The Cherry Poppin' Daddies are an American band established in
Eugene, OregonEugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
, in 1989. Formed by
Steve PerryStephen Henry Perry is an American musician, best known for being the lead singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he is the founding member.-Early life:...
(vocals) and
Dan SchmidDaniel Joseph Schmid is an American musician, known for his work as the bassist for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he is a co-founder, and the piano rock trio The Visible Men.-Career:...
(bass guitar), the band has experienced many membership changes over the years, with only Perry, Schmid and
Dana HeitmanDana Conrad Heitman is an American musician, known for his work as the trumpeter for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he has been a member since the band's inception.-Biography:...
(trumpet) currently remaining from the original line-up.
The Daddies' music is a mix of swing,
skaSka |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
and
rockRock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, characterized by a prominent
horn sectionIn music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...
, heavy guitars and Perry's sardonic, often morbid, lyricism. While the band's earliest releases were rooted predominantly in
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and
funkFunk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, their subsequent studio albums have since incorporated influences from many diverse genres of
popular musicPopular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
and
AmericanaAmericana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
into their sound, including
rockabillyRockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
,
glam rockGlam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
,
psychedeliaPsychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
,
rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
,
countryCountry music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
,
soulSoul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and
world musicWorld music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
.
In spite of years of extensive touring within the third wave ska scene, the Daddies ultimately broke into the musical mainstream with their 1997 swing-based compilation
Zoot Suit RiotZoot Suit Riot: The Swingin' Hits of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies is a compilation album by American ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on March 18, 1997 on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records....
. Released at the onset of the late 1990s
swing revivalThe Swing Revival was a late 1990s and early 2000s period of renewed popular interest in swing and jump blues music and dance from the 1930s and 1940s as exemplified by Louis Prima, often mixed with a more contemporary rock, rockabilly or ska sound, known also as neo-swing or retro...
, Zoot Suit Riot sold over two million copies in the United States while its
eponymous single"Zoot Suit Riot" is a song by American ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. It was written and composed by Steve Perry as a bonus track for the band's all-swing compilation album of the same name, and thus follows a musical style similar to 1940s jump swing."Zoot Suit Riot" is often cited as...
became a radio success, launching the Daddies to the forefront of the retro-swing genre, a perceived
pigeonholingPigeonholing is a term used to describe processes that attempt to classify disparate entities into a small number of categories ....
the band openly denounced in favor of their ska and punk influences. By the end of the decade, however, the Daddies' mainstream popularity declined with that of the swing revival's, and the resulting commercial failure of their ska-flavored follow-up
Soul CaddySoul Caddy is the fourth studio album, fifth chronologically, by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on October 3, 2000 by Mojo Records.-Album overview:...
led to an abrupt hiatus in 2000.
The Daddies officially regrouped in 2002 to resume touring, independently recording and releasing their fifth studio album
SusquehannaSusquehanna is the fifth studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records in February 2008, and later re-issued on Rock Ridge Music in September 2009....
in 2008 before signing to indie label
Rock Ridge MusicRock Ridge Music is an independent record label based in Newark, New Jersey. Some of the more recognized artists on the Rock Ridge roster include Reel Big Fish, Sister Hazel, Psychostick, Attack! Attack! UK, The Ike Reilly Assassination, and Ingram Hill....
the following year. Their most recent album,
Skaboy JFKSkaboy JFK: The Skankin' Hits of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies is a compilation album by American ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released in September 2009 on Rock Ridge Music....
, was released in September 2009.
Formation
Following his high school graduation in 1981,
Steve PerryStephen Henry Perry is an American musician, best known for being the lead singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he is the founding member.-Early life:...
left his hometown of
Apalachin, New YorkApalachin is a census-designated place within the Town of Owego in Tioga County, New York, United States. The population was 1,126 in the 2000 census. It is named after the Apalachin Creek. Apalachin means From where the messenger returned in the Lenape.Apalachin is in the southeast part of the...
, for
Eugene, OregonEugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
, to pursue track and field and a
chemistryChemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
degree at the
University of Oregon-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
. A
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
fan since adolescence, Perry became engrossed in the Northwest hardcore scene pioneered by the likes of the
WipersThe Wipers were a punk rock group formed in Portland, Oregon in 1977 by guitarist Greg Sage, drummer Sam Henry and bassist Dave Koupal. Wipers were one of the earliest American purveyors of the genre, and the group's tight song structure and use of heavy distortion has been hailed as extremely...
and
Poison IdeaPoison Idea was an American hardcore punk band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1980. The band originally dissolved in 1993, but has been playing intermittently since 1998.-Formation, 1980's and 90's:...
, where he eventually met and befriended musician and fellow University student
Dan SchmidDaniel Joseph Schmid is an American musician, known for his work as the bassist for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he is a co-founder, and the piano rock trio The Visible Men.-Career:...
. Sharing similar musical ambitions and a mutual disinterest in school, the pair agreed to drop out of college together and start a band, forming the punk trio The Jazz Greats in 1983, which evolved into a
Paisley UndergroundPaisley Underground is an early genre of alternative rock, based primarily in Los Angeles, California, which was at its most popular in the mid-1980s.- History :...
-styled
garage rockGarage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
group called Saint Huck, who lasted from 1984 to 1987.
As the rise of
grungeGrunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
began to phase punk and hardcore out of the Northwest underground by the late 1980s, Perry set out to start a band that stood in defiant contrast to the shoegazing attitude of
alternative rockAlternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
, showcasing high energy dance music and
ZappaFrank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
-esque theatricality in an attempt to create something that an audience would react to viscerally instead of passively. Recruiting a
horn sectionIn music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...
led by alto saxophonist
Brooks BrownBrooks Richard Brown is an American saxophonist, known for his work as a former member of the Eugene, Oregon band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he co-founded with Steve Perry and Dan Schmid.-Biography:...
, Perry and Schmid formed their latest band Mr. Wiggles - named after a
ParliamentParliament was a funk band most prominent during the 1970s. It and its sister act Funkadelic, both led by George Clinton, began the funk music culture of that decade.-History:...
song - in November 1988.
"My conception of punk", Perry told
The RocketThe Rocket was a free biweekly newspaper serving the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, published from 1979–2000. The newspaper's chief purpose was to document local music. This focus distinguished it from other area weeklies such as the Seattle Weekly and the Willamette Week, which...
, "was doing whatever the hell you wanted as long as it had vitality and wasn't overly stupid...something exploratory and experimental", citing influence from genre-bending bands such as
The ClashThe Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
and the
Meat PuppetsThe Meat Puppets are an American rock band formed in January 1980, in Phoenix, Arizona. The group's original lineup was Curt Kirkwood , his brother Cris Kirkwood , and Derrick Bostrom . The Kirkwood brothers met Bostrom while attending Brophy Prep High School in Phoenix...
