If you have read any single article of mine on this website, you are probably aware of the fact that I love silly shit. I don’t mean that as a dig to any band or act – in fact, I usually find that the sillier the bit, the more rock-solid the musician – but I can’t deny that it’s true. So it is not particularly surprising that Virginia stoner metal group Üga Büga caught my eye, if not for the cavemanesque name alone. Even better, they describe themselves as ‘hog metal’, a specifier so deliciously funny that I could not resist if I tried.
Then I actually took a moment to listen to some of their singles leading up to the release of Valley of the Wolf, and was hooked immediately by their deep-fried take on the genre. Tracks like “Motörhog” invoke, well, thrash acts like Motörhead, but also an intoxicating mix of Mastodonian guitar work, Baroness vocals, and general Clutch sensibility. And their whole discography is vaguely concept albums. Easiest sell of all time.
Frontman Calloway Jones answered some of my burning and mildly stupid questions, mostly about their brand-new album Valley of the Wolf , which came out earlier this month. I decided to begin at the beginning, however, and ask Jones about the genesis of the project, and the ‘hog metal’ moniker.
‘The ‘Hog Rock’ thing started as a joke with some of my old roommates. When the band was starting, the first thing that came to mind would usually be what stuck, and in this case, that happened to be a bunch of hogs. It kind of worked out as a good platform for what we eventually wanted to do, though. Our first album was written pretty early on and became the pivot point for the rest of the story we wrote after.‘
I love that, like many excellent projects, humor is central to Üga Büga‘s ethos, but not to the point where the music itself veers into the zone of musical comedy. There’s simply an overarching comedic aura to their work that is nicely balanced by their tight songwriting, killer riffs, and infectious energy.
One of the factors that brought me further into the Üga Büga ecosystem was actually the band’s reaction to Spotify denying a promotional/ad placement request for their single “Divine Slaughter (Backyard Barbecue Bonanza)”, which is about hogs eating people and clearly satirical. In a great example of the Striesand Effect, the scandal actually helped promote the single on social media.
‘The Spotify thing, as far as I know, was because the cover for the single was “too violent”, which was like, the point. I don’t really know what separated this from other, less silly, artwork that makes it through, but maybe it was because the hogs were eating humans instead of the other way around. In any case, we got a whole lot of mileage out of the Spotify censorship online, so I think everyone’s happy. Fuck Spotify anyway, our single drama is real low on the list of what they’ve done to make the world a worse place.‘
“Divine Slaughter” was just a taste of the band’s new work, though, and their second album Valley of the Wolf offers the clearest vison of their discography so far. Tracks like “Earthsucker” lean into a more doom-metal sound, while “Ghost in the Diamond Cage” experiements with an almost jazzy introduction, like Angelo Badalementi decided to do a Queens of the Stone Age cover album. It’s a delight from start to finish, and essential listening for folks looking to have a little fun within the confines of the broad stoner genre. Jones commented on the production of Valley of the Wolf, including the long-distance aspect that helped the band refine and streamline their processes.
‘We recorded Valley of the Wolf predominantly in Asheville, North Carolina, with Dave Kaminski at Studio Wormwood. We went down there for two long weekends and got all of the rhythm tracks and most of the vocals cut. Dave produced the album with us, so we were able to work out where we wanted the record to sit and iron out a few smaller pieces of individual songs. We cut all the lead guitars, synths, a couple of vocals, and some silly nonsense sounds at my house over a couple of months and then let Dave kind of massage them into the tracks how he felt best, It was a great experience overall, but the distance added a little bit of pressure to get things right and move on.‘
Jones quips that Üga Büga has ‘BIG THINGS COMING!‘ now that they have finished a regional tour in support of the album, and notes that they plan to take the summer to write their third LP. In the meantime, though, they’ll be at the barbecue, serving up the finest hog shredders to clamoring fans.
