Music
Remember that brief period of time during the late ’90s when music fans everywhere shucked off their flannel and their angst to become a crew of shiny-faced, stylized swing kids? When moshing gave way to Lindy Hopping and owning a zoot suit was a lifestyle and a fashion choice?
The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies sure do.
After all, it was their platinum-selling megahit “Zoot Suit Riot” that ushered in the swing revival, and they remained a staple of that scene until its eventual and inevitable demise.
It can be hard for any band to survive being a one-hit wonder. It can be especially hard for those bands so closely identified with such a distinctive sound and style, i.e swing music.
It probably really sucks if that happens to you and you’re not actually a swing band.
Despite the fact that swing songs are part of every set list, the band released a swing album and is known best for a song with “zoot suit” in the title, no, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies isn’t a swing band.
I know—I was shocked too.
So, if they’re not the kings of swing, what are they?
Mostly, the music style they most closely identify themselves with is ska, which certainly shares some common ground with swing. They also have some punk roots, in both sound and ethos (there’s a whole section of the band’s Wikipedia entry titled, in part, “Censorship and Controversy”—not your standard swing tenets, at least not in this day and age. But, then again, their name is Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, and, yes, it does mean what you think it does).
It is worth noting that, when it comes to this band and its sound, there’s a definite delineation between before and after. However, unlike with most bands known for a single song, that “before” does not mean prior to said song. Instead, the “before” refers to the band’s 2001 hiatus, and the “after” to when they started making music again five years later.
This time around, the eclectic outfit with the ever-shifting lineup (the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies of today bears little resemblance to the band of yesteryear) focused on the sounds of the tropics, recording and releasing an album chock full of island rhythms—blended with their trademark rock/ska/swing hybrid sound. Around that time, they also released a compilation of their ska music, with the hope that it would help listeners to move past the lingering notes of “Zoot Suit Riot.”
These days, the band has made peace with its swing-styled past and come full circle, and are reportedly in the process of recording a swing/rockabilly album dubbed White Teeth, Black Thoughts, although a release date is still forthcoming.
There’s little doubt that when the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies play Sat., Feb. 11 at the Wild Buffalo they will come packing those swing sounds we all associate them with. But don’t be surprised if that’s just the tip of this musical iceberg. However, if you’re looking for an excuse to bust out that zoot suit and dust off your Lindy Hop, I can think of none better.
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