Squirrel Nut Zippers

July 4 - July 11, 1 9 9 6
[Off the Record]

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**1/2 Squirrel Nut Zippers

HOT

(Mammoth)

After their 1995 debut, The Inevitable Squirrel Nut Zippers, this Chapel Hill sextet (since bolstered to a seven-piece) reconvened in New Orleans, the hot-jazz holy land they'd seen in photos but never visited. Working at the studio of famed producer Daniel Lanois over 10 days -- with few microphones and fewer retakes -- they recorded Hot, their second stab at capturing the imagination of a generation nostalgic for things they'd never experienced.

The group (who took their name from a chewy peanut candy) felt they had something to teach both the jazz world they aspired to and the indie-rock world they were refugees from. The Zips' mid-tempo trad-jazz moments ("Blue Angel," "It Ain't You") drag a bit, but you can put up with vocalist Katharine Whalen's imitation of Billie Holiday after drinking a glass of milk (not an insult) for a chance to dig into Hot's new bag of tricks. There you'll find the old-time calypso of "Hell" and a swing instrumental, "Memphis Exorcism." And lest we forget, there's some Charleston and lots of Dixieland and a dose of that old Cab Calloway strut left over from last time. It's a gimmick all right, but a happy one.

-- Roni Sarig

(Squirrel Nut Zippers play Mama Kin this Wednesday, July 10.)