Squirrel Nut Zippers

Uh, you had Sneaker Pimps at 14 with Six Underground.

Number 15, Hell, Squirrel Nut Zippers.

Fuck yeah.

Number 16, Come Down, Toad the Wet Sprocket.

The news dubbed it, as they will, Summer of Swing.

And you have Royal Crown Revue, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and Indigo Swing, and Squirrel Nut Zippers, even the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, and so many more, following on the heels of the success of Swingers and the rise of the cocktail nation.

Those things went hand-in-hand, the cocktail nation's revival of mid-century lounge, surf, and exotica, and a big dose of swing.

Anyhow, Royal Crown Revue rode that wave right into the charts, and, uh, that song, Zip Gun Bop, from their 1996 release, Mugsy's Move album, which hit number 11 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart.

go further.

We did an episode on Squirrel Nut Zippers, and I blamed it on swingers.

I actually think it was the mask.

I think it was the mask and all the, like, zoot suits and swing music in that two years

Man,

I was all in.

I've said it on the Squirrel Nut Zippers, though.

I was all in on the Swing Revival.

But that's like their debut, which is like an EP, I think, too, as well.

But The Inevitable by Squirrel Nut Zippers,

which is...

There we go.

Jimbo Mathus is on the show.

Very excited to get into a very interesting conversation with the front man for the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

Before we do that, have you signed up for Basic Folk's newsletter? It is a monthly email, comes to your inbox daily.

once a month, lets you know what's going on with our podcast.

Or you can get the link in the show notes.

All right, let's get to it.

Front man for Squirrel Nut Zippers, Jimbo Mathus, grew up in a house full of musicians.

And by the time he was eight years old, he was sitting in on family jam sessions.

You sh- I listened to it today after we talked about it, so.

Oh, I, I listened to Squirrel Nut Zippers.

Yeah.

[laughs] That was funny.

Yeah.

You know, just born just a little bit too late to be one of the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

Just into the smidge.

Maybe in another life.

He came up.

He had done some Squirrel Nut Zippers records with us, so I knew he was really good and flexible.

And we recorded at, there's a great photographer, Panny Mayfield from Clarksdale.

We set up in her house.

And we stayed at my grandmother's house on Lynn Street, and the whole band was there.

Luther and Cody were there, Paul Taylor from Gut Bucket, and that's where we met them.

How did you meet Luther and Cody originally? I met Luther and Cody when the Squirrel Nut Zippers played at Barrister's in Memphis.

It was kind of a punk rock club downtown around the early 90s, early to mid 90s.