Swing Daddies

When the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, an up-and-coming swing-ska-punk band from Eugene, Ore., took the stage at Walnut Creek Amphitheater a few weeks ago they were the hippest group in sight. Their most recent hit single and album of the same title, Zoot Suit Riot (a collection of their swing hits) earned them their current fame, but band members back away from being labeled as exclusively a swing band.

Not all of the Daddies' songs exhibit the unabashed uproar of "Zoot Suit Riot."

"I don't think the music is really that bright," bassist Dan Schmid said. "It sets up these polar opposites that you have to learn to reconcile." In such songs as "Drunk Daddy" and "Master and Slave," (titles that speak for themselves) the under-belly of humanity is ironically set to the upbeat music of trumpets and saxophones. In "The Pink Elephant," lead vocalist Steve Perry sings, "A bum was in my trash/ he's picking out all the cans/ firewater burnin' up his poor swollen glands/ the Lysol and Lysterine/ it went to his head/ he eats boot black rotted on a piece of bread." Kinda makes you want to dance, don't it? -Jason Wagner