Friday, October 26, 2018

Squirrel Nut Zippers: Beasts of Burgundy




            Earlier this year an unexpected pleasure awaited DNA Girl and myself at the Cabot Theater Beverly. We went to see the Squirrel Nut Zippers for the first time. Now of course we were into going and such but never, ever did we expect such a heady night of musical fun.
            The band is incredible live, and because they focused on material for their amazing new album Beasts of Burgundy is partially why they were so solid damn good.
            This album is a voodoo driven New Orleans jazz joint good time. Each song does the amazing feat of sounding just familiar enough to be nostalgic, even though every single tune was written by someone in the band’s lineup.
             Not a single dud or filler tune is present. It makes you feel like it’s late at some hopping beer soaked jazz hall at the edge of a joyously cursed swamp in Louisiana.
Rusty Trombone is a darn funny 20’s roaring ode to oral sex. Use What Mama Gave You is an amusing pro-stripping ditty. The zippers aren’t afraid to unzip such bawdy tunes.
            It would be incredibly negligent if one song in particularly wasn’t singled out for special mention. The final track Fade may be one of the best torch songs ever recorded. The feel, the burn, the incredible haunting vibe, is soul shaking.
             Listen to Fade here.

             This album is a must if you dig the vibe of old world jazzy tunes.
            And we never would have discovered this amazing album if we hadn’t gone to see the Squirrel Nut Zippers live.
            Remember kids, go see live music!


Yours in bawdy vaudeville music,
Count Robot