Right in the course of the nostalgia-inspired craze have been Squirrel Nut Zippers, a swing band that appeared to have time traveled proper out of the Twenties to encourage the lots to Lindy Hop and Charleston.
“It was a complete coincidence,” says Jimbo Mathus, the band’s founder, guitarist, and vocalist. “We did not know it could get sizzling. It was imagined to be an artwork challenge with music. It was very odd that individuals received into what we have been doing.”
Mathus was born in Mississippi to a musical household.
“I heard music in utero,” he says. “My household handed devices round, the mandolin, the guitar, harmonica, piano.”
After shifting to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, he purchased The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz field set from an area thrift store.
“I sat round listening to it and tried to determine it out,” Mathus provides. “Then the native faculty radio station was enjoying all this big-band jazz from the ’30s and ’40s that piqued my curiosity. I additionally heard native bands like Southern Culture on the Skids mixing in these influences.”
In 1993, he began to place collectively what would grow to be the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
“I’d all the time been good at placing a bunch collectively. It wasn’t laborious to seek out members. I discovered quite a lot of nice folks,” he says. “We rehearsed for six months, and proper after our first present, an area label signed us.”
The band’s second document, 1996’s Hot, cracked the Billboard 200 charts, an unlikely hit among the many grunge and gangster rap albums of the time. The music video “Hell” additionally discovered itself on heavy rotation on MTV between the Fugees and Spice Girls. The video options the band acting at an old-school radio station with a number of band members wanting like they’re about to interrupt out in laughter. It all has a really tongue-in-cheek tone paying homage to a late-night present skit, making you surprise if this was all an enormous joke.
Talking with Mathus, nevertheless, makes it obvious he genuinely loves the old-school music he is enjoying.
“I believe earnestness and satire can work hand in hand,” he says. “All the outdated blues and jazz had this facet of laughing to maintain from crying. They used double entendres and coded phrases so they might slip issues below the censors. We utterly embrace that black humor, however our music is one hundred pc heartfelt.”
Mathus and the remainder of the Squirrel Nut Zippers will carry out that heartfelt model of music on the Parker on Thursday, February 9. “We have a ten-piece band with a rotating forged of singers. Everyone takes their flip on the mic,” Mathus explains. “The musicians are all top-notch. It’s wildly entertaining, and there is nothing else prefer it. It’s severe music meant to appear easy. It’s a time capsule into the longer term.”
Though the Parker is a theater with everlasting seats, the Squirrel Nut Zippers method each present exactly the identical approach, no matter whether or not there’s area to bounce. “Sometimes these performing arts facilities let folks dance within the aisles,” Mathus provides.
While Squirrel Nut Zippers have been constructed on a passion for a bygone period, the band is now coming into its thirtieth 12 months, sufficiently old to encourage its personal model of nostalgia.
“It’s like a double dose of nostalgia for the roaring ’20s,” Mathus jokes. “I can see us being handed down. Kids who got here to our early exhibits at the moment are bringing their very own children. Music is a social factor. It’s fantastic to incorporate everybody.”Â
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Squirrel Nut Zippers. 8 p.m. Thursday, February 9, on the Parker, 707 NE Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale; 954-462-0222; parkerplayhouse.com. Tickets price $35 to $65 by way of ticketmaster.com.