Frognot getting a jump-start
by Teresa Gubbins
Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News
Frognot - it's not just a tiny town outside McKinney, Texas, anymore. It's also a Dallas rock band.
Every band gets its day and Frognot is having its right now. The quartet has a new, self-released disc, called Welcome to Frognot, and an accompanying release party at the Across the Street Bar in Deep Ellum on Friday at midnight.
For the next three Fridays in a row, Frognot is also on KDMX-FM (102.9): A cut from the new disc will be played shortly before 10 a.m. at the end of the morning show.
Were you to listen to the disc, you might identify Frognot as another not-bad bar-type rock band with a yen for funk. What makes Frognot special is the dedication and perseverance of gal drummer April Samuels. She got her first pair of drumsticks at age 5. She began playing in bands in 1988 and has also managed a platoon of Dallas metal bands including Dark Alliance, Moth, and Pulp Society - "back when metal was cool," she says.
When Pulp Society broke up, singer Dennis Leonard and Ms. Samuels formed Frognot. The band also includes her brother Todd Samuels and guitarist Kenneth Allen, with whom Ms. Samuels played in an early 90's band called 100 Proof. Frognot has played at clubs such as the Galaxy Club, Trees, and Club Dada.
Philosophically, Frognot, the hard-working, ambitious band, would seem to have little in common with Frognot the town, which on the cover of the disc looks like a sleepy place. But the band members all grew up in Plano when it was still pretty much a small town.
Ms. Samuels also has single-handedly persuaded 13 out of 14 local Blockbuster Music stores to stock her band's disc (the guy at the Knight Street store was not very polite, Ms. Samuels says, so she decided not to bother).