Squirrel Nut Zippers | |
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![]() Performing in San Francisco, 2008 | |
Background information | |
Origin | Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S. |
Genres | |
Years active |
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Labels | Mammoth |
Members |
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Past members |
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Website | www |
Squirrel Nut Zippers is an American swing and jazz band formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, by James "Jimbo" Mathus (vocals and guitar), Tom Maxwell (vocals and guitar), Katharine Whalen (vocals, banjo, ukulele), Chris Phillips (drums), Don Raleigh (bass guitar), and Ken Mosher. [1]
The band's music is a fusion of Delta blues, gypsy jazz, 1930s–era swing, klezmer, and other styles. [1] They found commercial success during the swing revival of the late 1990s with their 1996 single "Hell", written by Tom Maxwell. After a hiatus of several years, the original band members reunited and performed in 2007, playing in the U.S. and Canada.
In 2016, Mathus and Phillips reunited the band with a new lineup to tour in support of the 20th anniversary of their highest-selling album, Hot. [2]
The Squirrel Nut Zippers continue to tour, and released their new album Beasts of Burgundy in March 2018, and singles "Mardi Gras for Christmas" and "Alone at Christmas" in November 2018.
The band was founded by James "Jimbo" Mathus, formerly of Metal Flake Mother and Johnny Vomit & The Dry Heaves, and his then-wife Katharine Whalen in Carrboro, North Carolina, with Tom Maxwell, Chris Phillips, Don Raleigh, and Ken Mosher. The group made its debut in Chapel Hill a few months later. Stacy Guess (formerly of Pressure Boys) joined shortly after.
"Nut Zippers" is a southern term for a variety of old bootleg moonshine. The band's name comes from a newspaper story about an intoxicated man who climbed a tree and refused to come down even after police arrived. The headline was "Squirrel Nut Zipper." [3] [4] It is also the name of a caramel and peanut candy dating back to 1890. [5]
The band is credited for contributing to the swing revival that occurred during the 1990s. The band was influenced by Johnny Ace, Cab Calloway, Django Reinhardt, Raymond Scott, Fats Waller, and Tom Waits. The breakthrough single "Hell", with its calypso rhythm, more closely aligned the band with the neo-swing movement. [4]
The Zippers's debut album, The Inevitable (1995), received airplay on National Public Radio, and its second album, Hot (1996), was certified platinum. Hot was also one of the first enhanced CDs, containing an interactive presentation created by filmmaker Clay Walker. In support of the album, the band toured with rock singer Neil Young. Perennial Favorites (1998) followed, then Christmas Caravan and Bedlam Ballroom .
The Squirrel Nut Zippers performed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and at President Clinton's second inaugural ball. Their numerous appearances included such notables as the radio show Prairie Home Companion and on television shows The Tonight Show , Late Show with David Letterman , Conan O'Brien , and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve .[ citation needed ]
By the early 2000s, the Zippers were inactive. Mathus and Katharine Whalen had divorced, and the band members went their separate ways.[ citation needed ]
Whalen released her debut album, Katharine Whalen's Jazz Squad. Mathus toured and recorded extensively with Buddy Guy and has released 18 solo records on various labels, and under various names, while keeping a hand in numerous other projects. Je Widenhouse and Reese Gray recorded and toured with Firecracker Jazz Band. Chris Phillips spent two years with the Dickies and William Reid from the Jesus and Mary Chain. His band The Lamps included members of the Bangles and The Connells.[ citation needed ]
In early 2007, the band's official website announced tour dates with a lineup consisting of Jimbo Mathus, Katharine Whalen, Chris Phillips, Je Widenhouse, Stuart Cole, Hank West, and Will Dawson. With the proclamation "Ladies and Gentlemen...They're Back," the band performed concert dates throughout the U.S. and Canada in the spring and summer of 2007 and through 2008.
In late February 2009, Phillips sent an email announcing a forthcoming live album titled You Are My Radio, recorded in Brooklyn in December 2008. [6] The album title was later changed to Lost at Sea and was released on October 27 through Southern Broadcasting/MRI. They also announced plans for a studio album in 2010. The band taped a performance for NPR's Mountain Stage, which aired in mid-November.
