Frogstomp

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 commercially most successful single, "Tomorrow", which was first released on the band's extended play of the same name on 16 September 1994. Music videos were made for the album's four singles: "Tomorrow", "Pure Massacre", "Israel's Son", and "Shade".

Recording
Frogstomp was recorded in nine days. Prior to recording Frogstomp, demo versions of the songs "Acid Rain", "Cicada", "Pure Massacre", and "Tomorrow" were recorded at Platinum Sound Studios in early 1994. In December 1995, Silverchair's vocalist and guitarist Daniel Johns said about the recording of the demo songs, "It cost about $75. We weren't in there for more than an hour." "Tomorrow" and "Acid Rain" were re-recorded at Triple J Studios in Sydney, Australia for the release of Silverchair's four-track EP Tomorrow in September 1994, which also included the songs "Blind" and "Stoned". Three months after the release of the EP, the band began recording their debut album, Frogstomp, during which "Cicada", "Pure Massacre", and "Tomorrow" were re-recorded. The recording sessions for the album began in late December 1994 and ended in mid-January 1995 at Festival Studios in Pyrmont, New South Wales.

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."

Title
In January 1996, when asked why the album's name is 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 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. Frogstomp was later released by Epic Records in the United States on 20 June 1995. It was certified double platinum by the RIAA on 14 February 1996.

The LP version of the album was sold on a green vinyl with "Blind" 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, Australia. 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 music videos "Tomorrow", "Pure Massacre", and "Israel's Son".

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". Chuck Eddy of Entertainment Weekly wrote in July 1995: "the songs on Frogstomp almost all start out like dreary Metallica ballads and build toward gloomy, by-the-numbers grunge." David Fricke of Rolling Stone, on the other hand, wrote: "Truly shameless wanna-be's [sic] like Bush should be so lucky to have the hard smarts that Silverchair – particularly the band's main writers, singer-guitarist Daniel Johns and drummer Ben Gillies – show on such Frogstomp-ers as 'Pure Massacre' and 'Israel's Son'. When these guys turn 18, they'll really be dangerous."

Legacy
In October 2015, James Rose of the Daily Review wrote of the album, "As an album in its own right, it's pretty good. As a debut by three 15-year-olds, it's about as good as it gets. There are still kids out there today listening to Frogstomp and shitting themselves. And so they should."

ABC wrote that in 1995, Silverchair provided a "thrilling synthesis of rage, confusion and pain, and as a distillation of teen angst, you couldn't get a purer generational timestamp than Frogstomp."

In November 2017, The Amity Affliction member Ahren Stringer said of the album: "I was obsessed with Frogstomp as a 12-year-old boy. I wanted to be Daniel Johns."

In September 2018, the album was ranked #25 on Double J's list of Top 50 Australian Albums of the '90s.

In July 2020, Mixdown listed the album as among the seven best Australian grunge albums.

In December 2021, Frogstomp was listed at no. 6 in Rolling Stone Australia’s '200 Greatest Albums of All Time' countdown.

2015 20th anniversary remastered deluxe edition bonus DVD

 * 1) "Madman" (live at the Cambridge Hotel, 1995)
 * 2) "Blind" (live at the Cambridge Hotel, 1995)
 * 3) "Tomorrow" (live at the Cambridge Hotel, 1995)
 * 4) "Faultline" (live at the Cambridge Hotel, 1995)
 * 5) "Pure Massacre" (live at the Cambridge Hotel, 1995)
 * 6) "Israel's Son" (live at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, 1995)
 * 7) "Tomorrow" (music video, US version)
 * 8) "Pure Massacre" (music video, Australian version)
 * 9) "Israel's Son" (music video, Australian version)

Personnel
Silverchair
 * Daniel Johns – guitar, vocals
 * Chris Joannou – bass guitar
 * Ben Gillies – drums

Production Additional personnel
 * Kevin "Caveman" Shirley – production, recording, mixing
 * Toby Learmont, Jon Russell – engineering assistance
 * Phil "Astroboy" Munro, Mark Thomas, Matt Witton – recording assistance
 * Mixed at Eclipse Studios (Sydney, Australia)
 * Ted Jensen – mastering at Sterling Sound (New York City, New York) (original 1995 release)
 * Bob Ludwig – remastering at Gateway Mastering Studios (Portland, Maine) (2015 remaster)
 * John O'Donnell, Kevin Wilkins – art direction
 * Tony Stone Images/The Photo Library – original frog image artwork
 * Greg Bennett – design, illustration
 * David Anderson, Adrienne Overall, Susan Robertson, John Watson – photography
 * John O'Donnell, John Watson – A&R

Appearances

 * The song "Israel's Son" was featured in the film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.