. In their earliest incarnation, Mr. Wiggles played
funkFunk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
and Mod-inspired punk and
soul musicSoul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, though Perry's songwriting soon grew to draw heavily from a newfound interest in
jazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, swing and
rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, combining punk rock and jazz arrangements in what Perry described was an attempt to contemporize American roots music by infusing it with punk energy and using modernist, socially aware lyricism.
Early years (1989-1993)
By early 1989, the title of Mr. Wiggles had been renounced as the band switched to the intentionally risqué "Cherry Poppin' Daddies". Derived from a
jiveAfrican American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...
phrase the band had heard on a
race recordRace records were 78 rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans during the early 20th century, particularly during the 1920s and 1930s. They primarily contained race music, comprising a variety of African American musical genres including blues, jazz, and gospel music, though comedy...
, the name intended to reflect the group's jazz and blues influences as well as an edgy punk irreverence in the same vein as the
Butthole SurfersButthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...
, though the decision was ultimately made on impulse, as the members had run out of time to figure out a name to put on their posters and doubted their longevity past one or two shows. The band played their first show as the Cherry Poppin' Daddies at Eugene's
W.O.W. HallThe W.O.W. Hall is a performing arts venue in Eugene, Oregon, United States.It was formerly a Woodmen of the World lodge.The W.O.W. Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996....
on March 31, 1989.
Boasting a full horn section, a penchant for stage theatrics and encouraging their audiences to dance, the Daddies sought to prove themselves the antithesis to the then-current state of Northwest rock. As Perry spoke of the Daddies' ideology, "It was our way of saying 'screw you' [to alternative rock 'phoniness']"..."we wanted to have fun, outrageously have a good blast without even thinking about it". By the end of 1989, the Daddies had built a strong following within Oregon's
countercultureCounterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
, frequently selling out shows and gathering critical acclaim, earning praise from
Eugene WeeklyThe Eugene Weekly is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Eugene, Oregon. The paper, published every Thursday, has a circulation of 39,850. It publishes an annual "Best of Eugene" list, a restaurant guide , and special sections on festivals, music, wine, health, and travel....
as being the city's best band "by far".
The Daddies recorded their first
demoA demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
cassetteThe Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
4 From On High in July 1989, composed of four tracks of punk-swing and
funk rockFunk rock is a music genre that fuses funk and rock elements. Its earliest incarnation was heard in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s by acts such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience , Eric Burdon and War, Trapeze, Parliament-Funkadelic, Betty Davis and Mother's Finest. The 1990s were known for acts...
. The tape went on to sell over 1,000 copies in the Eugene and Portland areas, enabling the Daddies to self-produce their debut LP,
Ferociously Stoned- Personnel :Cherry Poppin' Daddies*M.C. Large Drink – vocals*John Fohl – guitar*Dan Schmid – bass*Brian West – drums*Chris Azorr – keyboards*Brooks Brown – alto saxophone*James Phillips – tenor saxophone*Dana Heitman – trumpet...
, the following year. Fusing punk rock and jazz horns with funk grooves, the album garnered the band comparisons to
Faith No MoreFaith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed originally as Faith No Man in 1981 by bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist Wade Worthington, vocalist Michael Morris and drummer Mike Bordin. A year later when Worthington was replaced by keyboardist Roddy Bottum, and Mike...
and the
Red Hot Chili PeppersRed Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
. Before it was even released, Ferociously Stoned became a regional best-seller, setting a record for advance sales in Eugene record stores and then remaining for over a year on
The RocketThe Rocket was a free biweekly newspaper serving the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, published from 1979–2000. The newspaper's chief purpose was to document local music. This focus distinguished it from other area weeklies such as the Seattle Weekly and the Willamette Week, which...
s Northwest Top Twenty list, helping expand the Daddies' touring reach to as far as Alaska and Los Angeles by 1992.
Eugene controversy
In addition to their unusual mix of musical styles, the Daddies became perhaps most notorious for their extravagant and often provocative stage shows. With the band donning a rotating array of flamboyant costumes, a typical Daddies performance would often feature
go-go dancersGo-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at a discotheque. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s when women at the Peppermint Lounge in New York City began to get up on tables and dance the twist...
, phallic stage scenery, prop-heavy
vaudevillianVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
skits and choreographed dance numbers. Perry — performing under the
mad scientistA mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
stage persona of "MC Large Drink" — would engage in absurdist
shock rockShock rock is an umbrella term for artists who combine rock music with elements of theatrical shock value in live performances.-History:Screamin' Jay Hawkins was arguably the first shock rocker...
antics such as mock
crucifixionCrucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
,
flag burningFlag desecration is a term applied to various acts that intentionally destroy, damage or mutilate a flag in public, most often a national flag. Often, such action is intended to make a political point against a country or its policies...
, property destruction and wearing
adult diaperAn adult diaper is a diaper made to be worn by a person with a body larger than that of an infant or toddler. Diapers become necessary for adults with various conditions, such as incontinence, mobility impairment, or dementia...
s filled with food. The most infamous element of the Daddies' early stage show, however, was the "Dildorado" (alternately "Dildozer"), a penis-shaped modified ride-on lawnmower that mimicked ejaculation by shooting salvos of colorful liquids from its tip.
Almost immediately, the Daddies emerged a controversial presence within Eugene's actively political atmosphere.
FeministFeminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
and
P.C.Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
groups condemned the band's performances as "pornographic", accusing their band name and sexually-charged lyricism as a promotion of
misogynyMisogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
and
sexual objectificationSexual objectification refers to the practice of regarding or treating another person merely as an instrument towards one's sexual pleasure, and a sex object is a person who is regarded simply as an object of sexual gratification or who is sexually attractive...
, claims which Perry boldly disputed, claiming that the controversial elements were misinterpreted satire. In what Eugene Weekly called "the most hotly discussed topic in the local music scene" and "the Eugene flash point for the growing national debate on censorship [and] free speech", the Daddies endured a storm of controversy which nearly ended their career. Vigilante protest groups habitually tore down or defaced the band's posters and led
boycottA boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
s against venues that would book the group or even newspapers which gave them a positive review. The Daddies' concerts regularly became sites of organized picketing and, on one occasion, a
bomb threatA bomb threat is generally defined as a threat, usually verbal or written, to detonate an explosive or incendiary device to cause property damage, death, or injuries, whether or not such a device actually exists...
. The band members themselves were frequent recipients of
hate mailHate mail is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient...
