Luke Traynor

ARE you a frog? If you've been seen bouncing around to Wheatus' criminally infectious Teenage Dirtbag that invaded our radio stations, the answer will be yes.

This month, diehard fans, known as Frogs, are eagerly anticipating the release of single American In Amsterdam, taken from their second album, Hand Over Your Loved Ones.

Out on Monday, the second album adds to Wheatus' fast developing reputation for quirky, up-tempo rock songs, with their cover of Erasure's A Little Respect exposing them further to the teenage dissidents.

New album Hand Over Your Loved Ones is a 10-track offering that mixes percussive and melodic loops with an incendiary live sound.

From the melodramatic, but very Americanised, The Song I Wrote You, Dissed Me to the stomping Freak On, Wheatus' own premeditated irony is that they deal with weighty subjects like loss and anger against a background of candy pop.

Wheatus are even showing their green fingers these days, joining up with the likes of Coldplay, Pink Floyd and the Foo Fighters to make the LP Carbon Neutral, to combat the rise of carbon dioxide in the world's atmosphere.

They play the Manchester University Hop and Grape on September 24, and Liverpool University Stanley Theatre on September 26. Tickets are priced at £10. Ring 0161 832 1111/0151 256 5555 respectively or the 24-hour 0871 2200 260.