Mister Goblin Releases New Album 'Frog Poems', Shares New Tour Dates
The tour will kick off June 14th in Tallahassee, FL.
By: Josh Sharpe Apr. 26, 2024
Mister Goblin, the long-running project of former Two Inch Astronaut frontman Sam Goblin, has released his fourth album, Frog Poems.
Frog Poems was mixed and produced by longtime collaborator Seth Engel (Jimmy Montague, Joey Nebulous, Options) and recorded in two separate studios. Half the record was done with a full band, Engel providing drums, while the other half are solo recordings. The dissonance between the two, alternating modes gives Frog Poems some of its particular dynamism.
Frog Poems was preceded by singles that each displayed a different aspect of Mister Goblin’s cutting edge sound. On “Goodnight Sun,” which Paste called "a decry of failure, a yearning for a better tomorrow—all packed into a song bolstered by blistering riffs and jet-fueled percussion," Sam flipped the classic children’s book Goodnight Moon to reflect a more realistic, downtrodden world. “The Notary,” a powerful, shoegaze-indebted indie rock song found him reaching out for connection. The “beautifully off-kilter” (Stereogum) “Run, Hide, Fight,” saw Sam giving one his most raw vocal performances while expressing the unease he felt while running active shooter drills at an elementary school.
Pulling from a kaleidoscopic array of influences spanning from the early 2000’s tongue-in-cheek storytelling traditions of bands of Pedro the Lion to the breezier and more fuzzed-out conventions of 90’s alternative bands like The Lemonheads, and even further into the post-hardcore leanings of bands like No Knife and Shiner, Frog Poems is unexpected, thoughtful, and idiosyncratic in all of the best ways.
The album also continues the sonic refinement that’s become more and more palpable with each Mister Goblin release. A project born of a desire to write music free of rigid genre framing after the disbandment of Two Inch Astronaut, Goblin leans harder than ever into that ethos. He adds: “The criticism I've always heard about Mister Goblin records is that they're ‘too dynamic’ or trying to accomplish too much without a unified sonic purpose or something. Instead of changing that, because I'm stubborn, I think I just tried to do it better.
Frog Poems Tracklisting:
2. Grown Man
3. The Notary
4. Mike Shinoda
6. Lost Data
7. Saw V
8. Fit To Be Tied
9. Open Up This Pit
10. Frog Poems
Mister Goblin On Tour:
* With Moontype and Cusp
June 14 — Square Mug — Tallahassee, FL
June 23 — Ideal Sports Bar — Atlanta, GA
June 24 — Healer — Indianapolis, IN
June 25 — TBA — St. Louis, MO
June 26 — The Space — Champaign, IL
June 27 — Beat Kitchen — Chicago, IL *
June 28 — Kaiju — Louisville, KY
June 29 — DSGN Collective — Cincinnati, OH
Photo Credit: Mister Goblin
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