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One of my favorite CD’s is Hot from Squirrel Nut Zippers. It’s a CD I can play from beginning to end, over and over again.

I’m not the only one diggin’ SNZ; they’ve sold over three million records. The film industry has featured their music with soundtracks & placements in Blast from the Past and Flirting with Disaster, an Intel commercial, HBO – Six Feet Under, Family Plots theme, and Happily Never After. They have performed at President Clinton’s Inaugural Ball and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Even Tony Bennett thought they were hip enough to open for him at Radio City Music Hall.

I had some questions for such a cool band, and Chris Phillips, aka the drummer for SNZ, offered up some answers for my enjoyment.

HIH:   In the 90′s swing dancing became the new retro dance craze. It seemed like everyone was taking an Arthur Murray class. I read that you were unintentionally caught up in this dance movement and tried to distance yourself from it. Is this true?

Chris P:   Well, who doesn’t love to dance? It’s just that we wanted to separate our business from the “swing” dance craze. We felt very strongly that we were much more of a Rhumba band, and should have inspired a Rhumba dance craze. But you know, if someone wants to Lindy Hop I can’t stop them. I only encourage them to try and break on through to the other side and feel the power of the Rhumba.

HIH:   The name Squirrel Nut Zippers came from Squirrel Brand’s Nut Zippers, a type of peanut and caramel candy from the mid-20′s, who thought of using this unique name?

Chris P:   I believe our former bass player Don Raleigh and Jimbo Mathus concocted this hair-brain scheme. For years I’ve been trying to shake the name. I want to call the band “Cannonballs”, or anything that ends with the letter “Z”. But I have been unable to convince the band yet. Some people just don’t get it do they?

HIH:   After a bit of a hiatus, you’re back together on tour. How has touring changed these days compared to the early 90′s?

Chris P:   For this question I refer you to our current biography, copied below:
“One day early last year I was just looking out the window of my retirement home when it hit me,” says Chris Phillips, of the Squirrel Nut Zippers. “I can’t remember their names, but I miss those folks. Where are my pants?” And just like that, the band tumbled towards the doors of their nursing homes.

With canes in hand the band was soon scrambling on stage like an army of confused, angry senior citizens looking for their pension checks. Wearing nothing but his Depends undergarment, crouching atop his drum throne, Phillips yells “I am a golden god!” and topples off like a stone.

The band that brought the world Perennial Favorites, Hot, and The Inevitable are back to play together for the first time since1863. Featuring original members Katherine Whalen (108 years old), Jimbo Mathus (292 years old), Chris Phillips (311 years old), Je Widenhouse and Stuart Cole (both 492 years of age) – the Squirrel Nut Zippers will be performing selections from the entire catalogue, plus some strange new material. Though most of this new material sounds like a laconic reaction to a bad cocktail of medication, they play it with such conviction you hardly notice the drool and vacant stares.

“Though years of Viagra abuse have taken their toll, I’m still what I used to be”, says Stuart Cole from his alcohol re-dehydrating station.

“Oxygen masks can’t hold me back now” says Katherine Whalen.
The band still rejoices at the difficulty people have in pigeonholing their unmistakable sound. A perpetually confused stew of Southern roots and Surrealist paintings, the Zippers were aptly tagged “’30s punk” by one critic. During the civil war the band was known to charm both Confederate and Union soldiers equally. They always flirted with a muse most concerned with ghosts, fever-dreams, and sexual desire (though at their extreme ages, sexual desire is strictly a historical reference). Centered around the beguiling vocals of Katherine Whalen and the anachronistic windup toy that is Jimbo Mathus, the Zippers promise to both charm and confound.
Resting on their desire to continue performing until the reaper takes them away, the Squirrel Nut Zippers are often mistaken for a group of escaped assisted-livers running for the hills. If you come across them, take them by the hand. Guide them to the stage entrance marked with oversized print, and tell them to walk towards the light. Then step back and let the show begin.

HIH:    We’ve all heard stories of bands on the road getting into trouble or dodging screaming fans. What is your favorite “on the road” story?

