Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 53

i MUSKS 18 LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR FRIDAY, AUGUST 7. 1998 Getting in tie last year. That's when the Squirrel Nut Zippers put the song "Hell" into MTVs Buzz Bin and turned its quirky Tin Pan Alley-meets-Cab Calloway swing into a surprise hit The North Carolina band's new album, "Perennial Favorites," hit stores Tuesday (review on Page 20), It (. will be doing chart battle with "Zoot Suit Riot," the independently released album from Oregon's Cherry Poppin' Daddies, which has already sold more than a half -million copies. 1 Boyd, a swing purist, doesn't have much use for those :) groups.

He calls the Cherry Poppin' Daddies "a ska band trying to play swing" and criticizes their rock orientation. "I see other bands that have horns and call themselves swing. But.it's like a rock show people stand in front Henderson's of the stage all the way to the back, Boyd said. hen dance music, and swing youH see the real swing people desperately trying to i find a pocket to dance. bom.

That was certainly the case last month when Big Bad Duke Ellington supplied the music's SwiiiQ 2 Voodoo Daddy packed Omaha's Sokol Auditorium. Kids crammed the dance floor to stare at the performers while dancers were forced to the edges of the South 'Omaha polka i name with his song "It Don't Mead a Thing i (If It Ain't Got That Swing) In 1935, Benny Goodman and his great band, which included Count Basie, Young and Gene Krupa, turned swing into new Stork Qub'during Indigo Swing's performance there a national obsession, ulenn Miller joined Goodman hi popularizing the danceable last weeK But there were plenty of dancers as weu. music with the simple melodies. I Swing is also becoming a regular feature at Lmcohis Zoo Bar. Tuesday and Wednesday, The Speak Easy Spies, Meanwhile, black artists such as Louis Jordan and Big Joe Turner were playing a nine-piece San Diego swing band fronted by a female singer, will play the Zoo.

"We've just started sampling it But so far, -everything's been a hit, We've got more coming in the fall, too," Boehmet said. "As long as it stays strong, we're, going to pop it in. It certainly fits the Zoo." -J The success of swing at the Zoo came as a bit of a surprise td Boehmer, who didn't expect big jump blues; a music that clearly draws from the same roots as swing. i And down in Texas, Bob Wills, and company put twin fiddles and a steel guitar into the mixtp create Western swing. By the early '50s, swing had largely faded ajray.

A few years later, rock roll began to rule the roost jreopie ODViousiy are looiung iur a i imiy exueuieu But swing pas popped up again over the years, facluatfanelarly'80scomebackledby David Johansen, tolosemy ass on The Big Swing the first time in. Wehad 200 people on a Tuesday night the first time out for a a punk pioneer with the New York Dolls who turned BY KENT WOLGAMOTT Lincoln Journal Star Johnny "The Swing Lover Boyd has a simple theory to explain the latest renaissance of awing. "I think It was a timing issue of 30 years of people not having any contact with each other," said Boyd, the sweet-voiced crooner of Indigo Swing. "Something happened in the early '60s and people stopped dancing with each pther! think people are tired of not having any communication and contact with each other. vWith swing, they can take two dance lessons and learn to dance.

And then they can go out to a club and dance with 20 people and make 20 new friends. That's what's making this successful That and MTV and alternative rock radio, both of which have embraced the new swing bands as the nunseu uuuiue suave ousieirumueAiei, The current swing revivalbegan on the West Coast in the early "90s. Boyd caught his first swing show at San Francisco's Club Deluxe in 1993 and immediately formed Indigo Swing. Royal Crown Revue, a seven-piece Los Angeles band, started about that time also. In 1996, it landed the opening-act slot on the Kiss tour that fall becoming the first of the new swing outfits to play Lincoln ina club appearance before the concert dates, band that no one knew.

This does not happen with blues and rock n' roll" Boehmer has already booked a handful of swing bands for fall shows. And The Stork Club will continue to bring those groups to Omaha. Swing very easily could be a short-lived blip on the- v-u mainstream pop radar, but Boyd said that wont affect those who have truly fallen in love with the vintage sound -and the swing lifestyle. "Those bands may have a hit or two and make some big money. But they won't stay long.

But the people who are coming to the clubs and shows and dancing, they're not going to give that up," Boyd said. Royal Crown Revue was also the first of the new ultimate alternative to now-passe grunge. out a major-label record lis In place of grunge's dirty guitars and headnodding swing bands to put second album is due in late August rhvthms. swing brings out punchy horns and boogie- swing. r.

-v But the big breakthrough came woogie piano in easy-flowing dance rhythms. Zoot suits and fancy '40s frocks have replaced grunge's dress-like-the-audience anti-fashion, mm and bodies actually move when swing bands play. The first mass media hint of the new swing revival- occurred in 1996 when wingers," the indie film i depiction of the return of i -f A lounge culture, featured Big Bad Voodoo Daddy as the house band "I think that movie had a hell of a lot to do with (the new swing revival)," said Zoo Bar owner Larry Boehmer. i 4- i 9' 14, "Plus it's fresh for all these kids. They've -never heard it It's certainly nothing new, but they've never heard it before.

And it's great music. When it's it's just great" In fact swing is one of those rare musical forms that can be 1 specifically dated In 1924, New Orleans trumpeter Louis Armstrong joined Fletcher Henderson's band Armstrong's r. flying solos loosened up KENT WOLGAMOTTAJncoki Journal Star Indigo Swing is one of the bands riding the wave of swing popularity. it.