No Backlash Necessary

The Woggles Bring Back An Incendiary Love Of Garage Rock & Roll

originally published February 7, 2007

It's about damn time the Woggles came back to Athens! Without them, there's been a light-hearted shimmy and a shake missing from the rock-and-roll scene. How long have they actually been absent? Nobody's sure: nine years? eight? four? They definitely rocked the 40 Watt around this time in 1998, that much is sure. Shoot, some folks think they broke up. "This a reunion gig?" "You writing one of those 'Where Are They Now' things?" No, these cats are happening in the here and now!

The Woggles have been doggedly clawing their way up the rock-and-roll food chain one boogaloo to the left at a time. Time well spent, too. Their song "It's Not About What I Want (It's What You Got)" was voted Coolest Song Of The Year for 2006 by listeners of Little Steven's "Underground Garage" radio show. They have appeared on BBC television as well as ESPN, part of Little Steven's 2005 "Underground Garage New Year's Eve Special." Last year, the band's 2004 album Soul Sizzling 7" Meltdown was lauded on NPR's "All Songs Considered."

The Woggles regularly tour Europe and Japan, and last fall spent a month on a tour bus with the Zombies. A host of bands have covered their songs or written some kind of homage to these funsters formerly of Athens, now based out of Atlanta. On Thursday, Feb. 8, the Woggles bring it all back home, celebrating the release of their ninth album, Rock And Roll Backlash. It's their debut on Wicked Cool Records, another arm of Little Steven Van Zandt's growing Underground Garage empire.

All the kudos and milestones add up to some pretty juicy accomplishments for Woggles frontman Manfred Jones and the band he has tenaciously propelled forward since a raucous Halloween party in 1987. Back then, he was heading up WUOG 90.5 FM and hosting the show "Blue Laws" on Sundays. At a crumbly house on Church Street that glowed with a boozy, costumed crowd and pumpkins carved with pentagrams, the Woggles played for the first time with Jeff Matthews on guitar, Eric Agner on bass and David Page on drums. In the bleary haze, kegs were tapped while townie girls flirted with the red-headed Woggle before the cops arrived to shut the joint down. Such a night kicked off what would grow into 18 years of Woggling. The Woggles are among the longest-running bands to emerge from Athens. Only the B-52's, R.E.M. and Widespread Panic have had longer continuous runs, and from that pantheon, only the B's rival the Woggles for frenzied hullygully fun.

"Back then, people weren't dancing at rock-and-roll shows any more, except for at Woggles shows," boasts Jones. "That told me right there we were doing something right!"

By 1991, Martin Broocks and Davey Giles were playing guitar and Kurt Wood - admittedly, this writer's number-one squeeze these days - had taken over drums. The lineup would change frequently over the next five years, leaving Jones the sole original member, but that wouldn't dampen the fun. The Woggles played off-beat spaces like The Downstairs Café (now DT's Down Under) and The Exsirlence on Broad Street, currently home to Peaches Fine Foods. Back then, the room was decorated with mirrored walls covered with crushed red velvet and odd-ball knickknacks including a giant owl and a stuffed crow bathed in spotlights.

"Man, every time you'd drop some money in that tip jar, they'd ring that bell, and they'd ring that bell furiously when the Woggles were playing!" says Jones. "Everybody was having a good time. They were tapping the love. There was a lotta love going on in the air!"

"It was a cool, weird place," says Wood, but shows at the Downstairs were his favorite. "It was so small. With people packed in there, dancing. It was always so crazy!"

Says Jones, "We were always trying to up the ante." He made showy entrances on a motorcycle, seated on a sedan chair or riding a zip line. That last one was one New Year's Eve at Hoyt Street Station when he came flying over the heads of the audience wearing a cape. "I almost took out the drums!" He laughs. "We'd always have a good time."

Indeed, Manfred Jones has been described as the frontman's frontman. His constant motion and infectious energy defines a Woggles show. He'll climb anything - tables, bar tops, monitors - swing from riggings and curtains, leap into the crowd, dance with the people, sing to the girls.

"There's always the people who pick you up, and there's always the question of whether they are really sober enough to carry you, and that successful ride feels pretty good that you didn't come crashing down!" laughs Jones.

But the Woggles' path has not escaped tragedy. In 2003, long-time guitarist George Montague Holton III died from complications with diabetes. In their dedication to him - which was added to the Spanish version of Ragged But Right, the last album on which Holton appeared - the Woggles wrote, "George Montague Holton III was a big name for a big man in both stature and magnitude of presence. The silence of his guitar is the saddest song possible."

