If anyone listens to these, could you possibly recommend some similar bands? Thanks in advance.
Royal Crown Review
-sounds exactly the same as BBVD
Cherry-Poppin’ Daddies. Good swing revival stuff. Buy “Zoot Suit Riot” (the album), and listen to it from beginning to end, especially “Dr. Bones”.
My screen name was inspired in part by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and I’m still a major fan of all the swing bands that popped up in the late '90s. Check out:
Royal Crown Revue. As mentioned, they are similar to BBVD in look as well as musical style, with plenty of zoot suits and retro lingo. “Mugzy’s Move” is their best album, but “Caught In the Act,” a live album, is fantastic as well. Eddie Nichols sings a lot as a gangster persona, an odd choice vocally, but it fits perfectly with the music.
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. These guys were so much more than just another sound-alike swing band, but they released an album collecting all their swing songs, “Zoot Suit Riot,” and got lumped in with all the rest. I highly recommend that album, which you can probably find for cheap at used CD stores now, but you’ll be in for a surprise if you seek out other albums. They played everything from ska (excellent) to punk to metal to country! Lyrically, I found their swing songs a lot more interesting than RCR or BBVD, because they didn’t always resort to the same “cool suit daddy riding in his Cadillac with a hot kitten, do ya swing?” cliches. The song “Zoot Suit Riot” is about real riots that happened in L.A. in 1943 between drunken sailors on leave, Mexican gang members that wore zoot suits, and the police.
Brian Setzer Orchestra. Setzer was the guitarist and singer of '80s rockabilly revivalists The Stray Cats, but he put together a classic big band (five saxes, four trombones, four trumpets, plus a rhythm section) for this project. Lots of fantastic arrangements with fat horn lines and Setzer’s trademark Gretsch guitar sound. Lots of rockabilly and Vegas lounge influences here. I can’t say enough good things about this band. They have a greatest hits CD already, which I haven’t bothered to pick up, but my personal favorite is their second album, “Guitar Slinger.” Setzer is one of my favorite musicians of all time, he has a terrific voice, and he combines a lot of American musical genres here. You can’t go wrong.
Squirrel Nut Zippers. They won’t conjure up the same images of great suits and sexy dames, as they have a slightly more rural, Southern sound to their swing, evoking the '20s more than the '30s or '40s. For one thing, they have a banjo and a lot of lower brass. They also have a girl singer trading off with the guy singers, Katherine Whalen, whose voice sounds like a cross between Billie Holliday and Betty Boop. I love them, and most people who like BBVD and other swing bands do too.
Those are probably the five biggest swing bands to come out in the late '90s, but there are other good ones that didn’t get major label pushes or singles or music videos. The Mighty Blue Kings, Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums (featuring Miss Carmen Getit), The New Morty Show (more of a Louis Prima/Keely Smith-style Vegas lounge act), and Lee Press-On and the Nails (spooky swing for Goths!) are some of the best of the rest.
You might also be interested in rockabilly if you like swing, or even some ska music. Let me know on the boards if you have any more questions or want more recommendations, or drop me an e-mail. This is some of my favorite music, and I love to talk about it.
Ah, Big Bad Voodoo Lou, I had noticed you around the boards and wondered if you’d reply to this. In all honesty, BBVD are about the only swing band I’ve ever listened to, though I have been meaning to find out some more for quite a while. Ever since I heard Mr Pinstripe Suit by BBVD, an excellent song.
So if you do have anymore suggestions please do tell 
Also, thanks to Fang and Sassafras_Kid
Asleep at the Wheel does some good Texas swing. (Kind of in the same genre.)
I saw Stray Cats in concert back in 1983, and they were fantastic. I saw BSO in concert at the 9:30 Club in DC a couple weeks ago (their Christmas Extravaganza tour), and I think Brian Setzer is better now than he was 20 years ago. Besides Christmas music, they also played some Stray Cat stuff and other rockabilly tunes. Definitely one of the best concerts I have ever been to.
I just visited your website, Big Bad, and I have to say I liked the band you played in, from what I heard on the downloads.
Big Bad Voodoo Lou covered the more modern bands playing this kind of music (Hey Lou! Get your guitar yet?). I also strongly recommend going back to the source - the original jump blues from the '40’s or so.
