- Uncle Wiggly (band)
Uncle Wiggly was a band formed in
New York City circa1988 .Members
The band was formed by
WFMU radio personality Wm. Berger with two members of the New York bandFly Ashtray , James Kavoussi and Michael Anzalone.Wm. Berger and James Kavoussi alternated as guitarist and drummer while Anzalone remained on bass. All three members sang and composed.
Their sound was a complex filter of their favorite music, including early
Pink Floyd , theKrautrock movement and earlySST Records artists likeThe Meat Puppets andThe Minutemen .Releases
Their first release was on the Nur Scheiss record label (
Austria ) and was titled "He Went There So Why Don’t We Go?" They were later signed toShimmy Disc and released "Across the Room and Into Your Lap" in1991 , with Shimmy guruMark Kramer creating the final mix from the band's master tapes.During their tour of Europe in
1991 , an equipment driver coined the bizarre phrase “There Was an Elk!”. This became the title of their self-produced third album, released on Shimmy Disc in1992 .1994 saw the release of some rare live and unreleased tracks on cassette label D.U. Records called "I Got Your Uncle Wiggly Right Here" featuring tracks from 1988-93.In
1995 came the vinyl-only 12" e.p. "Non-Stuff" on UK-basedHemiola Records . Many consider this to be their finest work, deftly combining their art-rock influences with some killer pop tunes; this record has never been issued on CD. They then released the "Jump Back, Baby" album onTeenBeat Records in 1996, their hook-laden bid for a wider audience and hopefully the commercial rewards that went with it. Their final release was on theDark Beloved Cloud label, the1999 all-instrumental disc called "Farfetchedness".Uncle Wiggly have featured on many compilation albums, including "Rutles Highway Revisited", a tribute to
The Rutles , "Soluble Fish" and "We're All Normal And We Want Our Freedom", a tribute toArthur Lee andLove .The band has not played together since
1998 , though there are rumours of a reunion, an unreleased album and other unreleased material.Kavoussi stills plays in Fly Ashtray and the band Gimme 5, as well as recording solo under the name
Phoaming Edison . Wm. Berger has recorded solo under the names World (of Dreams) (CD, Dark Beloved Cloud1999 ) and Sinistre! (see http://home.comcast.net/~wmmberger/SINISTRE_INDUSTRIES.html)External links
*amg | id = 11:n7jteai04xk7 | label = Uncle Wiggly
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