Following renewed interest at the approach of the 20th Anniversary of Hot, Mathus began assembling a revival band, focusing on musicians in the New Orleans area. They began touring in June 2016, with the initial line-up including Mathus, Dr. Sick (fiddle, vocals), Ingrid Lucia (vocals), Kris Tokarski (piano), Charlie Halloran (trombone), Dave Boswell (trumpet), Hank West (saxophone), Tamara Nicolai (upright bass) and Kevin O’Donnell (drums), with original Zippers drummer Chris Phillips managing, and Alex Holeman as road manager. [7]
The band has continued to tour; the studio album Beasts of Burgundy was released on March 23, 2018 through their own label Southern Broadcasting. Performers on the album include Mathus (guitar, vocals), Dr. Sick (fiddle, banjo, various instruments, vocals), Cella Blue (vocals), Vanessa Niemann (vocals), Tamar A. Korn (vocals), Dave Boswell (trumpet), Kevin Louis (trumpet), Aurora Nealand (clarinet), Charlie Halloran (trombone), Colin Myers (trombone), Henry Westmoreland (tenor and baritone saxophone), Kris Tokarski (piano), Leslie P. Martin (piano), Tamara Nicolai (upright bass), Neilson Bernard III (drums) and Chris Phillips (percussion).
Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |
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Modern Rock Tracks [8] | US Air [8] | |||
"Hell" | 1996 | 13 | 72 [9] | Hot |
"Put a Lid on It" | — | — | ||
"Suits Are Picking Up the Bill" [10] | 1998 | — | — | Perennial Favorites |
"Ghost of Stephen Foster" [11] | 1999 | — | — |
As of 2021, music performed by the Squirrel Nut Zippers has appeared in 25 films or television shows. [12]
Song | Work | Year |
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"Istanbul" | Black Magic | 1992 |
"Anything But Love" | Flirting with Disaster | 1996 |
"Meant to Be" | Just Your Luck | 1996 |
"Hell" | Dream with the Fishes | 1997 |
"Blue Angel" | ||
"Put a Lid on It" | A Life Less Ordinary | 1997 |
"Hell" | Millennium - S2 Ep5 | 1997 |
"Meant to Be" | Sex and the City - S1 Ep8 | 1998 |
"Hell" | Dead Man on Campus | 1998 |
"Got My Own Thing Now" | Fifty | 1999 |
"Trou Macacq" | Three to Tango | 1999 |
"Hell" | Blast from the Past | 1999 |
"Trou Macacq" | ||
"Blue Angel" | The Last Kiss | 2001 |
"Hell" | Monkeybone | 2001 |
"Hell" | Dead Like Me - S1 Ep1 | 2003 |
"Moon Over Parma" | The Drew Carey Show - S8 Ep20 | 2003 |
"Good Enough for Grandad" | Comic Book: The Movie | 2004 |
"Anything But Love" | The O.C. - S1 Ep19 | 2004 |
"Put a Lid on it" | Fido | 2006 |
"Baby Wants a Diamond Ring" | Happily N'Ever After | 2007 |
"Hell" | Banished | 2007 |
"My Drag" | You Kill Me | 2007 |
"Hell" | Sigma Die! | 2007 |
"Ghost of Stephen Foster" | Tears for Sale | 2008 |
"Poor Boys Blues" | Burlesque | 2010 |
"That Fascinating Thing" | ||
"Verdi Mart Shuffle" | ||
"Curly's Blues" | ||
"Suits Are Picking Up the Bill" | ||
"Sitting Pretty" | ||
"Hell" | Epic | 2013 |
"Put a Lid on It" | For All Mankind - S1 Ep1 | 2019 |
Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, known as the swing era, when people were dancing the Lindy Hop. The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong groove or drive. Musicians of the swing era include Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Benny Carter, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Bunny Berigan, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, and Django Reinhardt.
The swing revival, also called retro swing and neo-swing, was a renewed interest in swing music and Lindy Hop dance, beginning around 1989 and reaching a peak from the early/mid to late 1990s. The music was generally rooted in the big bands of the swing era of the 1930s and 1940s, but it was also greatly influenced by rockabilly, boogie-woogie, the jump blues of artists such as Louis Prima and Louis Jordan, and the theatrics of Cab Calloway. Many neo-swing bands practiced contemporary fusions of swing, jazz, and jump blues with rock, punk rock, ska, and ska punk music or had roots in punk, ska, ska punk, and alternative rock music.
Mammoth Records was an independent record label founded in 1989 by Jay Faires in the Carrboro area of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The majority of the acts on Mammoth were executive-produced by Faires and the label's general manager, Steve Balcom. The label was the first independent to produce two platinum records.
Andrew Wegman Bird is an American indie rock multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Since 1996, he has released 16 studio albums, as well as several live albums and EPs, spanning various genres including swing music, indie rock, and folk music. He is primarily known for his unique style of violin playing, accompanied by loop and effect pedals, whistling, and voice. In the 1990s, he sang and played violin in several jazz ensembles, including Squirrel Nut Zippers and Kevin O'Donnell's Quality Six. He went on to start his own swing ensemble, Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, which released three albums between 1998 and 2001. Weather Systems (2003) was his first solo album after Bowl of Fire disbandment, and it marked a departure from jazz music into indie music. Bird's 2019 album My Finest Work Yet was nominated for "Best Folk Album" at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
Music of Hair is the debut studio album by the American singer-songwriter Andrew Bird, released in 1996. The tracks featured were written in Bird's early twenties, and the album was released when he was 23. The album features contributions from musicians Colin Bunn, Dave Dieckmann, Kat Eggleston, Al Ehrich, Kevin O'Donnell; and, James "Jimbo" Mathus, Katharine Whalen and Chris Phillips from Squirrel Nut Zippers.