, threats and physical harassment: once, Perry claimed, an irate protester threw a cup of hot coffee in his face as he was walking down the street.
At first, the Daddies refused to change their name on the grounds of
artistic freedomArtistic freedom is the extent of freedom of an artist to produce art to his/her own insight. The extent can deviate to customs in a certain school of art, directives of the assigner, etc....
, but after venues refused to book them due to the negative publicity that naturally accompanied their shows — including a temporary ban from the W.O.W. Hall, where the Daddies had previously served as
house bandFor the British band that existed from 1984-2001, see The House BandA house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to...
— the group caved into community pressure, taking to performing under pseudonyms such as "The Daddies", "The Bad Daddies" and similar variations just within Eugene, retaining their full title while traveling abroad. As the Daddies advanced in their career and their live shows had tamed, the controversies surrounding them waned and the band returned to using their full name in their hometown, though some minor protests resurfaced during their mainstream success in the late 1990s.
National touring and independent success (1994-1996)
After numerous member changes including the departure of co-founder Brown and the addition of guitarist
Jason MossJason David Moss is an American musician, known for his work as the lead guitarist for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he was a member from 1992 to 2010.-Early life:...
, the Daddies had evolved into a full-time touring band by early 1994. Now traveling coast-to-coast, the band was playing upwards of 200 shows a year, earning spots at festivals such as
SXSWSouth by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...
in Austin, Texas and New York's
CMJ Music MarathonCMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival is put on by CMJ Network. CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival 2010 is scheduled for October 19–23 and will be headquartered at New York University and other downtown NYC venues.- History :...
. The Daddies eventually developed a steady following in the
San Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
, where they became a staple of the region's burgeoning third wave ska scene, acting as regular touring support for ska bands like
Skankin' PickleSkankin' Pickle was an American ska punk band formed in San Jose, California that was active from 1989 to 1996.-Biography:Skankin' Pickle first formed in December 1988, made up of students from Westmont High School and Los Gatos High School. The band played their first show on April 28, 1989,...
,
Let's Go BowlingLet's Go Bowling is an American third wave ska band hailing from Fresno, California. Since the band's inception in 1986, the band's traditional ska style, barbershop harmonies, wisely crafted instrumentals, and its frantic live performances, helped set the standard for dress and culture for West...
,
FishboneFishbone is a U.S. alternative rock band formed in 1979 in Los Angeles, California, which plays a fusion of ska, punk rock, funk, hard rock and soul. Critics have noted of the band: "Fishbone was one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late '80s...
and
The Mighty Mighty BosstonesThe Mighty Mighty Bosstones are an American ska punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1983. Since the band's inception, lead vocalist Dicky Barrett, bassist Joe Gittleman, tenor saxophonist Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton and dancer Ben Carr have remained constant members...
. In 1994, the group was awarded
SF WeeklySF Weekly is a free alternative weekly newspaper in San Francisco, California. The newspaper, distributed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area every Wednesday, is published by Village Voice Media, a 16-paper alt weekly newspaper chain that also includes the New York City Village Voice and the Los...
s title of "Best Unsigned Band".
While the mainstream's growing focus on punk and ska by the mid-1990s began presenting the Daddies with commercial opportunities - leading The Register-Guard to predict them as becoming the next Northwestern act "to go national" - the band chose to remain wholly independent during this time to allow themselves unlimited creative freedom, supposedly after several major contract offers (including a brief attachment to
Hollywood RecordsHollywood Records is an American record label owned by Disney Music Group, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company.-History:Hollywood Records was founded in 1989 by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner with the idea of expanding the music operations of the company and to develop and promote...
) had been withdrawn due to the Daddies' refusal to adhere to any one particular genre.
This experimental freedom was fully exercised on the Daddies' second album,
Rapid City Muscle CarRapid City Muscle Car is the second studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released in 1994 on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records.-Overview:...
. Self-produced and self-recorded, Rapid City Muscle Car was the band's attempt at creating an eclectic
concept albumIn music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
wherein each track was composed in a different musical style yet were all thematically united through interconnected lyricism, utilizing funk, ska, punk, swing,
psychedelic rockPsychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
,
countryCountry music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
,
rockabillyRockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
,
big bandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
,
heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
,
hard rockHard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
and
loungeLounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
. Released on the band's self-owned label Space Age Bachelor Pad Records in December 1994, the album sold decently, though failed to match the success of Ferociously Stoned.
Throughout the mid-1990s, the Daddies toured constantly, carrying out six cross-country tours in 1996 alone following the release of their third independent album,
Kids on the StreetKids on the Street is the third studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released in 1996 on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records.-Overview:...
. A remarkable departure from their previous work, Kids on the Street was primarily a showcase of the ska influences which had gradually become a major part of the Daddies' live sound, forgoing the usual brassy funk and swing-based eclecticism in favor of guitar-driven ska, rock and punk. Distributed by noted indie label
Caroline RecordsCaroline Records started out as a subsidiary of Richard Branson's Virgin Records label during the early to mid 1970s. The label originally specialized in putting out budget price LPs by mainly progressive rock and jazz artists generally not considered to have a great deal of 'mainstream' or...
, Kids on the Street wound up becoming the Daddies' then-most successful release, remaining on
The RocketThe Rocket was a free biweekly newspaper serving the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, published from 1979–2000. The newspaper's chief purpose was to document local music. This focus distinguished it from other area weeklies such as the Seattle Weekly and the Willamette Week, which...
s Retail Sales Top Twenty for over seven months and eventually working its way onto
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s Alternative Charts.
Zoot Suit Riot and major label years (1997–1999)
With the breakthrough of third wave ska into the American mainstream by late 1996, the Daddies seemed poised for commercial success. Though almost exclusively playing ska bills at the time, the band began to attract a larger audience for their swing material when the coincident radio success of
Royal Crown RevueThe Royal Crown Revue is a band formed in 1989 in Los Angeles, California. They are often credited with starting the Swing Revival movement. Live, RCR has been extremely successful: They participated in 1998's Vans Warped Tour, opened for the B-52s and The Pretenders and played at major US Jazz...
and the
Squirrel Nut ZippersThe Squirrel Nut Zippers are a band formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina by James "Jimbo" Mathus , Katharine Whalen , Chris Phillips on drums, Don Raleigh on bass and sideman Ken Mosher....
started drawing media attention towards the formerly underground
swing revivalThe Swing Revival was a late 1990s and early 2000s period of renewed popular interest in swing and jump blues music and dance from the 1930s and 1940s as exemplified by Louis Prima, often mixed with a more contemporary rock, rockabilly or ska sound, known also as neo-swing or retro...
movement. Once concert attendees would regularly approach the Daddies' merchandise table to ask which of their albums had the most swing songs, the band's manager convinced the group to compile all of their swing music onto one CD until they could afford to record a new album, using their available money to record several bonus tracks for inclusion. The result,
Zoot Suit Riot: The Swingin' Hits of the Cherry Poppin' DaddiesZoot Suit Riot: The Swingin' Hits of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies is a compilation album by American ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on March 18, 1997 on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records....
