The Woggles
Rock And Roll Backlash

After 20 years and as many releases, you'd think that a band like The Woggles would be winding down. Not on your life. If this latest album is any indication, these guys are just picking up some steam.

Rock And Roll Backlash is the perfect example of a great Woggles record: it's raw and rancorous, with attitude practically pounding out of the speakers. While their studio output has never quite captured the unbridled insanity of their infamous live shows, this latest venture takes us one step closer to the edge.

This time around, The Woggles have hooked up with Little Steven's Wicked Cool label, spreading their own brand of rock-n-roll evangelism nationwide, including a recent tour with the legendary Zombies. The new album explores come new territory for the band, as they incorporate soul horns and dabble in elements of British Invasion psychedelia. There aren't many garage bands out there who can pull this kind of stuff off and still kick your posterior in the process.

Luckily enough for you, my dear readers, I was able to catch up with the band's longtime producer and now full-time guitar guru, The Fleshhammer.

Before we get into the new album, I'm curious, how did you guys first get hooked up with Little Steven?

Little Steven was involved in Cavestomp 2000, a big garage festival that was held in Manhattan. Three-chord guitar rock being played by teenagers in dance clubs is what Steven cut his teeth on. I think he felt an immediate affinity for what the Woggles and others of our ilk were doing. Although he did have the regrettably sad misfortune of missing the Woggles' set that year, evidently someone put a bug in his ear about it. Afterward. a dialog with Manfred began and Steven expressed his plans for the Underground Garage, which he hoped would one day include a record label. He has said all along that if he got it off the ground, the Woggles would be the first band he would sign. It took Little Steven a couple of years to get the radio show & Sirius channel off the ground. Very soon after that we played a show with the Detroit Cobras at the South Paw in Brooklyn, and Steven finally made the scene. After witnessing a particularly over-the-top show, he cornered me downstairs, and I am trying to quote him exactly, he said (in a Soprano's Noo-Yawk accent), "Hammer... I gotta tell ya: I've seen da Rollin' Stones with Brian Jones, I've seen da Who with Keith Moon, and I seen Sam when he was still wit' Dave. but I never seen anything any better den what I just seen up here tonight".

We recorded on our own tab with Rick Miller, we weren't sure how soon (or if) Steven would get the label off the ground. We had begun to give up on Steven and had just started shopping it around elsewhere, when suddenly out of the blue Steven announced that his label was up and running. We were caught with our pants down, in that we'd been talking with him for years about his putting out a new Woggles record. now that he was suddenly good to go, he wanted the finished product like, yesterday.

What was the big tour with The Zombies like?

Every night, the Woggles were like the man that gets shot out of the cannon. The local and regional openers were like the circus clowns, it was up to the Woggles to draw the first blood and give the audience their first whiff of danger. The Woggles & the Zombies were the only ones on our bus. As you might imagine, the Woggles were huge fans of the Zombies. We knew their back catalog and history backwards and forwards, and at first I think they were flattered by so much adoring attention. we wound up getting along famously, and they patiently fielded a million questions from us. We became friends, and we still continue to stay in touch.

Between the three of them, they told more stories from Rock 101 than I could ever hope to remember: stories of their sharing bills with the Beatles on a revolving stage, of traveling through the south sharing a tour bus with the Temptations and joining in a cappella gospel sing-a-longs in the heat of the night.

By my count, you've got about 14 singles and more than half a dozen albums under your belt going into the new album. Did you face any particular new challenges with Backlash?

While cutting basic tracks it was very hard for me to simultaneously serve as both guitarist and producer. That really took me by surprise and threw me for a loop. The damage was not apparent until after basic tracks were done, and I had a good look at what we'd recorded. Especially when cutting basic tracks, a producer has to keep things rolling along. he has to keep things interesting for musicians' varying attention-spans, and make sure that performances are top notch and maintain energy and attitude. he must also be able to shift concentration to a multitude of small details. But when it was time to record a song I had to also be able to temporarily put all of that out of my mind and go out and cut a live guitar track with the band (the Woggles always cut basic tracks playing live as a full band).

I hear a lot of horns on this one --- sort of a Stax soul thing going on there --- how did that come about?

Those horns came at a steep price. There
are horns on three songs: Backlash, Black Sheep, and the trumpet on El Toro. By the time the smoke cleared, we'd had three different horn sections in three different cities come in and try to nail the sound we wanted. There were different problems with each of them. Luckily I'd happened to run across an old high school buddy who had been playing with a couple of old black horn players that had actually been session guys at Stax, Eddie Boyd and Joe Burton. It was agreed that they should try a pass at Backlash. They came into the studio in Atlanta, and they definitely were the real thing. They had the mojo, along with charisma and style to burn.

I also notice that there are a few songs that go in a different direction--- like El Toro and Porridge, for example.

The Woggles have a very open songwriting policy. Songs get written and come together organically and in just about every writing combination, with very little method to the madness. El Toro was a totally new kind of experiment for the Woggles. Dan came up with the idea, he suggested the musical intro and had the main guitar riff & melody for the verse. He said he wanted it to be about a bullfight, and he wanted the song's structure to follow the dynamic of how a bull fight plays out. I suggested the idea of having a certain instrument represent each of the two opponents. The trumpet became the bull, and the electric guitar became the matador.

Porridge is Patrick's song. He's written plenty of stompers too, but lately he has been surprising everyone by proving himself quite adept at writing in a poppier, more melodious style that seems to reflect his very English-ness.

This makes the long-playing debut for you as full-time guitarist, along with your regular duties as producer. How's it been with you as a full-time member of the band?

Being that my previous job was that of band producer, you could say that I took a demotion and a cut in pay.

MISH MASH Mandate: Back In Black
The Woggles Website