The Inevitable is the first album by the Squirrel Nut Zippers, released in 1995.
Hot is the second studio album by the Squirrel Nut Zippers, a retro swing band. Recorded as a follow-up to their acclaimed debut, The Inevitable, the group continued their use of big band sounds and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Upon its release in June 1996, the album drew favorable reviews from most critics, who praised the humorous lyrical compositions and the record's cross-generational appeal. The album peaked within the top 30 of the Billboard 200, and was certified Platinum by the RIAA in December of the year following its release. It also spawned a single, "Hell", which peaked at No. 13 on the Alternative Airplay chart; and though it did not reach the Pop Top 50, it did manage to garner airplay on 24 pop radio stations.
Sold Out is limited edition EP by the swing revival band Squirrel Nut Zippers that was released in 1997. The album contains live songs and other obscure tracks.
Perennial Favorites is an album by the swing revival band Squirrel Nut Zippers, released in 1998.
Christmas Caravan is a Christmas album by the swing revival band Squirrel Nut Zippers that was released in 1998 by Mammoth Records. Produced by Mike Napolitano. Engineered by John Plymale.
Bedlam Ballroom is a studio album by the swing revival band Squirrel Nut Zippers, released in 2000. It followed several major personnel changes. The album reflects a stylistic shift, with the band incorporating a broader ranges of styles, instrumentation, and production approaches. The band broke up after the release of the album, eventually reuniting in 2007.
Roasted Right is the debut recording by the swing revival band Squirrel Nut Zippers, first released as a 7" in 1994, and subsequently re-released with an additional track as an EP in 1997. Unlike later music by the Zippers, Roasted Right features a more blues-based sound without brass or woodwinds. The tracks "Anything But Love" and "Wash Jones" are early versions of songs later re-recorded for full-length albums.
Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire was an American band fronted by musician Andrew Bird. After releasing his first solo album, Music of Hair, Bird appeared on three albums by Squirrel Nut Zippers before becoming the bandleader for Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire.
Roomful of Blues is an American jump blues and swing revival big band based in Rhode Island. With a recording career that spans over 50 years, they have toured worldwide and recorded many albums. Roomful of Blues, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, "Swagger, sway and swing with energy and precision". Since 1967, the group’s blend of swing, rock and roll, jump blues, boogie-woogie and soul has earned it five Grammy Award nominations and many other accolades, including seven Blues Music Awards. Billboard called the band "a tour de force of horn-fried blues…Roomful is so tight and so right." The Down Beat International Critics Poll has twice selected Roomful of Blues as Best Blues Band.
The Lucky Strikes is a contemporary swing band which achieved mainstream success during the swing revival of the late 1990s. The band was formed in 1989 by guitarist and vocalist Craig Marshall with Milan Moorman (trumpet), Brian Copeland (bassist), and Freddie Mendoza (trombone).
Burlesque: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the film of the same name, released by Screen Gems, Inc and RCA Records on November 19, 2010. The soundtrack consists of ten songs sung by the film's stars, American singers Christina Aguilera and Cher; Aguilera sang eight of the tracks, while Cher performed the remaining two. The album is inspired by jazz music style, in style with Aguilera's fifth studio album Back to Basics (2006), but contrasting to her then-recent release Bionic (2010), which was recorded concurrently with Burlesque. Burlesque served as Cher's first album since the release of Living Proof nine years earlier.
James H. Mathis Jr., known as Jimbo Mathus, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and member of the swing revival band Squirrel Nut Zippers.
Thomas Edward Maxwell is an American songwriter, singer, and musician. Most notably, Maxwell is the former lead singer of the swing revival band Squirrel Nut Zippers. He wrote the single "Hell" from the 1996 platinum-certified album Hot.
Katharine Whalen is a musician, singer, and songwriter originally from Greenville, North Carolina. She contributed vocals, banjo, and ukulele as a member of the Chapel Hill jazz band Squirrel Nut Zippers, a group that she founded in 1993 with then-husband Jimbo Mathus.
These 13 is a collaborative studio album by American musicians Jimbo Mathus and Andrew Bird. It was released on March 5, 2021, through Thirty Tigers. Recording sessions took place at Hollywood Sound Recorders in Los Angeles and at Barebones Studios. Production was handled by Mike Viola. The album peaked at number 65 on the Top Album Sales in the United States.