About

The Wiggipedia

History of Wiggler!?!

Mr! Erik - Guitar, Lead Vocals, Stomp Percussion
Brother Dave - Slap Bass, Electric Bass, Back Up Vocals
Brother Nathan - Drums

T'was a dark and stormy night in Vancouver, circa 1993. The city was bored and in need of guitar lessons, so Mr! Erik came to the rescue. Wiggler!?! exploded onto the scene with the grace and subtlety of a drunken elephant rolling down the up escalator. Acclaimed for his ability to dominate a stage with his acrobatic antics, Mr! Erik himself gained notoriety as the Human Tornado, leaving a trail of fallen redwoods, bewildered critics, and flattened trailer parks in his wake. The mix of sharp wit, broken dreams, lo-fi weirdness, experimental genre-straddling and swaggering guitar-driven commentary crushed many hearts and even some minds. The loyal Nation of Wiggler!?! was born.

In 2005, Wiggler!?! released "The Pantload", a record that delivered a scathing and quirky brew of garage punk infused with influences ranging from Abba to Zappa. The album was a parting gift for Vancouver, and Mr! Erik returned to his old stomping grounds in Hamilton where he had cut his teeth in various punk rock bands. In "A Kama Sutra of Contrary Positions", Wiggler!?!'s November 2010 release, one can sense the influence of Hamilton's gritty and unpretentious vibe. The work is tighter and more focused than ever, and punches through the mediocrity like a clarion call through the fog. Or a cannonball through a bucket of pig lard. Or an icepick through an eardrum. Or something else like that.

In a shocking development still being debated by binary enthusiasts, Wiggler!?! channeled the powers of caffeine and mitosis to spawn the new Unholy Trinity of Wiggler!?! and the Tiny Humans. The Wiggler!?! Human Tornado Show was now augmented by TinyRedHuman's lighning fast beats and the id-fuelled thunder of TinyBlueHuman's bass. This line up gave us 2012's Scornucopia, and 2016's Coffins and Coffee.

In 2017, TinyRedHuman was called back to the mothership so we retired the Tiny Humans name and brought in Brother Nathan on the drums. He's the coolest kid from the AV Club, so sometimes he's on tour doing sound for another band and Mr! Erik has to keep time with stomp boxes.

And sometimes the whole band is on quarantine lock down for Covid19, so Mr! Erik might get bored in the studio and record 2020's Dark Mode album.

Wiggler!?! is the band that is everything. We're the granite of rock'n'roll.

We continue onwards and upwards with Brother Dave, Brother Nathan and Mr! Erik.

Give'r.

Contact us at WigglerRockThunder@gmail.com

Is the band a one piece, or a power trio? What kind of music do you play? - In Vancouver 1993, Mr! Erik answered an ad in the Georgia Straight from a guy looking to put together a band. His influences were Dead Kennedys, Frank Zappa, Devo and Mitsou, so Mr! Erik called him right away.
They met up at the Old American pub and drank many pints of beer as they discussed the potential band. Mr! Erik brought a list of 50 band names, and Wiggler is the one this guy thought was the funniest.
Never heard from him again, so Mr! Erik started recording stuff on a 4-track on his own. The original plan was to have a full line up, but Mr! Erik couldn't find quite the right people at the time so he continued on and started gigging with a drum machine, then sequencer, then laptop and eventually an mp3 player providing backing tracks.
The early stuff was pretty experimental, as Mr! Erik was bored with punk rock and was trying to figure out how all this recording gear worked. Some of it was terrible (the quasi-Beck vs. Ween "Snack Attack" from No The, Yeah!!), but trying the concept again later produced some of the best songs ("Sweet C" from Bring the Fudge and Wiggler vs Godzilla).
In 2009, Mr! Erik joined Metha Mean for a side project. He found an instant chemistry with the bassist David Ledo (Freakency, Mudskippers) and drummer Marc Bertola (Dog Walker). When that band dissolved in 2010, the trio kept the chemistry and carried on jamming together. A Kama Sutra of Contrary Positions had just dropped, so the trio learned the songs and started gigging out as Wiggler!?! and the Tiny Humans.
The genre can best be described as whatever you're hearing when Wiggler!?! is playing. It's a combination of surf, rockabilly, garage, new wave, punk rock and general weirdness all played blisteringly fast.
On special occasions, Mr! Erik will do a solo recording, so Wiggler!?! exists both as a trio and mono lineup.
What is the Wiggler Corporate W? - The band logo is "!?!" representing 2/3 alarm and 1/3 confusion. Ideally, the exclamation points are angled outwards so they can share a common dot with the question mark. If you wanna flash the hand right for your selfie, make sure you make the "ok" shape, then show the back of your hand with 3 fingers up in a "W".
Is the band called Wiggler, Wiggler!?! or Wiggler!?! and the Tiny Humans? - We started as a one-piece called Wiggler. In 2002, we added the Wiggler Corporate W to the band name and started using Wiggler!?!. When Marc and Dave joined as TinyRedHuman and TinyBlueHuman in 2010, we became Wiggler!?! and the Tiny Humans in reference to the long-standing Wiggler!?! motto, as Mr! Erik's binary tattoo reads, "Wiggler rocks tiny humans!?!". We had a colour-themed schtick that was pretty specific to that line up, so when Marc retired in 2017, we brought in Brother Nathan to continue as Wiggler!?!.

Dramtis Personae:

Vocals - Mr! Erik, 1993 to present
Guitar - Mr! Erik, 1993 to present
Bass - Mr! Erik, 1993 to 2010
Bass - Brother Dave aka TinyBlueHuman, 2010 to present
Drums - Mr! Erik, 1993 to 2010
Drums - TinyRedHuman, 2010 to 2017
Drums - Brother Nathan, 2017 to present
Keyboards - Mr! Erik, 1993 to present
Loops and Samples - Mr! Erik, 1993 to 2010
Loops and Samples - TinyRedHuman, 2010 to 2017
Loops and Samples - Mr! Erik, 2017 to present