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BEE KB©®E09s RUFFLED SHIRTS.
TIGHT HUNTS. NO BUTT. POINT!! SHOES
• •
T he Woggles have been kickin' their own
wild brand of twist'n'stomp Neo-Psychedelia
for over 12 years. Formed in Athens by a
gang cl garage-rock fanatics from the 90.5 FM
WUOG staff, the band has evolved with a contin
uous rotation of band members under the deter
mined guidance of a frontman known profes
sionally as Tb? Professor." The band has
released a half-dozen full-length LPs and a
tall stack of 7" records (not to mention the
numerous inclusions on compilations avail
able on vinyl and compact disc). Each slab
retains the band's usual affinity for snot-
nosed finger-pointing, four-chord aggres
sion and histrionic vocals.
The current lineup includes bassist Buzz
Hagstrom, drummer Dan Electro and gui
tarist Montague The Human Metronome,
and, of course, wildman vocalist and tam
bourine rattler The Professor.
The band just released a jumpin' 14-
song collection titled Fractured on Telstai
Records and is concluding a four-week res
idency at the Star Community Bar in Atlanta.
What maker a Woggle? Flagpole endeavors to
get to the gritty underbelly, courtesy of the
Professor and drummer Dan Electro:
FP: When you all retire, will the world learn
the Woggles team's secret identities?
The Professor: I'm afraid that it'll take more
than a declassification act to reveal those.
Dan Electro: I know of no former Woggle
that has retired. All are listed as MIA. I doubt
any of us will fare better when the time comes.
FP: Was Europe actually like Dan Electro's tour
diary [at the Woggles web site, hostesss.com/wog-
gles]?
TP: A famous novel begins with something
along the lines of "It was the best of times; it
was the worst of times." Sometimes traveling
conditions could be rough, but it was always
worth it considering the option of traveling
along 1-20 for a gig in Alaoama.
DE: The diary is the straight poop on some of
what happened to us on that tour. I spared the
endless miles of semi-slumber in a van with no
windows and no heat and omitted the more
incriminating occurrences.
FP: What is your favorite travel plaza food?
TP: For me, it'd have to be those delicious 25
cent treats. Tasty peanut butter cheese crackers,
fudge rounds and other-worldly nutty buddies.
DE: England: Ploughman's sandwich. France:
Les Crudites sandwich. Italy: Italy has these
places called LeAutoGrille along the motorways.
The food is dang near gourmet. But, of course, I
was starving by the time we actually stopped to
eat. Just imagine a 5-Star version of Sbarro.
Japan: Huge soup bowls heaped with noodles
and shrimp tempura and other things that I am
told are vegetables. Spain: The travel plaza craze
is just now catching on in Spain. Germany:
Pilsner USA: The worst travel plazas on the
planet are on the New Jersey Turnpike is all I am
saying
DE: The Professor seems more relaxed and
focused. I would prescribe a Yucatan vacation for
the Professor and Mrs. Jones each March for the
duration.
FP: What is the Woggles' true mission?
TP: Weil, I'm not here to step up on a
soapbox or deliver a sermon, but I will let on
that when we bust loose we hope to get people
loose with us, and together we put meaning to
the song ''Shake A Tail Feather."
FP: Are you happy
with Fractured? How did
the recording go?
TP: This time around
we were going for a
sound that captures the
live basic elements of the
band, and we were really
successful. The recording
was done in Athens at
Maxwell Sound Studios.
Mark Maxwell engineered
and Jeff Walls [The
Sexaholics, ex-Hillbilly
Frankenstein and
Guadalcanal Diary] pro
duced. We'd been piayinq
the songs for the past few
months getting them all
good and road tested, so
recording went really
smoothly.
PE: I feel like all our
records have been improve
ments over their predeces
sors with respect to the
overall sound. Each has gotten closer to the raw
and gritty sound I like. Tiie recording process
was fairly painless. The basic tracks were mostly
all live and just about all of those were finished
on the first day. The only downside was being
victimized during mixdown by this evil monster
computer gizmo called Pro Tools.
FP: How has marriage affected the Professor?
TP: It has created s”ch a permanent glow
about me that night lights are not necessary.
FP: Do you find you need to give audiences an
extra shove to get going
in other countries? In
other states?
TP: The only place
we've ever run into stiff
crowds is occasionally
here in the US.
Overseas, at that very
first note, folks are off
like bottle rockets. I
think the wildest audi
ences have been in
Japan and Spain. Last
year we went to
Germany for the first
time and some of
those shows would get
pretty out of hand. I
seem to remember
vaguely some Bier
Fraus using giant
pretzels as push up
bras, but it's kind of
hazy. Normally we'll
go into the audience
several times during
a show and things
have been so crazy
before in Japan that
when Montague
stepped off the
stage the audience
lifted his massive
frame up. passed
him across the
audience, and wound up tearing the strings off
his guitar.
DE: We have mapped out a fairly regular
trade route in the States so the people usually
show up knowing what to expect. It doesn't take
much to jump start a crowd if they have shown
up ready to stomp, shout and work it on out.
The exception is when we have gotten stuck in
the middle of a bill with skacorepunkmetal
bands and the crowd is mostly guys with crew
cuts and tats and multiple piercings. Now, I like
ska and I like punk but when we walk out in
matching ruffled tuxedo shirts you can smell the
menace in the air. However, by the third or
fourth song the lads begin to realize that the
music is moshable. Either that, or they realize
this may be their only chance to mosh it to a
bunch of geezers in tux shirts and they laugh
about it later. Fortunately, regular touring has
all but erased being on a tough bill.
FP: What happened to the bowling shirts?
TP: Sadly, Montague left his in Green Bay one
night after a show. We've not gotten a chance to
make new ones. But tear not, we've got an
arsenal of different shirts waiting.
FP: Will you be playing in Athens any time
soon?
TP: Yes, we'll be playing at the Tasty World
on Friday, September 29.
FP: Are you going to any new places this
year?
TP: We're hoping to do a week in Canada this
year for the first time and have been invited on
this fall's tour to play in Denmark and
Scandinavia for the first time.
FP: What inspires your lyrics? Will we ever be
able to read them?
TP: All sorts of turns of phrase or little sto
ries that are funneled through life's experiences
are the fountain from which I draw to quench
my thirst. Fractured is also available in Japan on
a label called Trippin Elephant. The label is run
by the guy who manages Thee Michelle Gun
Elephant, who, folks tell us, are bigger than
sliced bread over there. Anyhow, he's a Woggles
fan and put our new album out over there, and
although it does not include any bonus cuts, it
does have different artwork, inserts, and lyrics.
Short of that, at some point we'll post oui lyrics
to our homepage. Till then you and I are at the
mercy of the sound system of the club as to
whether you can even hear the lyrics.
DE: Lost love, lust and anger (arising from
lost love and lust.).
FP: If you weren't a Woggle, you would be...?
TP: A very sad creature indeed.
DE: Living in a van down by the Gulf of
Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, depending upon
what The Weather Channel's "Tropical Update"
had to say.
Jay Nagy
The Woggles play at the Star Community Bar
on Wednesday, July 26 and co-headline Sleazefest
2000 at the Local 506 club in Chapel Hill, NC on
Friday, August 4.
lUCriA lr i7™ N J T i Barbara Pritchard
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Athens. GA 30605 Your local Internet and World Wide Web service provider
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