May 2015, when asked if the record was made live in the studio, Johns said: Yeah, that's the thing that I do really like about that album – it sounds exactly like we sounded. There was no big American producer calling the shots behind the desk and telling us to do this, this and this. It was literally this guy, Kevin Shirley, who was a great producer, just saying, "I want it to sound like you guys, but I want it to sound really f—ing loud and I want the guitars really f—ing loud." So to me, I was like, f—ing yeah! The songwriting might not be genius, but I think sonically, the performances are really good. It's really honest; it's just three Australian kids thrashing it out in the studio and that's exactly how it sounds.

In August 2020, Gillies said the following about the album:We were always searching to keep that spark alive when Frogstomp came out because it was just so unrefined, it was just so raw. There was something magical about that we continued to try and capture. I think we did pretty well.

Title

In January 1996, when asked why the album was named Frogstomp, Johns said: I was at a guy from our record company's house one night and I was looking through his CDs because he's got a really good collection. I found this '60s pop collection record and I was just going (laughs), "Why do you have this?" I looked at the back and there was this song that some guy [Floyd Newman] did called Frogstomp and I said, "That's a pretty good name." (laughs) I just rang up Ben and Chris and we just thought it was really funny so we used it for the album.

Release

Frogstomp was first released in Australia by record label Murmur on 27 March 1995. It reached number 1 on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart. The album was later released by Epic Records in the United States on 16 June 1995 and on 11 September 1995 in the United Kingdom.

Frogstomp is the only Silverchair album to receive platinum certification in the United States by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) on 19 September 1995, making it the band's best-selling album in the U.S., and it was later certified double platinum on 14 February 1996.

The LP version of the album was sold on a green vinyl with "Blind", from the Tomorrow EP, as a bonus track and limited to 3,000 copies worldwide. A limited cassette edition of the album was also released.

On 27 March 2015, a remastered edition of Frogstomp was released as a two-CD/DVD set to mark the twentieth anniversary of its release. The standard edition of the 20th Anniversary remaster includes a second CD titled "Rarities" with Silverchair's Tomorrow EP, a vocal version of the song "Madman" (from the single "Shade"), and audio of a concert from June 1995 at the Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle, New South Wales. The Deluxe Edition of the 20th Anniversary remaster includes the "Rarities" CD as well as a DVD with video footage of the band's Cambridge Hotel concert, a video recording of "Israel's Son" at the 1995 Sydney Royal Easter Show, and the "Tomorrow", "Pure Massacre", and "Israel's Son" music videos.

Reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote:For their age [15 years old], their instrumental capabilities are quite impressive, as the guitars and vocals growl with the force of rockers in their early twenties. At the same time, their songwriting abilities aren't as strong, and they are never able to break away from the standard grunge formula. Nevertheless, the record does deliver a collection of songs replicating the thunder of 'Tomorrow'.