Chris P:    Our favorite on the road story is when we all got naked together at an assram (I think that’s how you spell it). You know, a place of spiritual housecleaning. We were all practicing a type of yoga called asstongue ( I think that’s how you spell it) at the time, and always looking for crazy new break out spiritual centers. On this particular tour, we found what looked to be a place of spiritual housekeeping behind a Denny’s one night. We were about to begin our cleanse when a “homeless” man crawled out from the dumpster and informed us that he could be our “guide”. We quickly agreed. However, our spirit guide dosed us with bad peyote. The whole situation turned into a swirling vortex of madness, and before you knew it, we were spinning through the night in a paddy wagon. Let me tell you, there is no spiritual peace to be found in the back of a police truck, naked, hopped on peyote and desperately trying to remember your own name.

HIH:    You’ve been featured on many television shows such as Leno, Regis & Kathie Lee, Letterman, and Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Years Eve. Being a Jim Henson fan, I’m most impressed by your visit to Sesame Street. What was that like?

Chris P:    Truly one of the best experiences of our lives. The puppet wranglers were truly, genuinely sweet and sincere. Anyone with kids should feel good about letting their kids watch that show. Unless you hate TV. Even if you do, trust me, it’s well intended.

HIH:    One of the distinctive qualities of your music is the humor that goes along with it. Is this something that happened because of many of your song’s lyrics or was it a natural part of your performing styles?

Chris P:    Well, I believe Jimbos song lyrics come from his imaginative mind. I guess I’m saying the lyrics follow the man. They were not created by unseen forces. They have not cast a spell on us. They do not drag us around like monkeys on a banana binge. Yes, the lyrics represent all of us. But they define Mr. Mathus. Southern Gothic Ventriloquist – Jimbo Mathus!

HIH:    Did most of the band start playing instruments, and singing at a very young age? What is everyone’s musical background before playing professional music?

Chris P:    Jimbo started very early with his father. As a grown man he taught Katharine to play. She was a natural singer. She didn’t teach me to sing however. No one could have done that. Not in the limited time we have here on earth that is. I grew up playing in punk rock bands instead, learning everything I could about playing poorly and loudly. Je and Stuart both grew up in an orphanage and played music for the nuns on Saturday nights. There’s nothing quite like a nun partying on a Saturday night. Don’t you agree? We all still aspire to play in a professional band one day.

HIH:   The Ghost of Stephen Foster is not only an amazing song but the video that the “folks from the Simpsons” created is beautifully done. How did this collaboration happen?

Chris P:   My feelings for this video are on par with my feelings about Sesame Street. We had a chance to go meet the people who did the Simpsons and tour their place. Raymond Persi and Mathew Nastuk were so awesome to champion this idea. They will always be heroes of ours and should rightly retain the Heavyweight Championship forever. If we could send a Squirrel Nut Zippers rocket ship to space, we would include this video and project it with lasers to distant planets, not unlike a Pink Floyd concert.

HIH:    The SNZ sound has obvious vintage undertones that remind us of the 20′s, 30′s, and 40′s but it’s clearly a new sound all your own. What modern music do you guys like these days?

Chris P:    You know, we think John Phillip Sousa is finally coming into his own. No seriously though, Devotchka, Sara Lov, Orchestra Baobab, Flight of the Concords. We also like the sound of Budweiser in cans. And one of our new favorites is Miller Highlife. You should try it. It’s kind of like us – redneck jazz. Great on ice. Not tight, but excite!

HIH:    What’s next for SNZ?

Chris P:    Evolve. Chew. Write. Create. Smell. Taste. Eat. Hear. Sing. Viciously attack whatever comes onto our territory. Prey for more beer. Hope we live to see the Flight of the Conchords “Business Time” video one more time. Etc etc.

Squirrel Nut Zippers will be in San Francisco on August 12, Oregon on the 13th-14th, Seattle on August 15th, and then in British Columbia, August 16th. Visit their official site snzippers.com  for details about these upcoming performances.