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December 26, 1997 - January 2, 1998
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Wild ones

Jiggle the Handle are the toast of Mrs. White's Party

Don Fluckinger

[jigglethehandle] 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.

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