Wak This Space

One month from today 23rd March - sees the release of The Wolfmen's walloping new single Wak This Bass. It's the first release of 2009, and the favoured place to get your paws on the good stuff is....

The Wolfmen's online shop...

Wak This Bass is available as a Digital Download, CD single or 7" vinyl. Double A-sided with Cecilie, all formats are backed with two new tunes Lola and Room 103 (a track packed with a chorus catchier than bird flu). You may possibly have caught a sneaky peek of 103, during it's early doors appearance soundtracking this Heineken Ad'...



But the question is do The Wolfmen have anyone in mind, that needs a 'Wakking' ?

Chris...
The lyrics were inspired by some bullish bossy type who was driving me f***ing mad !! Ha ha ha - I love the vibe of this one - and it's so good to play live. The harp solo - was inspired by'Groovin' With Mr. Bloe' . We recorded this live at Raezor and Steve Musters mixed it, with some great drumming by swizzy.

And if you haven't heard Wak That Bass - you can taste test a minute and a bit below..

Wolf-Fact:The cover of Wak is lifted from the April 1980 edition of New Statesmen, starring Wolfman Chris

The Wolfmen's Jukebox Presents....Dirty Dancing

Well wolf-cubs continuing this week's steamy theme - here's a funky number from the Wolfmen's boom-box, as Drummer Daniel tells us when (and where) he caught his first dose of the disco fever...to get the full flavour of this juicy tale it's best to be familiar Daniel's accent...

I mean just listen to the first few bars; I do not know how they got this groove down, absolutely fabulous players on that track - I am not going to go into all the technical or personnel details of the recording (see this instead), but I will tell you my experiences with this track.The drum playing is some of the very best you will ever hear, the finest,purest disco drumming.

The first time I heard it I was just coming back from confession and I passed a record shop as this was blasting out.My hips started to move in marriage-simulating movements, backwards and forwards. I felt that beat in my young groin and temptation rose and it rose.I got so excited that the girl behind the record shop counter noticed. There was this barely 13 year old boy standing there and his trousers, probably for the first time of many times to come in public, started to become tighter and tighter.

She asked me in with a slight movement of her eyes.I am not joking, but she took me then and there, behind the counter and for the first time I knew what the priest meant all these years when saying: "Do it, then repent!"

Ever since that time whenever I hear this track I am thinking of my Catholic upbringing and I thank fate for throwing me into Catholic surroundings to spend my childhood in. Because nowhere is sin more welcomed than there, for repenting is soooo good.

Often I must contain myself when hearing this track in public because since the taboo has been lifted even men, usually men with beards and hairy chests, start dancing with me in the streets often causing havoc to the traffic.

Just the other day on our way to the studio I played Marco this track and he started to wiggle his feet and very smoothly moved around in the car seat, so called car-seat-dancing.

Listen to it and let it take you there....

Hot Dogging

There's a line spoken by Eno on his debut album - 'Oh cheeky, cheeky - oh naughty, sneaky' - that could almost be a thumbnail summary for one steamy scene appearing in a new brand new, Brit-flick - 'Dogging:A Love Story' - that's hitting UK cinemas this spring

So why are we previewing this romping 'n' rolling snippet of cinematic action on the Bocca Blog? Because Director Simon Ellis, has chosen to soundtrack this moment of 'in car entertainment' with The Wolfmen's cover of Eno's 'Needles In The Camel's Eye'

But, be warned sensitive bloggers and browsers, it is slightly lively, so best be discreet when having a peep or two...

The Wolfmen's Jukebox Presents....Rex Rated

Marc Bolan (born Mark Feld) 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977

It's another wolf-pack pick as Chris Constantinou writes a white swan...

October 1970 - I was 13 years old and living in Plymouth. I think I'd grown out of my Skin-Suede-Smoothie Period (which was just a passing phase for me) and had been listening to Tyrannosaurus Rex - in fact my first girlfriend was called 'Debora' (check this out) :-)

Tyrannosaurus Rex became T.Rex , teamed up with Tony Visconti and released Ride A White Swan - which I still think sounds amazing ! We worked with Visconti in '85, at his Good Earth Studios, when he produced Adam's 'Vive Le Rock ' album. I remember asking him about 'Ride A White Swan' - I'm sure he said that he'd played bass on it, and even showed me the bass he'd used.

