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Squirrel Nut Zippers
Background information
Origin	Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
Genre(s)	Jazz
Years active	1993-2001, 2006-
Label(s)	Mammoth
Website	Official Site
Members
James "Jimbo" Mathus Katharine Whalen Chris Phillips Stu Cole Je Widenhouse Will Dawson
Former members
Tom Maxwell Ken Mosher Don Raleigh Stacy Guess Robert Griffin Dave Wright Tim Smith Reese Gray Andrew Bird

The Squirrel Nut Zippers are a Chapel Hill, North Carolina based Jazz band formed in 1993, who applied punk's DIY aesthetic to early 20th century American popular music. The band's name comes from the Squirrel Brand's Nut Zippers, a peanut and caramel candy for sale since the mid-20s.^[1] Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Promotional poster for Squirrel Nut Zippers This is a copyrighted poster. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Nickname: Location in North Carolina Coordinates: , Country State Counties Orange, Durham, and Chatham Founded 1793 Government  - Mayor Kevin C. Foy Area  - City  19. ... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Largest metro area Charlotte metro area Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (901 km)  - % water 9. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. ... Founded in 1989 in Carrboro, North Carolina, Mammoth Records was one of the premiere independent record labels of the 1990s. ... Nickname: Location in North Carolina Coordinates: , Country State Counties Orange, Durham, and Chatham Founded 1793 Government  - Mayor Kevin C. Foy Area  - City  19. ... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Largest metro area Charlotte metro area Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (901 km)  - % water 9. ... See also: 1993 in music (UK) Musical groups established in 1993 Record labels established in 1993 // Date Unknown- Christian Rock label Tooth and Nail Records is formed. ... See also: DIY Network, a cable TV network. ... A Squirrel Nut Caramel is a type of chewy caramel candy with pieces of peanuts mixed in. ...

Origins

The band was founded by Jim "Jimbo" Mathus, formerly of Metalflake Mother and Johnny Vomit & The Dry Heaves, and his then-wife Katharine Whalen in Carrboro, North Carolina along with Chris Phillips, Don Raleigh and Ken Mosher. The group made its live debut in Chapel Hill a few months later. Stacy Guess (formerly of Pressure Boys and Sex Police)and Tom Maxwell joined later. The band was initially lumped into the "lounge" movement, along with Combustible Edison, and credited as part of the brief swing music revival of the 1990s. Unlike such bands as Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the Zippers defied description, incorporating everything from Harlem Hot Music, Cab Calloway, Johnny Ace, Delta Blues, Raymond Scott, Fats Waller, Django Reinhardt, Tom Waits, and klezmer. The song "Hell", a single,^[1] that peaked at number 13, was calypso music in the tradition of 1930s artists such as Lord Executor and The Growler. The band's lyrics sometimes referenced William Faulkner or quoted 2,000 year old Chinese poetry. They opened for President Bill Clinton's inaugural ball in January of 1997.^[1] They still have a strong following and continue to perform at festivals and Clubs around the United States. Johnny Vomit & The Dry Heaves was a high school garage band that formed in mid-1980s Corinth, Mississippi that featured future leaders of the Oblivians and Squirrel Nut Zippers, Jack Oblivian (née Yarber) and Jim Mathus. ... City nickname: The Paris of the Piedmont Incorporated 1911 County Orange County Mayor Mark Chilton Aldermen Joal Hall Broun (mayor pro tem) Dan Coleman Jacquelyn Gist Randee Haven-ODonnell John Herrera Alex Zaffron Town Manager Steven E. Stewart Area  - Total  - Water 11. ... Combustible Edison was a group founded in the early 1990s in Boston, MA, and was one of several lounge music acts that led a brief resurgence of interest in the genre during the mid-1990s. ... The Swing Revival was cultural phenomenon of the 1990s and early 2000s which featured renewed popular interest in music in the style of the swing period of the 1930s and 1940s. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ... Cherry Poppin Daddies Cherry Poppin Daddies is an American band formed in 1989 in Eugene, Oregon. ... Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is a contemporary swing band from southern California. ... Cab Calloway, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933 Cab Calloway (December 25, 1907–November 18, 1994) was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader. ... Johnny Ace (June 9, 1929 – December 25, 1954), born John Marshall Alexander, Jr. ... Delta blues are named for the Mississippi Delta. ... Raymond Scott, 1937 Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow, September 10, 1908 – February 8, 1994), was an American composer, orchestra leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor. ... Fats Waller (born Thomas Wright Waller on May 21, 1904, died December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer and comedic entertainer. ... Jean Django Reinhardt (January 23, 1910 – May 16, 1953) was a Belgian Sinto Gypsy jazz guitarist. ... Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. ... Klezmer (from Yiddish כּלי־זמיר, etymologically from Hebrew kli zemer כלי זמר, musical instrument) is a musical tradition which parallels Hasidic and Ashkenazic Judaism. ... Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music which originated in Trinidad at about the start of the 20th century. ... William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American novelist and poet whose works feature his native state of Mississippi. ... Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong Hand-painted Chinese New Years duilian (對聯 couplet), a by-product of Chinese poetry, pasted on the sides of doors leading to peoples homes, at Lijiang City, Yunnan Poetry is the most highly regarded literary genre in ancient China. ... Order: 42nd President Vice President: Al Gore Term of office: January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001 Preceded by: George H. W. Bush Succeeded by: George W. Bush Date of birth: August 19, 1946 Place of birth: Hope, Arkansas First Lady: Hillary Rodham Clinton Political party: Democratic William Jefferson Clinton (born...

