What was old and was new again is now new yet again, for a second or third time, depending on how you’re counting. In the ’90s, the Squirrel Nut Zippers were a Chapel Hill, N.C., band that added some vintage jazz, antique calypso and old-time style to the otherwise drab era of grunge.
They were proof that something strange was brewing in terms of musical nostalgia, mixing flappers, WWI uniforms and a general Snidely Whiplash-meets-Amelia Earhart aesthetic. The band had its shtick, but it also has a real love of bygone styles and sensibilities, like they were the nephews of an R. Crumb cartoon and Harry Smith’s “The Anthology of American Folk Music,” with a horn section.
You may remember their unlikely hit “Hell,” about strife in the afterlife. The Squirrel Nut Zippers have regrouped and are touring minus some of the core original members. If you suspect that 1927 might have a thing or two on 2017, you’ll be among like-minded anachronistic music fans at their show.
The Squirrel Nut Zippers play the Ballroom at the Outer Space, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden, Sunday, Jan. 8, at 8 p.m. $30 – $35, 203-288-6400, thespacect.com.
