OMC: What happened to the band members after that? What prompted the reunion and re-issue?

Marty did the "New Monkees" for one season and has had a successful career writing music for television shows, including "Nash Bridges." I've been bouncing between film and music -- was with a band on Interscope called Fisher (the most downloaded band on the Internet at one point) and probably achieved my biggest notoriety singing the theme songs for the "Power Rangers."

Bobby Tews returned to Milwaukee and played drums with a faith-based bluegrass band called Blue Grace. Val McCallum is a very much in-demand session guitarist and Bob Pachner is a doctor.

The Internet is probably responsible for the remix of "FUPV." Once people could locate us, the requests started pouring in. There have been discussions about The Wigs on IMDB.com, Audities and other pop music sites. It's a real source of pride for us that if you can find a good copy of "FUPV," it will set you back around $400.

Once we decided to issue a CD, Marty and I fell into the idea of remixing the record from the original two-inch tapes. That gave us the opportunity to right a couple wrongs that had been nagging at us the past 27 years, and finally stand up for our own choices. This project has been five years in the making and there has been little to no compromise involved.

Though we made changes, we kept true to our original vision, which was no easy task, given that we have 20-plus years of experience under our belts. It would have been very easy to re-record all the parts and make them sound "today," but we made the conscious decision to rediscover the head space we were in back then. Some fans may not like the changes we made to 'their' record, but they will have to understand that this is now the record we always intended to put out back then, including two tracks that were left off the original vinyl pressing -- our first brush with bad advice.

The best offshoot of this whole project is that Marty and I have had a blast doing the work, especially the last few weeks as we've been sliding into home. We've come to a place where the things between us that were originally endearing and became irritating, are now endearing again.

OMC: What kind of show can people expect at Shank Hall?

JC: God willing, one of our good ones. We will play all of "FUPV," plus a selection of " My Chauffeur" tracks and a few other goodies, ending up with what is sure to be a fun train wreck as we devolve into our alter-band-ego, The Merkins, which features members of Arroyo and anyone else we can con into jumping up on stage with us.

OMC: Sounds like it's going to be a pretty happy reunion...

JC: Let me stress that we are far from bitter. No, The Wigs did not hit the goal we set for ourselves, but we had set that goal as high as possible.

Having gone through the major label machine, we're all too aware of the enormous role that luck plays in success. Far better artists than The Wigs failed, so we don't harbor any ill will toward the universe.

I am frequently reminded of the successes we did have when musician friends listen to my stories with a tinge of envy. We did something that touched people firmly enough that 27 years later, there is still demand for what we put out in the world. Can't ask for much better than that.