July 20th 1971 - My 14th birthday, and I went to see T.Rrex play at the ABC Theatre Plymouth. A real disappointment - I'd expected them to sound like the records, but it was really rough, and they were quite obviously out of their heads with guitars out of tune and strings breaking etc... If I saw that same performance now, I'd probably love it. I like bands doing things differently for gigs, and you can't really reproduce classic recordings live. why should you want to anyway? Look at Lou reed live for an example of that - especially on tracks like Walk On The Wild Side ....

I love the arrangement of Ride A White Swan, the sound of the recording, the fact there's no drums , the small string section, with a string arrangement (scored by Visconti) that works so well - and all recorded on an 8 track machine.

Ride A White Swan - A Side



Summertime Blues - B Side



A few Swan facts you may, or may not know ..

Ride a White Swan was recorded July 1st 1970, and entered the Top 40 on October 31.

11 weeks later, it reached a peak position of No.2

A novelty record 'Grandad' by Dad's Army's, Clive Dunn stopped it from reaching No. 1

Naomi Campbell covered it in 1995

Naomi Campbell - Ride A White Swan

The Velvets Meet The Wolfmen Uptown

Marco's "Velvet Underground tribute band" set-up

Thursday and Friday of last week saw The wolfmen recording their version of one of the Velvet Underground's most obscure songs, 'I'm Not A Young Man Anymore',which was never officially recorded, and only appears on various bootlegs from the late 60s. It gave everyone an excuse to wear black Levi jackets and wraparound shades - and for Marco to stand in front of a 60s Fender amp with a Gretsch Country Gentleman and do loads of feedback for three hours. Just like Uncle Lou used to back in the day.

The surviving members of the Velvet underground are said to be "deeply honored" and can't believe that, their favorite band of all time, The Wolfmen are covering one of their little ditties, and are expecting to make trillions of dollars in publishing royalties off this one track. (We made that last bit up actually)

The Wolfmen's Jukebox Presents....Re-Riff/Re-Model

It's another hand-picked-classic from The Wolfmen's boom-box, as Marco owns up to some light-fingered pop lifting

Eagle-eared Wolfmen fans (and Chris) should be able to spot this week's bit of thievery - it's Bryan Ferry's '75 cover of The Everly Brother's 'The Price of Love'.

The great Chris Spedding's guitar riff somehow ended up on 'Jackie Says' (dunno how that happened on my life constable - honest!). The Spanish trumpet and twangy guitar intro also influenced the Start of Adam Ants 'Friend or Foe' - another caper I had nothing to do with - swear on my life etc etc... The Everly's version was produced by Chet Atkins, who also added a swampy version of the riff to their track.

The Ferry version, features Chris Spedding, Roxy Music's Eddie Jobson and Roxy Drummer Paul Thompson. It appears on the 'Let's Stick Together' E.P, which also has two other songs on it, the names of which I've forgotten as I never liked them. Chis Spedding's another hero of mine. I had the same SEX shop hi-heeled boots as him, and his guitar playing sounds like a black Cuban heeled, elastic-sided winkle-picker - if you could plug one into an amp that is - which you can't.I know, coz Iv'e tried.

If Yves Saint Laurent and Link Wray had ever formed a band together, they might sound something like this...

Lux Interior - Rock In Peace

"Life is short, filled of stuff - don't know what for, I ain't had enough"
The Cramps 'New Kind Of Kick'

Marco and The Wolfmen are saddened to hear about the death of Cramps frontman - Lux Interior.

Lux, 62, died today from an existing heart condition . The world will be a darker place without his rocking horrorshow of psychobilly Iggy, vamping like a champ to a B Movie beat of the Burlesque. Another legend lost.

The Cramps - The Way I Walk



And if you haven't seen it yet, you really should catch 'The Cramps Live at Napa State Mental Hospital' - it's like One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest goes Garage a Go-Go.



You've Got Good Taste

Radio Wolfmen

It's all sounding wolfishly good over at NME Radio...

As well as Cecilie being the subject of some heavy rotation on the NME's Skins Radio (a tie in with the super-trendy C4 programme), this coming Thursday (5th of Feb) sees The Wolfmen appearing on Neil Cole's show (from 11:30 am UK time) for a live interview, which you can catch by redirecting your dials right here...

But for now, let's have another listen to the tune that's getting all the good reports - well, an alt.non-album-version, mixed by Steve Musters and taken from the Limited Edition EP..

Cecilie



Or perhaps a peep at the Hills/Richards Edit of the video