Wild ones
Jiggle the Handle are the toast of Mrs. White's Party
Don Fluckinger
Never has CD packaging matched the music as well as it does on Jiggle the
Handle's full-length debut, Mrs. White's Party. It's wild, it's
upbeat, and that's just the cover. On the back, a live concert shot shows
people dancing to the band's high-energy grooves. A screaming, crazed man with
a scraggly beard greets you when you open the jewel box, his hair sticking out
in every direction.That maniac is Pete Jacobson, a high-school friend of the
group's guitarist, Gary Backstrom. A couple years back, they met at a bus stop,
and Backstrom invited Jacobson to a Dead show. He's been hanging out with the
band ever since.
"He's like a mascot to us, like Eddie, if you're into Iron Maiden," Backstrom
says, referring to the British heavy-metal band's scary, larger-than-life icon.
"People recognize him at shows. He's on our backstage passes. If we make it
big, he'll be in the videos."
It's obvious what attracts people like Pete ("Jigglers") to the band: the
organ, the punchy guitars, the long jams that move from rock to country to
fusion-jazz, and the basslines that crackle and pop. There are hot-and-fast
numbers such as "Can't Get Enough," the opener for Mrs. White's Party,
or slow, pop-laced grooves, as on the ballad "Break the Light." It's
supercharged, good-times dance music perfectly appropriate in this musical
epoch of Phish.
"We all want it to sound as eclectic as possible with some sort of original
frosting, so to speak," says Backstrom, whose early inspirations included the
Beatles, Jackson 5, and Stevie Wonder. "It sounds like us, but you can hear
funk, reggae, bluegrass, rock . . . as many different styles in the
mix as possible."
Like many New England jam bands, Jiggle the Handle, who perform this Friday at
the Plantation Club, boast a Phish connection. Several years ago, a former Max
Creek drummer played in the line-up. He also happened to be a pal of Phish
bassist Mike Gordon, who showed up one night and jammed with the band.
Back in those days, Jiggle the Handle's line-up changed often. The past
several years, however, have been stable with Paul Wolstencroft on keyboards
and Greg Vasso on drums. This continuity has allowed the band to record their
CD and to book tours of the South and the West.
A management change has also brought on good things. The original manager
arranged for great gigs -- opening slots for big names like Little Feat, Los
Lobos, and the Spin Doctors -- but couldn't sustain the band's bookings long
enough to maintain a tour. Under new management, the group get the sustained
roadtrips they want.
"Going to Colorado is big for us; people ask for us there and in California,"
Backstrom says. "We're actually being called now, instead of us calling people
and saying `Can we please play?'"
The next agenda item for the band is a recording contract, though judging from
the looks of their self-produced, self-released CD, they don't need a lot of
help. Recorded mostly live, the CD not only sates the appetites of the group's
fans, who waited more than four years for the debut CD, but is also used to
shop for club gigs. Moreover, it serves as an audio resume that the band have
been taking to labels to audition for a contract.
The cover of Mrs. White's Party features graphics that move when the CD
is tilted up and down. There are a spinning logo, a pulsating title, and flames
shooting out of a purple lake. It's a grotesque example of "motion graphics,"
which have been around awhile, used mostly for kids' trinkets and novelties.
Remember holding a thick card that featured your favorite cartoon or baseball
player, tilting it in the light, and watching the image move? It's all the rage
in CD packaging now -- used by Tool, Pink Floyd, and Ozzy Osbourne.
Although this technology, trademarked as Multi-Image, is usually only
available to bands with big budgets and major labels behind them, the band know
a designer who offered to help them design and package their CD on the cheap.
"I have a feeling it's gonna be the wave of the future," Backstrom says of
gimmicky CD design in general. "People are going to be doing all kinds of
bizarre stuff, pop-ups and all that. It leads to the question of the next one.
Do we try to outdo it, or what?"
The next Jiggle the Handle CD will likely hit the stores next summer. No doubt
its design will be even more wild, considering this cast of characters --
including that crazy Pete Jacobson -- in the mix.
Jiggle the Handle play on December 26 at the Plantation Club. Call
752-4666.