Albums

Hot album cover

The band's first album, The Inevitable (1995), garnered the attention of National Public Radio, which was the band's first source of widespread acclaim. Their second album, Hot (1996), caught the attention of the modern music scene. It was certified platinum (1,000,000 unit shipped) in the Fall of 1997. The "Hot" album was one of the first ECDs - an "enhanced" audio CD containing an interactive presentation created by filmmaker Clay Walker. Perennial Favorites (1998) also received critical acclaim and achieved substantial sales. Also released in 1998 was Christmas Caravan, a Christmas-themed album. The band recorded Bedlam Ballroom in 1999 after touring the previous records extensively. Any new recordings by the band are yet to be released. Image File history File links Hotsnz. ... Image File history File links Hotsnz. ... Category: ... An album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. ... See also: 1995 in music (UK) Musical groups established in 1995 Record labels established in 1995 // January 18 - Jerry Garcia wrecks his rented BMW into a guard rail near Mill Valley, California. ... See also: 1996 in music (UK) Musical groups established in 1996 Record labels established in 1996 // January 8 - Madonnas stalker, Robert Hoskins is found guilty and convicted on five charges of assault, stalking, and threatening to kill the singer. ... The description Gold Album is applied to recorded music albums that have sold a minimum number of copies (in the US, currently 500,000 sales). ... Clay Walker b. ... See also: 1998 in music (UK) Musical groups established in 1998 Record labels established in 1998 // 1998 - The single Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls sets a new hot 100 airplay record, 18 weeks at number one. ...

Personnel changes

• Stacy Guess was forced out two weeks prior to the recording of Hot, in September 1995. He died of a heroin overdose on March 11, 1998.^[2]
• Je Widenhouse (formerly of the Sex Police) joined the band in 1995.
• Don Raleigh departed in the middle of the Perennial Favorites sessions in November 1996. He was replaced by Stuart Cole.
• In July 1999, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Tom Maxwell left the band.
• In October 1999, songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ken Mosher also quit.
• In 1999, Reese Gray (piano), Tim Smith (alto saxophone) and David Wright (trombone) joined the band.

is the 70th day of the year (71st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ...

Success

• To date, the Zippers catalog has sold in excess of two and a half million units.^{[citation needed]}
• The Squirrel Nut Zippers spent the summer of 1997 outselling the likes of U2 and Aerosmith and touring with Neil Young. They performed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, on Prairie Home Companion, President Clinton's second inaugural ball, Comedy Central's Viva Variety, and major television shows: The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve in 1998.
• The band performed in a segment on Sesame Street in 2001, playing "Put a Lid on It" in a lounge while teasing Fat Blue.
• The band had recorded a version of "Under The Sea" which was going to be included on the DVD release of The Little Mermaid, but Disney decided against it. Disney had purchased Mammoth Records just months prior to this recording. The song was eventually released on the band's greatest hits CD.
• Maxwell's song "Put A Lid On It" was in a 1999 Intel Super Bowl commercial and features prominently in the musical Contact. Although many criticized the show for its lack of original music, it was also widely acclaimed and won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Musical.
• The song "Hell" is central to the pilot episode of the Showtime series Dead Like Me, and was the main title of the A&E series Family Plots.
• Movies have licensed the Zippers' catalog extensively, including Dead Man on Campus, Flirting with Disaster, Blast from the Past and most recently the animated feature film Happily N'Ever After licensed the Bedlam Ballroom song "Baby Wants a Diamond Ring". "Hell" is the main title for the Lifetime series Lovespring, International.

