Rod Goelz is one of those guys who just sort of oozes rock and roll. First of all, there's that bad-ass ZZ Top beard. Then there's the fact that he can play bass guitar like a mother, working his hand around that fretboard like a spider on hot coals.

As a gun-for-hire, he's done stints with everyone from funk bands like Life on Mercury to rock outfits like Flat Top and Burnt Orange to teen-pop starlet Amanda Perko.

But no more. Now it's his time. Rod-time. Hip-shaking time.

As the mastermind behind York-based booty-rockers Hip Shake, Goelz is the one in control. He picks the cover songs, he writes the originals, he calls the shots. And damn, he says, this is something he could get used to.

"It's a new stage in my life," Goelz says resolutely. "This is going to be a band where I have a deciding factor in what songs we play."

"We've all played in other bands before, and there are some songs that if I never hear them again, it'll be too soon," he chuckles. "This one, I'm doing it because I want to do it and I'm playing stuff I want to play. It's gotta be something that moves you."

From James Brown to The Grateful Dead to The Clash, if it can make you shake your moneymaker on the dance floor, then Hip Shake plays it. And if it doesn't make you dance, then the band will rework the song until it does.

"We go across the board with sounds. Even within a single song, we might go into a P-Funk thing, and then midway through we'll change into a country sound. We'll do that on the fly," Goelz explains. "We hardly ever play any show the same way twice. That's the jam element of it. It's not really a cover band. We're using these songs like a jazz musician would, but it doesn't sound like jazz."

"We've been working on a dancey, rave version of "Peace Sells But Who's Buying?" by Megadeth," he adds with a mischievous laugh. Some of the biker bars don't know what to do with us."

Goelz is backed (or fronted, as it were) by Jason "Bolero" Cunningham on vocals and guitar, Jared Daughton on keys and harmonica and Roy Frush on drums. While the current lineup has only been rocking around the region since July 2004, Goelz is already dreaming big about the future of Hip Shake.

"Eventually what I'd like to do is have a Hip Shake big band, bring all my friends in and make no money and see what kind of sounds we can make," he schemes. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Currently, the band is assembling material for an EP of originals that, if all goes, will be complete by the end of the summer. Until then, you can keep tabs on Hip Shake at www.hipshakerocks.com.