Determined to carry on, the Woggles added Jeff Walls to the roster later that year. He made a mark for himself in Athens with the band Guadalcanal Diary during the '80s and later in Hillbilly Frankenstein. More than that, his close relationship with the Woggles - the band's first single "Elvis Cadillac" came out on the local Zontar label in 1991, and was produced by Walls - made him a natural choice. "If it had to go this course of events where George had to lose his life," reflects Jones, "then I think everything went the way it should've gone."

For his part, Walls says, "I've never been in a band where there were so many girls up front dancing! I love it!"

And while Jones has pulled off some showy jumps, his stunts don't always go so well. He has broken a foot in Atlanta, broken a tooth in Japan, and worst of all, nearly broke his back in Pensacola, FL. While swinging on a curtain, the curtain rod broke away, and he dropped 20 feet, flat on his back. "Gashed up my face coming down," he says, "but folks are just freakish! They loved seeing that blood flyin' everywhere!" Jones finished the show, but came away with 15 stitches and lots of physical therapy after narrowly avoiding broken vertebrae. "Knock on wood, I have yet to be set on fire!"

These risks don't discourage Jones' acrobatics. In fact, the crowd-pleasing stunts from '40s jump-blues era battles-of-the-bands inspire his performance. Two bands would play simultaneously, and whoever captured more of the crowd won. Musicians would march through the crowd, crawl on the floor, roll on their backs, stand on their heads - whatever it took to get the crowd's attention. "All of this made the events really incredible musically and visually inspiring," says Jones. "That's the spirit we apply ourselves."

That spirit impressed the band's greatest patron, Little Steven Van Zandt. "Little Steven is certainly a patron who is able to recognize our special talents and allow us to try and reach more people than we ever have before," says Jones. "We are very appreciative of that."

After hearing glowing reports about the Woggles' powerhouse show, he finally tracked them down in 2004 opening for the Detroit Cobras at the Southpaw in Brooklyn. "I'm paraphrasing now," says Jones. "But he said something like, 'I've seen the Beatles at Shea Stadium. I saw the Who with Keith Moon, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Sam with Dave, and I'm telling ya, you guys are right there with it! You totally fuckin' blew my mind! And I got no reason to blow smoke up your ass. I'm standing here because that's one of the most incredible rock and roll shows I've ever seen in my life!' So the next thing I said was, 'Man, thanks a lot Steven! So what are we gonna do about it?' He obviously wasn't expecting an answer like that!"

The encounter has proved fruitful. The Woggles have received regular air play on both the "Underground Garage" syndicated radio show and the Sirius network channel. Months after their meeting, Van Zandt invited them to play the Underground Garage Fest on Randall's Island in New York. The extensive lineup featured the New York Dolls, Bo Diddley, Stooges, Lyres, Pretty Things, Fleshtones, and many more of what Jones calls "a veritable who's who of fantabulous rock and roll."

Since then, Jones & Co. have snared the noon-to-3 p.m. time slot - "That's Eastern Standard Time," he points out - on the Sirius satellite network's Underground Garage channel. They have signed to Wicked Cool, Little Steven's brand-new record label, and opened for '60s psych rock act The Zombies on a nationwide tour this past September. "That was pretty phenomenal!" Jones raves. "[It's] not often when your heroes can meet your expectations, but these guys surpassed them. Very easygoing guys. Absolutely no ego."

Three years after Walls replaced Holton, Rock And Roll Backlash is the first album on which Walls contributes as a full-fledged member of the band. Dan Hall (drums) and Patrick "Buzz" O'Connor (bass) round out the ever-shifting Woggles line-up. Recorded at Rick Miller's Kudzu Ranch just outside of Chapel Hill, NC, and mastered at Rodney Mills' Masterhouse in Norcross, this album reflects a refreshing sophistication in the songwriting that blows away earlier releases.

Moody folk-rock jangler "Porridge" stands out, as does the pounder "It's Not About What I Want." Individual songs stand out, yet all of the material fits under that wide umbrella that encompasses the Woggles' party-rock sound that has been coalescing over two decades.

"We are very happy to have a good homecoming," says Jones. So let it be heard: the Woggles are back! During its absence from Athens, the band has been traveling the world, spreading the good news of the boogaloo gospel, charming audiences far and wide. Count on the same happening here.

Gretchen Wood

WHO: The Woggles, The Lickity-Splits, DJ Kurtwood
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Thursday, February 8
HOW MUCH: $7