, became an unexpectedly hot item as the band went on tour, reportedly selling as many as 4,000 copies a week through their Northwest distributors.
Despite the promising success of Zoot Suit Riot, this period proved to be the most difficult of the Daddies' career. Consistently performing to little media recognition, full-time touring was becoming both a personal and financial strain, leading to frequent quitting among band members. The Daddies experienced at least fifteen line-up changes from 1996 to 1997, including the departure of original keyboardist Chris Azorr and co-founder Schmid, leaving only Perry and trumpeter
Dana HeitmanDana Conrad Heitman is an American musician, known for his work as the trumpeter for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he has been a member since the band's inception.-Biography:...
as the sole remnants of the original line-up. With no label backing them, the band had trouble securing distribution and press outside of the Northwest, oftentimes being unable to get their CDs sold in cities they were touring to. Feeling they had finally hit a glass ceiling as an independent band, Perry said the Daddies were ultimately left with one of two options at this time: either sign to a label or break up.
In the midst of a national tour together, ska band
Reel Big FishReel Big Fish is an American ska punk band from Huntington Beach, California, best known for the 1997 hit "Sell Out". The band gained mainstream recognition in the mid-to-late 1990s, during the third wave of ska with the release of the gold certified album Turn the Radio Off. Soon after, the band...
helped arrange a meeting between their label
Mojo RecordsMojo Records was a California-based record label founded in 1995 by producer Jay Rifkin. It became a joint venture with Universal Music Group in 1996 and then sold to the Zomba Group in 2001, who placed it under their subsidiary Jive Records...
and the Daddies in the hopes of obtaining the band a
distribution dealA distribution deal is a legal agreement between one party and another, to handle distribution of a product....
, negotiations of which instead led to Mojo signing the Daddies to a full
recording contractA recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
. Zoot Suit Riot was licensed and reissued by Mojo and given national distribution in July 1997, less than four months after its original release.
Mainstream breakthrough
By October 1997, steady sales of Zoot Suit Riot and the rising popularity of swing led Mojo to release one of the album's bonus tracks, "
Zoot Suit Riot"Zoot Suit Riot" is a song by American ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. It was written and composed by Steve Perry as a bonus track for the band's all-swing compilation album of the same name, and thus follows a musical style similar to 1940s jump swing."Zoot Suit Riot" is often cited as...
", as a single and distribute it among
modern rockModern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...
radio stations. The Daddies, believing that a swing song would never receive airplay on mainstream radio, ardently protested this move, concerned the band would end up having to recoup the marketing costs. Mojo persisted, and to the band's surprise, "Zoot Suit Riot" soon found regular rotation on stations such as Los Angeles'
KROQ-FMKROQ-FM — branded 106.7 KROQ — is a commercial modern rock radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles. The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of Loveline hosted by Dr...
, helping to establish the genre in the mainstream and leading to its eventual commercial breakthrough the following year, with the Daddies at the forefront. By mid-1998, the Daddies had emerged as one of the most successful bands of the swing revival: after climbing to number one on Billboards
Top HeatseekersTop Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...
, Zoot Suit Riot became the first neo-swing album to crack the Top 40 on the
Billboard 200The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, peaking at number 17 and spending an ultimate total of 53 weeks on the charts. In June 1998, the album had sold 500,000 copies, going on to surpass sales of 1.4 million by August.
For the remainder of 1998 and into 1999, the Daddies were touring non-stop, playing over 300 shows a year and traveling internationally as one of the headliners on the 1998
Warped TourThe Warped Tour is a touring music and extreme sports festival. The tour is held in venues such as parking lots or fields upon which the stages and other structures are erected. The BMX/skateboarding shoe manufacturer Vans, among others, has sponsored the tour every year since 1995, and it is...
beside
RancidRancid is an American punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991. Founded by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, both of whom previously played in the ska punk band Operation Ivy, Rancid is credited—along with Green Day and The Offspring—for reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the...
,
NOFXNOFX is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California .The band was formed in 1983 by vocalist/bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Eric Melvin. Drummer Erik Sandin joined NOFX shortly after. In 1991 El Hefe joined to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the current line-up...
and
Bad ReligionBad Religion is a punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1979. Their current line-up consists of Greg Graffin , Brett Gurewitz , Jay Bentley , Greg Hetson , Brian Baker and Brooks Wackerman . Gurewitz is also the founder of the label Epitaph Records, which has released almost all of the...
. By this time, the group's touring conditions had greatly improved, thus enticing Dan Schmid – who had originally left the band due to health concerns – to return as the Daddies' bassist.
Although the Daddies were experiencing commercial success under the guise of swing revivalists, having been declared the "leaders" of the movement by Rolling Stone, the band openly contested being labeled a
retroRetro is a culturally outdated or aged style, trend, mode, or fashion, from the overall postmodern past, that has since that time become functionally or superficially the norm once again. The use of "retro" style iconography and imagery interjected into post-modern art, advertising, mass media, etc...
act at the exclusion of their dominant ska and punk influences, and adamantly tried to disassociate themselves from the swing scene and in particular its
nostalgiaThe term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
-based mentality. While still vocal supporters of both the movement and its bands, Perry explained to
SpinSpin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
in July 1998, "it's not our mission to be a swing band. I'm not a guy from the '40s. That's why we play ska and use heavy guitars", noting elsewhere "I can't fully take us out of the retro classification, but we harp on the fact that we're contemporary music". Thus, the Daddies avoided touring with swing bands, selecting
OzomatliOzomatli is a seven to ten piece band playing primarily Latin, hip hop, and rock music, formed in 1995 in Los Angeles. They are known both for their vocal activist viewpoints and their wide array of musical styles - including salsa, jazz, funk, reggae, rap, and others.In a 2007 NPR interview, band...
and
The PietastersThe Pietasters are a seven-piece ska/soul band hailing from Washington, D.C., with additional members from Maryland and Virginia.- History :In 1990, a group of friends were attending college at Virginia Tech in the mountains of Virginia...
as support on their first headlining US tour, and opening for
Los Fabulosos CadillacsLos Fabulosos Cadillacs is an Argentine ska band from Buenos Aires. Formed in 1985, they released their first album, Bares y Fondas in 1986...
on their 1998 North American run. At one point, the Daddies attempted to arrange a tour with
PrimusPrimus is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde and drummer Jay Lane. Primus originally formed in 1984 with Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth, later joined by Lane, though the latter two departed...
which never materialized; said Perry, "I know there are people who come to our shows who'd like nothing more than for us to play swing 24/7...there are plenty of bands who want to be swing bands and swing bands only. We're trying to find the audience who'll let us write songs and just be who we are".