No Moe! The Best of Louis Jordan - pretty much the textbook for any of the bands mentioned previously. Louis Jordan is the originator and some would argue the best. And, to my knowledge, it was Chuck Berry’s attempt to play Jordan-type arrangements using double-stop guitar to sound like a horn section that led to Berry’s tradmark licks. Saturday Night Fish Fry, the first cut on the CD, is just amazing.
T-Bone Walker - the Complete Imperial Recordings - I got this for like $12 bucks. Jeez what a deal. TBone was the first electric blues guitarist, came from Texas, but made his mark in LA around the war. Jump Blues/Swing at its finest.
Louis Prima - I don’t have a specific album to recommend - I need to buy one. Recommendations BBVLou?
As for modern stuff, there are a couple of CD’s left off so far but worth mentioning:
Duke’s Blues by Duke Robillard - Duke was the guitarist for the band Roomful of Blues, and does a jump blues CD here. Great songs, mostly jump, but some slow blues, too. Entirely worth it.
Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive - Done in the ‘80’s well before the swing revival, but he does a great version of Louis Jordan’s “Is you is or is you ain’t my baby” (also on the Jordan CD listed above), and and bunch of other jumpin’ tunes. Jackson’s untrained vocal style is surprisingly well-suited for the music…
Not a band reccomendation, as you mostly listed my suggestions… but Royal Crown Review has 2 brothers from the punk band Youth Brigade in it as well.
Thank you so much! We were a ska-punk band, and not a terribly good one, but those were the happiest few years of my life. I’m always grateful for any feedback at all!
WordMan, I still have your guitar-buying advice burned into my memory and taken to heart, but I’m not making the purchase until April, if that. I’m taking the Bar Exam in February, and the guitar and amp will be my present to myself if I pass.
I totally agree with you on Louis Jordan. He doesn’t get ANY of the credit he deserves for bridging the gap between big band swing and rock ‘n’ roll, but his “small big band” was a major influence on all the swing and jump blues acts of the '90s.
As for Louis Prima, I personally have the Capitol Collectors Series CD, which I recommend. Some of the music is a little dated and cheesy, with those repetitive shuffle beats on almost every song, but it’s still a must-have for any good swing collection. It gives you an idea what Louis and Keely Smith and Sam Butera (the bandleader and sax player) did out in Vegas, and it has all the classics like “Just A Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody,” “Jump Jive and Wail,” and “Sing Sing Sing” (which Prima wrote, even though Benny Goodman made it famous).
adamthewarrior, another band I’d recommend is 8 1/2 Souvenirs’ album “Happy Feet,” which is lounge jazz with a very Continental flair. The girl singer, Chrysta Bell, has a gorgeous voice that matches the rest of her, and the lead guitarist’s style is very reminiscent of French gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Some very fun stuff, a lot of it sexy, with a few songs sung in French or Italian. Unfortunately there are no horns here, but the guitar and piano and the cute girl singer more than make up for it.
Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers have two albums of jump blues and swing, “One Hour Mama” and “Everybody’s Talkin’ 'Bout Miss Thing.” They have some really great musicians talking solos in their full-size big band, and Lavay Smith is a sassy, sexy blues diva who just happens to look like classic pin-up girl Bettie Page. I was lucky enough to see them in concert early this year, and had the chutzpah to grab Miss Smith and get my picture taken with her. (See http://www.geocities.com/bigbadvoodoolou/music.html )
Hepcat Records used to be a great place to order a lot of swing, jump blues, and rockabilly CDs, but now that the scenes have kind of died down, I’m not sure what kind of selection they still have. Check out http://www.hepcatrecords.com . They were always expensive, but at least they had the lesser-known bands to choose from.
I’d personally recommend browsing http://www.half.com if you want to pick up a bunch of swing and related CDs for cheap, especially the better-known groups like Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and Royal Crown Revue. You can probably order used copies directly from individual sellers (as opposed to stores) and save a lot of money that way.
There’s also one hell of a Christmas CD. Who else would sing “Oh what fun it is to ride in a '57 Chevrolet”?
Be sure to get the BSO live in Japan DVD, it rocks!.
unclviny