This article is about the Irish rock band. ... This article is about the band Aerosmith. ... This article is about the musician. ... The Summer Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event held every four years, organised by the International Olympic Committee. ... A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. ... Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel in the United States. ... Viva Variety was a short-lived show on Comedy Central mocking variety shows. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Late Night with David Letterman was a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. ... Conan Christopher OBrien (born April 18, 1963)[1] is an Emmy-winning American comedian, writer and television personality best known as host of NBCs late-night talk/variety show Late Night with Conan OBrien. ... Sesame Street is an American educational childrens television series for preschoolers and is a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both education and entertainment. ... Fat Blue (left) with Grover, in A Celebration of Me, Grover Fat Blue on Sesame Street Fat Blue is a character in the childrens television show Sesame Street. ... Under the Sea is the Sixth volume of Disney Sing Along Songs with songs from the movie of 2 oscars The Little Mermaid The Songs include: Under the Sea (The Little Mermaid) By the Beautiful Sea (Disney Scenes) Never Smile at a Crocodile (Peter Pan) Thats what makes the... For the 1989 Disney animated film, see The Little Mermaid (1989 film). ... Disney may refer to: The Walt Disney Company and its divisions, including Walt Disney Pictures. ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... The winning Super Bowl team receives the Vince Lombardi Trophy. ... Contact: The Musical is a musical that was developed by Susan Stroman and John Weidman. ... What is popularly called the Tony Award (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theater, including musical theater, primarily honoring productions on Broadway in New York. ... This article is about the pay TV channel. ... Dead Like Me is an American television comedy-drama starring Ellen Muth and Mandy Patinkin as grim reapers in Seattle, Washington. ... Biography is one of A&Es longest-running and most popular programs. ... Family Plots is a reality television show that follows the ongoing events and the sometimes eccentric employees that work at the family-run Poway Bernardo Mortuary in Poway, California. ... Dead Man on Campus is a 1998 comedy starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Tom Everett Scott. ... Flirting with Disaster is a 1996 American comedy film written and directed by David O. Russell about a young fathers search for his biological parents. ... Blast from the Past is a 1999 romantic comedy film starring Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Sissy Spacek, Christopher Walken, and Dave Foley. ... Happily NEver After is a 2007 computer-animated film based on the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

Hiatus

The band never broke up, but they took an indefinite hiatus from recording and touring in 2001. In June 2002, Maxwell and Mosher arbitrated against their partners for allegedly entering into a management agreement without their knowledge or consent, and for withholding a share of royalties after their departure. They settled out of court.

Most members have continued their musical careers while the Zippers were on hiatus.

• Tom Maxwell released Samsara in early 2000, and briefly toured with his band The Minor Drag (including Robert Sledge on bass) and Chris Phillips, on loan from the Squirrel Nut Zippers, on drums. [1]
• Ken Mosher became a bass player in a Pittsboro, North Carolina band called the b-sides and worked as a producer.
• Katharine Whalen has released two solo albums.[2]
• Jim Mathus toured with Buddy Guy before re-forming his old band Knockdown Society.[3]
• Maxwell & Mosher released a rock record called Brother Seeker [4] and occasionally toured as Maxwell/Mosher, performing the songs they wrote for the Zippers. Their eponymous record is a continuation of the Zippers' musical blue print, though lacks any of the sales that the band was able to achieve.[5] In August, 2006 they teamed up with Rickie Lee Jones to release the anti-GOP song "Have You Had Enough". [6]
• Don Raleigh has played with several bands, including The Rock Mechanics, The Loose Lunatics, and Jackie O. Pillbox.[7]
• Je Widenhouse and Reese Gray are recording and touring with Firecracker Jazz Band.[8]
• Chris Phillips plays with William Reid from the Jesus and Mary Chain and has recorded with Alejandro Escovedo and numerous others. His current band The Lamps features members of the Bangles and The Connells. He also is the composer for the Comedy Central television show "Lil' Bush".

For other uses, see Samsara (disambiguation). ... Robert Sledge was bassist for the rock group Ben Folds Five. ... George Buddy Guy (born July 30, 1936) is a five-time Grammy Award-winning American blues and rock guitarist and singer. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the modern United States Republican Party. ...

Reunion

In early 2007, the band's official website and MySpace blog announced new tour dates, with a lineup consisting of founder Jimbo Mathus (guitar, vocals), Katharine Whalen (vocals, banjo, percussion, ukelele), Chris Phillips (drums), Je Widenhouse (trumpet), Stuart Cole (bass), and Will Dawson (piano/guitar/saxophone). With the proclamation "Ladies and Gentlemen... They're Back", the band performed concert dates throughout the United States and Canada in spring and summer of 2007. The band's lineup was closer to the original lineup than through previous years, although several members of The Old Ceremony augmented the band during the series of concerts. The Old Ceremony is a Chapel Hill, North Carolina pop-noir musical group fronted by Django Haskins. ...

As a result of Maxwell's departure, the band doesn't play any of his songs on the current tour, with the occasional exception of "Hell."

After several years of legal problems and tensions between band members[9], the reunion was "surprisingly painless"[10] according to drummer Chris Phillips. The Zippers plan to record a new album after their summer tour, slated for a 2008 release.