During the height of the Daddies' popularity, Perry found the band's mainstream notoriety was having an alienating effect on his personal life. "There was a period of time when my relationships, even with my friends, changed due to 'success', and random people wished me ill. I found that depressing". He said in a 2000 interview, "It's a total cliché, but [fame] doesn't make you happy. There's a lot missing. Success has given people the right to yell at me on the street, but I don't really feel like it's given me any dignity". Perry's frustration was only exacerbated by the media's continued pigeonholing of the Daddies as a retro act, though he later claimed to have felt pressured to maintain the image due to audience and media expectations. When the band began to face criticisms and accusations of
selling out"Selling out" is the compromising of integrity, morality, or principles in exchange for money or "success" . It is commonly associated with attempts to tailor material to a mainstream audience...
from their Northwest fanbase, the Daddies fought to further push themselves away from their mainstream typecasting: in a 1999 interview, responding to their place in the swing scene, Perry retorted "[we'll] unapologetically play ska right in the face of people who want to hear swing".
Zoot Suit Riot had sold over two million copies in the United States by the time the swing revival's mainstream popularity had declined, finally falling off the charts in January 2000. With their touring schedule coming to a close, the Daddies began work on their next studio album.
Soul Caddy (2000)
In the fall of 1999, the Daddies returned to the studio to record their fourth album,
Soul CaddySoul Caddy is the fourth studio album, fifth chronologically, by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on October 3, 2000 by Mojo Records.-Album overview:...
. A loose concept album reflecting Perry's disillusionment over the cultural zeitgeist and his experience with fame (as he described it, a "bittersweet" record about "being alienated and hoping to connect"), Soul Caddy marked a continuation of the band's musically varied format, intended to introduce the Daddies' true sound and personality to both their swing-based fans and a wider audience. Drawing from the rock and pop of the 1960s and 1970s, Soul Caddy interweaved swing and ska with
glam rockGlam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
,
soulSoul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
,
psychedeliaPsychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
,
folkFolk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
,
Mod revivalThe mod revival was a music genre and subculture that started in England in 1978 and later spread to other countries . The mod revival's mainstream popularity was relatively short, although its influence has lasted for decades...
, funk and punk.
Despite allowing the Daddies creative control over Soul Caddys production, Mojo's response to the album was marginal. Claiming that the new material was not like "the Cherry Poppin' Daddies people know and love", the label did little to promote either the album or its glam-styled single, "
Diamond Light Boogie"Diamond Light Boogie" is a song by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies on their 2000 album Soul Caddy. It was the first and only single released off Soul Caddy and the Daddies' fourth and final single to be released by Mojo Records....
", at one point releasing the latter without the band's name on it, allegedly due to hesitancy over marketing a rock single from a band primarily known as swing. With virtually no promotion, Soul Caddy was quietly released on October 3, 2000.
Met by an audience largely unaware of the Daddies' eclectic background, Soul Caddy was received negatively by both fans and critics, one of the more prevalent criticisms being its lack of swing tracks. Many reviewers chastised the band for what was being seen as an abandonment of their swing "roots" in favor of a trendier sound, while some criticized the Daddies' entire musical aesthetic — UGO's Hip Online stated bluntly, "covering five or six genres on one album is just insane". The
Los Angeles Daily NewsThe Los Angeles Daily News is the second-largest circulating daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, a branch of Colorado-based MediaNews Group....
placed the album on their list of the 10 worst albums of 2000, the reviewer wondering what made a swing band "think it could get away with an album of recycled psychedelic pop".
Despite some moderate critical praise, including a glowing review from allmusic, who called the band's "impressively surprising" array of sounds "refreshing coming from a band who was assumed to be generic retro swing", Soul Caddy failed to achieve the chart success or commercial attention of its predecessor. After low ticket sales brought the Daddies' accompanying national tour to an early close, the band reached a mutual agreement upon taking an indefinite hiatus in December 2000.
Hiatus (2001-2006)
With nearly a decade of full-time band activity come to an end, the Daddies went their separate paths. After briefly relocating to
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, Perry returned to Eugene to form the
glam punkGlam Punk is a music genre that mixes elements of glam rock with protopunk or punk rock ....
band
White Hot OdysseyWhite Hot Odyssey is an American hard rock band formed in Eugene, Oregon in 2002 by Cherry Poppin' Daddies vocalist Steve Perry and guitarist Jason Moss, along with musicians Mark Rogers , Ed Cole and Jivan Valpey .-Biography:...
with Jason Moss, releasing an
albumWhite Hot Odyssey is the debut album by American hard rock band White Hot Odyssey, released on Mojo/Jive Records in 2004.-Track listing:All songs written and composed by Steve Perry.#"Good Head" – 3:49#"Permanent Juvenile" – 3:52...
on
Jive RecordsJive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African...
in 2004. During this time, Perry pursued an
undergraduate degreeAn undergraduate degree is a colloquial term for an academic degree taken by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. It is usually offered at an institution of higher education, such as a university...
at the University of Oregon, graduating in 2004 with a
B.S.A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
in
molecular biologyMolecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
. Dan Schmid and keyboardist
Dustin LankerDustin Ross Lanker is an American keyboardist, known for his work as a member of the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, a touring member of the ska punk band the Mad Caddies and as the singer-songwriter for the piano rock trio The Visible Men.-Career:A pianist since childhood, Lanker...
devoted themselves to their own project, the
piano rockPiano rock, sometimes referred to as piano pop, is a style of popular music that is based around the piano—and sometimes piano-related instruments such as keyboards–with piano typically replacing rhythm guitar as the rhythm instrument...
band
The Visible MenThe Visible Men are an American piano rock band formed in 1999, consisting of Dustin Lanker , Dan Schmid , Jordan Glenn and later Jimi Russel .-Biography:...
, recording two albums and touring extensively throughout the early and mid-2000s. Drummer
Tim Donahue-Career:Born in Oswego, New York, Donahue was raised in Oregon, where he began playing drums professionally in the early 1980s, serving in numerous bands including Lucy Crank, Road Kill, Flash Back, Zoo Gang, RMS McConnel, AKA and Intensity. In mid-1997, he joined Eugene band the Cherry Poppin'...
