hot

back in about 1995 there was somewhat of a swing revival, where some of the ska bands around at the time adopted more of a 1930's gangster approach, dressing in pinstripe suits and bowler hats and singing songs about tommy guns and the swingin' jazz clubs of yesteryear - bands like royal crown revue, cherry poppin' daddies, big bad voodoo daddy and the squirrel nut zippers. i remember when i first bought "hot" by the squirrel nut zippers back in such a time, and listened to it repeatedly, i was the subject of ridicule for being stuck in a time warp.
all those years on, and this album still rates as one of the top purchases in my collection. "hot" is an eclectic fusion of gypsy jazz, swing, jewish klezmer, calypso, delta blues, big band swing + a million other genres - you can see definite influences from artists such as cab calloway, fats waller, tom waits, django reinhardt et al. songs alternate between the male vocals of guitarist/frontman james mathus, female vocals of banjo player katherine whallen, and pure instrumental tracks. particular standouts for me are "got my own thing now", "bad businessman" and instrumental track "the interlocutor" (sensational little guitar solo on that one), but also check what was probably their biggest single, "hell", which tends to appeal to all.
the band members have since split to take up solo persuings, (the only solo album i've been able to track down is the delta blues offering from "jimbo" mathus') but word on the street is that they are reforming...