Austin Lindy Hop
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Austin Lindy Hop
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Cigar Store Indians: el Baile de la Cobra(Deep South Records, 1998)
The Cigar Store Indians are a Neo Swing Band that profited from the Neo Swing
fad in the mid to late 1990s, but never really cashed in like Big Bad Voodoo
Daddy, Cherry Poppin Daddies, or Brian Setzer. Too bad, because if they
had done so, Swing might not have garnered such a faddish, dorky reputation, and
thereby might not have engendered the sort of counter-fad ire that the Macarena,
the Lambada, Break-dancing, and Disco have all faced.
The Cigar Store Indians play a sort of refined Rockabilly style of music. Although certainly characteristic of Neo Swing music in its rock-oriented influences (a heavy, forward-leaning beat), they play with a certain maturity on this album that lacks the hyperactive, frenetic kiddie-bopper energy of popular Rockabilly or Neo Swing while still not getting stodgy or mired in tradition like Jazz or Blue throw-back Swing bands. Songs like "Little Things," and "Call Me Sometime" hit a nice, moderate groove, whereas even the moderately up-tempo song "Kisses In Vain" relax into the beat so as to not provoke hyperactive dancing: promoting a motto of ours of "Relaxin' into your Shaggin'." |
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