, after a stint with The Visible Men, played in Yngwie Malmsteen's band on his 2001 European tour and worked as a
session drummerSession musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
for artists including
TobyMacToby McKeehan , better known by his stage name TobyMac , is a Christian recording artist, music producer, hip-hop/pop artist, singer-songwriter, and author....
and
Shawn McDonald-Childhood:As a child, McDonald lived with his grandparents because his parents could not take care of him. Not really understanding the situation, he became rebellious. He would sneak out of the house, drink alcohol, get intoxicated, and later use drugs...
.
The Daddies officially regrouped in February 2002 to play a sporadic series of music festivals in the Northwest, though announced no future plans for recording new material or carrying out another national tour. Now playing as few as ten shows a year, the band's performances became limited entirely to hometown shows and commissions for one-off "swingin' hits" concerts at various fairs and festivals across the United States.
Susquehanna and return to independent label (2006–2009)
Following several years of relative inactivity, Perry spontaneously began writing new Daddies material in early 2006, claiming to have come to the realization of a cathartic reliance on songwriting. In an April 2006 radio interview, he confirmed that the band was in preparation over recording a new studio album, noting that the music would cover new territory for the Daddies, drawing mostly on
tropicalMusica tropical or tropical music is a broad term for vocal and instrumental music with "tropical" flavor usually associated with the Afro-Caribbean music. It is part of an even broader category of Latin music. Usually it is an upbeat dance music, but also includes ballads. It features complex,...
themes. This was followed shortly thereafter by the band's first US tour since 2000, where much of this new material was debuted.
Independently recorded in Eugene during the summer of 2007, the Daddies' fifth album,
SusquehannaSusquehanna is the fifth studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records in February 2008, and later re-issued on Rock Ridge Music in September 2009....
, was released via digital download exclusively through the band's website in February 2008, receiving a limited CD release several months later. Taking the shape of a narrative concept album which Perry detailed as a portrait of "various relationships in decay", Susquehanna featured prominent strains of
LatinLatin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...
and
CaribbeanThe music of the Caribbean is a diverse grouping of musical genres. They are each syntheses of African, European, Indian and native influences, largely created by descendants of African slaves...
-influenced music, incorporating flourishes of
flamencoFlamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
, Latin rock and
reggaeReggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
into the band's traditional mix of rock, ska and swing. Though its low-profile
DIYThe DIY ethic refers to the ethic of self-sufficiency through completing tasks oneself as opposed to having others who are more experienced or able complete them for one's behalf. It promotes the idea that an ordinary person can learn to do more than he or she thought was possible...
release went mostly unnoticed by the mainstream media, response from internet-based publications ranged from mixed to positive, with reviewers once again polarized over the album's eclectic blend of genres. In support of Susquehanna, the Daddies embarked on another full-length tour in mid-2008, followed by a headline tour of Europe, their first visit to the continent since 1998.
In July 2009, the Daddies announced having signed to independent label
Rock Ridge MusicRock Ridge Music is an independent record label based in Newark, New Jersey. Some of the more recognized artists on the Rock Ridge roster include Reel Big Fish, Sister Hazel, Psychostick, Attack! Attack! UK, The Ike Reilly Assassination, and Ingram Hill....
for the release and national distribution of two albums, a re-issue of Susquehanna and
Skaboy JFK: The Skankin' Hits of the Cherry Poppin' DaddiesSkaboy JFK: The Skankin' Hits of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies is a compilation album by American ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released in September 2009 on Rock Ridge Music....
, a compilation of the band's ska material. Perry explained that fans had been suggesting the concept of a ska collection for years, and that such an album might help show a different side of the Daddies than the swing persona they're generally recognized for. Skaboy JFK was released in September 2009 to a mostly positive critical reception.
Goldmine magazineGoldmine, established in 1974, is an American magazine that focuses on the collectors' market for records, tapes, CDs, and music-related memorabilia. Each issue features news articles, interviews, discographies, histories, current reviews on recording stars of the past and present. Discographies...
, in praising the "irresistible" ska grooves, enthusiastically cited the album - along with Susquehanna - as a strong re-establishment of the Daddies as "an ongoing (and worthwhile) entity".
New album and future (2010-present)
The Daddies are currently carrying out a series of select tour dates in support of Skaboy JFK for the remainder of 2010 and into 2011, which included further tours of Europe, Australia and a headline performance alongside
FishboneFishbone is a U.S. alternative rock band formed in 1979 in Los Angeles, California, which plays a fusion of ska, punk rock, funk, hard rock and soul. Critics have noted of the band: "Fishbone was one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late '80s...
at the 11th annual
Victoria Ska FestThe Victoria Ska Fest is a music festival that takes place every summer in Victoria British Columbia, Canada. The festival is organized and executed by the Victoria BC Ska Society and an army of volunteers...
in
British ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. Perry first announced plans for a new Daddies album during these tours, further detailing the project in a February 2011 interview, mentioning the band would be returning to a stronger swing-oriented sound, as well as an exploration into
psychobillyPsychobilly is a fusion genre of rock music that mixes elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and other genres. It is one of several subgenres of rockabilly which also include thrashabilly, trashabilly, punkabilly, surfabilly and gothabilly...
and harder-edged
rockabillyRockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
. According to Perry, recording is expected to last through the summer, with a tentative release date at the end of the year.
Musical style and influences
While the Daddies are generally labeled as swing and/or
skaSka |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
, critics have conceived terms such as "punk swing", "power swing" and "
big bandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
punk rock" to describe the band's unique approach, mixing "the propulsion of swing beats and rabbit-punch bursts of brass with grimy rebel-rock guitars to give the jumpin' jive sound a much-needed facelift".
The Pacific Northwest InlanderThe Pacific Northwest Inlander is a free weekly newspaper published in Spokane, Washington and circulated throughout the Inland Northwest, covering local news and culture. It is published in print and online every Thursday. A member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, it was founded in...
wrote of this style, "atop the swing of the band's jazz you can hear strains of
Parliament-FunkadelicParliament-Funkadelic is a funk, soul and rock music collective headed by George Clinton. Their style has been dubbed P-Funk. Collectively the group has existed under various names since the 1960s and has been known for top-notch musicianship, politically charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums...
, crumbs of barrelhouse
rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, snippets of ska, and huge whiffs of in-your-face punk rock", likening the Daddies to "
Cab CallowayCabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
-meets-
Johnny RottenJohn Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...
, or the
Duke Ellington OrchestraEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
pumped up on steroids and caffeine".
