Song of the Moment

J. Cole - Lost Ones

Friday, June 18, 2010

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot



Good news B Siders, you've all made it to Friday on this seemingly 10 day week. Not sure about you, but I could go for a weekend. Relating weekends to music, I find myself playing my music the loudest on the weekends. I have an iPod dock on my 7.1 surround system, and it's nice just to crank it up and drift away. Maybe some of you will want to crank up the old Squirrel Nut Zippers this weekend, as I bring them up as my 'odd' review of the week. I guess they're classified as a jazz band, but they bring that swing element to their work as well. Believe it or not, there was a fairly big swing revival period in the mid '90s when alt rock was the boss. A niche was created by bands like this, Brian Setzer and Cherry Poppin' Daddies. What a great name that is. Anyway, these guys formed in Chapel Hill, NC in 1993. They made music and played around the country all through the late 90's. They decided to hang 'em up for a while due to solo works and two of the members getting a divorce. Good news for fans is that they reconnected back in 2007 and are touring the US to this day. Most recently I read they played a show in New Orleans on Halloween of '09. Hot and their next album did really well with critics and Hot has at the very least gone platinum. I guess I'll classify this as a good record if you're in the mood for it - which isn't often for me. But it's overall kind of fun, and toe tapping. Worth a peek if you enjoy the big band days.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Got My Own Thing Now
2. Put a Lid on It
3. Memphis Exorcism
4. Twiligh
5. It Ain't You
6. Prince Nez
7. Hell
8. Meant to Be
9. Bad Businessman
10. Flight of the Passing Fancy
11. Blue Angel
12. Interlocutor, The

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. Hell
2. The Interlocutor
3. Blue Angel

FINAL RATING:
3 out of 5 stars

4 comments:

  1. this album is more like a 4.5 - 5 star album. so good. and i take issue with your top three again. 'hell' is great, and it's been in alot of stuff so i don't know that it can be #1. but i'll allow it because it really is good. i'd put it second or third to 'memphis exorcism,' which is not only my personal favorite but i think the best on the album. and actually i would say 'blue angel' is in the top three too. ok so i take issue with one of your top three, that's not too bad. this is probably the best show or second best show i've ever seen live though. except for the fact that jimbo is even less intelligible than dave matthews live (southerners...), they sound as good as they do on disc or better. the only other non-metallica show i can compare them to in terms of quality is tony bennett. their other albums are good too but not as good as this one. the video for 'ghost of stephen foster' is great thougg, brought to you by the same folks at the simpsons. and i really like 'the kraken' from perennial favorites.

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  2. It's good...but I don't listen to this type of music often, or ever. So it's hard for me to give out a rating of that of Boston, when I find Boston to be superior in every manner.

    I'd love to see them live at some point, just because I imagine some crazy dancing going on while they perform.

    I'll check out their other ones in time too. The album went by faster than I thought it would.

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  3. i feel the same way about the length every time i listen to it. like 'aw its over already?"

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  4. Isn't that usually the way it goes? You just get warmed up then BAM, it's over. =(

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