Fire Track: Mister Goblin – “The Notary”

Mister Goblin, the long-running project of former Two Inch Astronaut frontman Sam Goblin shares the second single from his upcoming album Frog Poems. “The Notary,” out now, is a powerful, shoegaze-indebted indie rock song about a need for connection; a need to be needed. With lyrics that flit between funny and sad, it feels grounded even while the guitars or choral backing vocals soar.

Of this new single, Sam says:

“The idea for this one came up during pandemic lockdown when I was brainstorming excuses I could make to get out and see people without violating the social contract. One of the ideas was that I could become a notary and stamp shit for my friends. Never did get around to it, but I did write this song. Joe (the other guitarist on the record) had to sell me a little bit on the shoegaze-y whammy bar part he wrote, but I’m so glad he did because now I think it really makes the song.”

Frog Poems is to be released on April 26th, 2024. This will be Sam’s fourth album as Mister Goblin, and is the first for the project’s new label home, Spartan Records.

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.

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.”

PREORDER FROG POEMS