The Daddies themselves often classified their music as "swing-core", exemplified by the fast
tempoIn musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
s and frequent use of guitar distortion in their swing material. In recent years, however, Perry has described the Daddies as simply "a rock band with horns", comparing their style of musical eclecticism with that of
FishboneFishbone is a U.S. alternative rock band formed in 1979 in Los Angeles, California, which plays a fusion of ska, punk rock, funk, hard rock and soul. Critics have noted of the band: "Fishbone was one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late '80s...
,
Mink DeVilleMink DeVille was a rock band known for its association with early punk rock bands at New York’s CBGB nightclub and for being a showcase for the music of Willy DeVille. The band recorded six albums in the years 1977 to 1985. Except for frontman Willy DeVille, the original members of the band played...
and
Oingo BoingoOingo Boingo was an American new wave band. They are best known for their influence on other musicians, their soundtrack contributions and their high energy Halloween concerts. The band was founded in 1972 as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, a performance art group...
. He has listed further influence from
The SpecialsThe Specials are an English 2 Tone ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry, England. Their music combines a "danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude", and had a "more focused and informed political and social stance" than other ska groups...
and
Roxy MusicRoxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
, as well as from
Fletcher HendersonJames Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...
,
Jimmie LuncefordJames Melvin "Jimmie" Lunceford was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era.-Biography:...
and Duke Ellington on his composing and arrangements.
Each of the Daddies' studio albums feature a collective assortment of varied and often diametrically opposed genres of music alongside the constants of swing, ska and, on earlier recordings, funk. Some of the genres the band has experimented with include blues,
countryCountry music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
,
discoDisco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
,
DixielandDixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
,
flamencoFlamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
,
folkFolk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
,
glam rockGlam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
,
hard rockHard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
,
hardcore punkHardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
,
heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
,
jump bluesJump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...
,
loungeLounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
,
psychedelic popPsychedelic pop is a psychedelic musical style inspired by the sounds of psychedelic folk and psychedelic rock, but applied to a pop music setting...
,
rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
,
reggaeReggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
,
rockabillyRockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
,
socaSoca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....
,
soulSoul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and
western swingWestern swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
. As opposed to playing
fusionsA fusion genre is music that combines two or more styles. For example, rock and roll originally developed as a fusion of blues, gospel and country music. The main characteristics of fusion genres are variations in tempo, rhythm, i a sometimes the use of long musical "journeys" that can be divided...
, the Daddies perform each genre separately, contrasting one style against another so that the album's musical texture may continually change. Perry has explained that the group's "detournement" of using vastly different genres is both a means for band experimentation and evolution beyond their typically swing and ska-oriented live shows, as well as an artistic choice, lending each song a distinctive musical personality and using certain genres to effectively fit (or ironically contradict) the tone of the lyrics.
Lyrical
Steve Perry is the Daddies' sole lyricist, and writes the majority of his songs in a fictional
narrativeA narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
format he credits as being influenced by
Randy NewmanRandall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
and
Ray DaviesRay Davies, CBE is an English rock musician. He is best known as lead singer and songwriter for the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave...
, often told about or through the
unreliable perspectiveAn unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. This narrative mode is one that can be developed by an author for a number of reasons, usually...
of downtrodden characters struggling against adversity.
AlcoholismAlcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
,
mortalityDeath is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
, sex,
class struggleClass struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
and family dysfunction are recurring themes in his lyrics, often dealt with
satiricallySatire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
.
The Register-GuardThe Register-Guard is a daily newspaper published in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the Eugene Daily Guard and the Morning Register. The paper serves the Eugene-Springfield area, as well as the Oregon Coast, Umpqua River Valley, and surrounding...
has described Perry's lyrics as "ribald [and] often despairing", "[probing] the underbelly of society, stabbing at oppressors such as...the pressure to conform". While the Daddies have been criticized for juxtaposing lurid subject matter and
profanityProfanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
with jazz and swing music,
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
has lauded Perry's lyricism as "vivid poetry" containing "an inventiveness missing from the other swing bands' lyrics".
All of the Daddies' studio albums are written to varying extents as
concept albumIn music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
s, featuring recurring lyrical themes or a progressive narrative as means of providing threads of thematic stability despite wildly varying musical styles.
Reception and influence
In their native Oregon, the Daddies have been called "a Northwest institution", having been inducted into the
Oregon Music Hall of FameThe Oregon Music Hall of Fame is an award honoring musicians from the U.S. state of Oregon. The first induction ceremony took place on October 13, 2007.-History:...
in 2009.
The Register-GuardThe Register-Guard is a daily newspaper published in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the Eugene Daily Guard and the Morning Register. The paper serves the Eugene-Springfield area, as well as the Oregon Coast, Umpqua River Valley, and surrounding...
has credited the band with shaping Eugene's musical culture in the 1990s, dubbing the scene "the house that the Daddies built", while
Eugene WeeklyThe Eugene Weekly is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Eugene, Oregon. The paper, published every Thursday, has a circulation of 39,850. It publishes an annual "Best of Eugene" list, a restaurant guide , and special sections on festivals, music, wine, health, and travel....
added likewise, "when some people think of the Northwest music scene, they think of
grungeGrunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
. If you’re a Eugenean, however, you might think of swing, thanks to [the] Cherry Poppin' Daddies". Seattle's
The RocketThe Rocket was a free biweekly newspaper serving the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, published from 1979–2000. The newspaper's chief purpose was to document local music. This focus distinguished it from other area weeklies such as the Seattle Weekly and the Willamette Week, which...
commented on the band's influence in 1997, stating "[t]he Daddies were busting out the swing before the Squirrel Nut Zippers, stirring cocktails before
Combustible EdisonCombustible Edison was a group founded in the early 1990s in Providence, Rhode Island, and was one of several lounge music acts that led a brief resurgence of interest in the genre during the mid-1990s...
and skating the ska before
SublimeSublime was an American ska punk band from Long Beach, California, formed in 1988. The band's line-up, unchanged until their breakup, consisted of Bradley Nowell , Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh . Michael "Miguel" Happoldt also contributed on a few Sublime songs, such as "New Thrash." Lou Dog, Nowell's...
...the band shakes out an incredible variety of sounds with peerless verve and polish."
The band has also drawn a fair amount of criticism.
The Portland MercuryThe Portland Mercury is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Portland, Oregon. It serves to chronicle the ever-changing Portland music scene, and generally includes interviews, commentaries, reviews, and concert dates...
have been frequent detractors of the Daddies, deriding them as "at best, an edgeless recycle of a rather particular musical fashion movement; at worst, a self-conscious parody of the genre they purport to love", while the
Willamette WeekWillamette Week is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Portland, Oregon, United States. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business and culture....
once dismissed them as "an annoying white-boy funk rock band who, seeing the opportunity, milked the swing revival for all it was worth".
