*** Cherry Poppin' Daddies

ZOOT SUIT RIOT

(Space Age Bachelor Pad)

If the Squirrel Nut Zippers made it cool to Charleston again by welding elements of lounge-lizard style to a sepia-toned comic-book pastiche of pre-rock, then the Cherry Poppin' Daddies' moment may be in sight. It's big-band noir: boisterous jitterbugging jazz with full-metal-jacket brass; golden-throat croon waxing sleazy about crooked characters, doomed dames, and shady deals.

Zoot Suit Riot compiles the "hits," such as they aren't (yet), from the Daddies' three Space Age Bachelor Pad albums, adding a few inspired unreleased tracks (the title tune and the Dixielandish "When I Change Your Mind" are the highlights). Think Raymond Chandler's Pickup on Noon Street scored by a seven-piece who feel completely at ease throwing together jump-inspired boogie-woogie piano, shrill swing panache, cold-war spy-theme instrumental vamps, and even the occasional ska twist. Check the faux scat on "Zoot Suit Riot," the tommy-gun alliteration on "Ding-Dong Daddy of the D-Car Line," and their rat-pack rendition of the Lerner-Lane semi-chestnut "Come Back to Me" (from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever); their pre- and post-war musical allusions might be in a knot, but it'll be a hell of a dance craze while people try to figure 'em out.

-- Carly Carioli