Members

• James "Jimbo" Mathus — vocals, guitar, slide guitar, tenor banjo, trombone, piano
• Katharine Whalen - vocals, banjo, ukulele
• Stuart Cole — bass
• Chris Phillips — percussion, contraption kit, drums
• Je Widenhouse — trumpet, cornet
• Will Dawson

In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ... For other uses, see Guitar (disambiguation). ... Example of a bottleneck, with fingerpicks and resonator guitar. ... The banjo is a string instrument, derived from banjar, an African string instrument. ... The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... A short grand piano, with the lid up. ... For other uses, see Banjo (disambiguation) The banjo is a stringed instrument developed by enslaved Africans in the United States, adapted from several African instruments. ... The ukulele (Hawaiian: , IPA pronunciation: ; Anglicised pronunciation usually IPA: ), sometimes spelled ukelele (particularly in the UK) or uke, is a chordophone classified as a plucked lute; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four strings or four courses of strings. ... “Percussion” redirects here. ... For other kinds of drums, see drum (disambiguation). ... B♭ cornet The cornet is a brass instrument that visually resembles the trumpet. ...

Former members

• Ken Mosher — guitar, saxophone, vocals
• Tom Maxwell — vocals, guitar, saxophone, gong
• Don Raleigh — bass, gong
• Stacy Guess — trumpet
• David Wright — trombone
• Reese Grey — piano
• Tim Smith — alto saxophone
• Andrew Bird — violin (Honorary member)

The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored instrument of the woodwind family. ... A gong is one of a wide variety of metal percussion instruments. ... A sunburst-colored Precision Bass The electric bass guitar (or electric bass) is a bass stringed instrument played with the fingers (either by plucking, slapping, popping, or tapping) or using a pick. ... Trumpeter redirects here. ... The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Andrew Bird (born July 11, 1973) is an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. ... For the Anne Rice novel, see Violin (novel). ...

References in Popular Culture

• On a 2004 episode of The Drew Carey Show called "At Your Cervix", character Oswald wears a Squirrel Nut Zippers t-shirt.
• In The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, people at a party are dancing to a Squirrel Nut Zipper song.

The Drew Carey Show was a long-running American sitcom (set in Cleveland, Ohio) that aired on ABC from 1995 to 2004 and was known for its everyman characters and themes. ... The Time Travelers Wife (ISBN 0-15-602943-X) is a novel by Audrey Niffenegger. ...

Discography

Albums

• The Inevitable (1995)
• Hot (1996)
• Sold Out (1997)
• Roasted Right (EP, 1997)
• Perennial Favorites (1998)
• Christmas Caravan (1998)
• Bedlam Ballroom (2000)
• The Best of Squirrel Nut Zippers as Chronicled by Shorty Brown (2002)

The Inevitable is the debut album by the Squirrel Nut Zippers, released in 1995. ... Category: ... // St. ... Little Mother-in-Law (Whalen/Mathus) (You Are My) Radio (Whalen/Mathus) Anything But Love (Raleigh) Wash Jones (Mathus) Chris Phillips: Contraption Kit Katharine Whalen: Banjo, Ukelele, Lead Vocals John Kempannin: Violin Don Raleigh: String Bass James Mathus: Guitar, Slide Guitar, Lead Vocals Ken Mosher: Drums, Vocals Categories: | ... // Suits Are Picking up the Bill (Mathus) – 3:04 Low Down Man (Mathus) – 4:14 Ghost of Stephen Foster (Mathus) – 3:32 Pallin With Al (Maxwell) – 2:41 Fat Cat Keeps Getting Fatter (Mathus) – 2:47 Trou Macacq (Maxwell) – 3:17 My Drag (Mathus) – 3:27 Soon (Maxwell) – 3:02... Christmas Caravan is a Christmas album by jazz band Squirrel Nut Zippers. ... Bedlam Ballroom is an album by Squirrel Nut Zippers, released in 2000. ... The Best of Squirrel Nut Zippers as Chronicled by Shorty Brown is a 2002 compilation album by Squirrel Nut Zippers. ...

Singles

• Hell (1997)
• Suits Are Picking Up the Bill (1998)

References

• Milkowski, Bill (2001). Swing It: An Annotated History of Jive, Bob Nikard, ed., and Alison Hagge, ed., New York, New York: Billboard Books, 251-254. ISBN 0-8230-7671-7. 

San Francisco redirects here. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... This article is about the state. ...

External links

Band

• Squirrel Nut Zippers
• Squirrel Nut Zippers on MySpace

Band members

• James "Jimbo" Mathus
• Katharine Whalen
• Tom Maxwell
• Maxwell/Mosher
• Andrew Bird

Related

• News & Observer article—May 14, 2006
• Clay Walker, Squirrel Nut Zippers filmmaker
• Squirrel Nut Zippers fansite