Exclamations From Hip

The members of Tony! Toni! Tone!--the hip soul band featured in today’s L.A. Coliseum soul extravaganza--are probably sick of getting ribbed about their name and those silly exclamation points. One of the better quips: a journalist called the name horrible! horrible! horrible!

The name isn’t even practical. No one in the group is named Tony. But, guitarist Dwayne Wiggins says, everyone thinks they’re all named Tony.

“I mean everybody,” he says. “Once, me and this young lady were in this passionate embrace and she called me Tony. That wasn’t cool. But at least she likes our music.”

So do many young soul fans. Bands like New Edition and Guy--both in the Coliseum show--are better known but the Tonys are better at that danceable high-tech funk that’s in vogue now.

So far the Tonys’ big problem has been crossing over to the pop market. Their debut album, “Who?,” on PolyGram is popular in the black community but most pop fans don’t know about the Tonys. The album includes three singles, “Little Walter,” “Baby Doll” and “Born Not to Know”--one of the best singles of the last year in any category--that made the Top Five on the black charts.

“The records are too black for the pop market, I guess,” Wiggins says. “We’ll do things a little differently on the next album.”

This Oakland-based band is a family outfit--including Wiggins’ brother Raphael and cousin Tim Christian, with instrumental support from cousins Carl Wheeler (keyboards), Elijah Baker (bass) and Antron Haile (keyboards).

They’re not your typical young party animals. A little-known fact about the Tonys is that they’re very religious.

“We pray every night before we go on stage,” Wiggins says. “We’re not wild and we don’t do drugs. I’ve been playing guitar for about 15 years and I’ve been on lots of tours before this band. I’ve been around. So I have friends who are in the drug scene. I’m exposed to it all the time. But none of us are into that. We’re into prayer.”

Wiggins is more willing to discuss drugs than age. Apparently these guys aren’t as young as they look. When the age issue came up, Higgins mumbled something about being 20 or 21 but couldn’t keep a straight face, suddenly collapsing in hysterical laughter.

So how old are these guys?

Answers Wiggins: “It’s a nice day isn’t it?”