The Daddies are more widely recognized, however, as one of the first bands to bring swing music into the musical mainstream, helping spearhead the
swing revivalThe Swing Revival was a late 1990s and early 2000s period of renewed popular interest in swing and jump blues music and dance from the 1930s and 1940s as exemplified by Louis Prima, often mixed with a more contemporary rock, rockabilly or ska sound, known also as neo-swing or retro...
of the late 1990s which paved the way for the larger successes of
Big Bad Voodoo DaddyBig Bad Voodoo Daddy is a contemporary swing revival band from southern California. Their notable singles include "Go Daddy-O", "You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight ", and "Mr. Pinstripe Suit". The band played the Super Bowl XXXIII half-time show in 1999.The band was originally formed in Ventura,...
and the Brian Setzer Orchestra. Although the Daddies have also been cited as an influence on
ska punkSka punk is a fusion music genre that combines ska and punk rock. It achieved its highest level of commercial success in the United States in the late 1990s. Ska-core is a subgenre of ska punk, blending ska with hardcore punk.The characteristics of ska punk vary, due to the fusion of contrasting...
fusion band the
Mad CaddiesThe Mad Caddies are a third wave ska band from Solvang, California. The band formed in 1995 and has released five full-length albums, one live album, and two EPs...
,
SF WeeklySF Weekly is a free alternative weekly newspaper in San Francisco, California. The newspaper, distributed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area every Wednesday, is published by Village Voice Media, a 16-paper alt weekly newspaper chain that also includes the New York City Village Voice and the Los...
claims the band has "never gotten the accolades it deserves" for their eclectic funk-ska repertoire. The
Phoenix New TimesThe Phoenix New Times is a free, weekly Phoenix, Arizona newspaper, put out every Thursday. It is the founding publication of the New Times Media , but The Village Voice is now the flagship publication of that company....
expressed similar sentiments, listing the "woefully unsung" Daddies as among the bands that defined the Northwest's "alternative to
alternativeAlternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
", "[delivering] rock with more complexity than three-chord guitar riffs and social critique without heavy-handed cynicism". In a 2008 editorial, a
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
editor, reviewing the band's punk history, declared the Daddies "one of the most misunderstood bands of the nineties".
Discography
Studio albums
- Ferociously Stoned
- Personnel :Cherry Poppin' Daddies*M.C. Large Drink – vocals*John Fohl – guitar*Dan Schmid – bass*Brian West – drums*Chris Azorr – keyboards*Brooks Brown – alto saxophone*James Phillips – tenor saxophone*Dana Heitman – trumpet...
(1990)
- Rapid City Muscle Car
Rapid City Muscle Car is the second studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released in 1994 on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records.-Overview:...
(1994)
- Kids on the Street
Kids on the Street is the third studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released in 1996 on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records.-Overview:...
(1996)
- Soul Caddy
Soul Caddy is the fourth studio album, fifth chronologically, by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on October 3, 2000 by Mojo Records.-Album overview:...
(2000)
- Susquehanna
Susquehanna is the fifth studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records in February 2008, and later re-issued on Rock Ridge Music in September 2009....
(2008)
- Untitled sixth studio album (2011)
Compilations
Band members
Current members
- Steve Perry
Stephen Henry Perry is an American musician, best known for being the lead singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he is the founding member.-Early life:...
(MC Large Drink) – lead vocalsThe lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
(formation – present)
- Dan Schmid
Daniel Joseph Schmid is an American musician, known for his work as the bassist for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he is a co-founder, and the piano rock trio The Visible Men.-Career:...
(Dang Oulette) – bass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
(formation – 1996, 1998 – present)
- Dana Heitman
Dana Conrad Heitman is an American musician, known for his work as the trumpeter for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he has been a member since the band's inception.-Biography:...
– trumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
(formation – present)
- Dustin Lanker
Dustin Ross Lanker is an American keyboardist, known for his work as a member of the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, a touring member of the ska punk band the Mad Caddies and as the singer-songwriter for the piano rock trio The Visible Men.-Career:A pianist since childhood, Lanker...
– keyboardsA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, backing vocals (1997–1998, 2000 – present)
- Joe Manis – alto
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
and baritoneThe baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
saxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
s (2006 – present)
- Kevin Congleton – drums
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
(2008 – present)
- William Seiji Marsh – lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
(2010 – present)
- Willie Matheis - tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
(2010 – present)
Former members
- Chris Azorr – keyboards (1990–1997)
- Tim Arnold – drums (formation – 1990)
- Adrian P. Baxter – tenor saxophone (1993–1996)
- Brooks Brown
Brooks Richard Brown is an American saxophonist, known for his work as a former member of the Eugene, Oregon band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he co-founded with Steve Perry and Dan Schmid.-Biography:...
– alto saxophone (formation – 1994)
- Darren Cassidy – bass (1996–1998)
- Jesse Cloninger - tenor saxophone (2008–2010)
- Tim Donahue
-Career:Born in Oswego, New York, Donahue was raised in Oregon, where he began playing drums professionally in the early 1980s, serving in numerous bands including Lucy Crank, Road Kill, Flash Back, Zoo Gang, RMS McConnel, AKA and Intensity. In mid-1997, he joined Eugene band the Cherry Poppin'...
– drums (1997–2008)
- Ian Early – alto saxophone (1997–2006)
- Sean Flannery – tenor saxophone (1996–2008)
- John Fohl – guitar (1990–1992)
- Adam Glogauer
Adam Glogauer was born in Costa Mesa, California and is best known as the singer-songwriter of Forever Darling....
– drums (1996)
- Johnny Goetchius – keyboards (1999–2000)
- James Gossard – guitar (formation – 1990)
- Jason Moss
Jason David Moss is an American musician, known for his work as the lead guitarist for the ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he was a member from 1992 to 2010.-Early life:...
– guitar (1992–2010)
- Sean Oldham – drums (1996)
- Jason Palmer – drums (1996) (2009 - studio recordings)
- James Phillips – tenor saxophone (formation – 1992, 1996) (deceased, 1961 - 2011)
- Rex Trimm – alto saxophone (1996–1997)
- Hans Wagner – drums (1996–1997)
- Brian West – drums (1990–1996)
External links
- The Official Cherry Poppin' Daddies website
- Cherry Poppin' Daddies at Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- Cherry Poppin' Daddies at iLike
iLike is an online service that allows users to download and share music. The website makes use of a sidebar that is used with Apple's iTunes or Microsoft's Windows Media Player. The program and sidebar are not required in order to use the site but allow for ease in discovering new artists....