The Conditional Frogs, ‘He Who Bites,’ ‘Naughty Naughty,’ or ‘He Looks Pale, Needs a Laxative,’ can stop being frogs.

• +..post rock


• +..the rip ship...


• +..motoric post punk

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It is already fairly predictable who the winners and the losers will be. ‘Isn’t He Amazing?’ reinforced two years later with ‘That’s a Good Boy’ will usually do better than ‘What’s He Fussing About?’ reinforced one year later by ‘Enema Tube’; similarly, ‘Lullaby,’ first at nursing and later in the bathroom, will probably prevail over ‘While Mother Smokes.’ Already the feeling of OKness or not-OKness, which separates the now and future princes from the now and future frogs, is being implanted, and several types of frogs and princes (or for the ladies, goose girls and princesses) are being set up. ‘Isn’t He Amazing?’, the Forever Prince with the success script, is often but not always the first-born. The Conditional Prince, ‘Come and See How Cute,’ or ‘Hurry Up,’ for example, can remain a prince as long as he stays cute or hurries up. The Conditional Frogs, ‘He Who Bites,’ ‘Naughty Naughty,’ or ‘He Looks Pale, Needs a Laxative,’ can stop being frogs by not biting or not looking pale; the Doomed Frogs, on the other hand, will hardly ever make it with anybody. Touching are the frogs who try not to care ‘While Mother Smokes’ or ‘Has a Highball.’ Only a disaster can turn the Forever Princes into frogs; only a miracle can transform the Doomed Frogs into princes.
Berne, Eric M.D