The band just signed with Bill Graham Management after being the hit of last year's company Christmas party. The Graham organization also manages the Gin Blossoms and the Neville Brothers, and is serious about pushing this band and getting the Daddies signed to a major label.

That shouldn't be too hard. The Daddies are one of the must unique bands touring these days. The band takes a Cab Calloway swing sound, which is fused with funk and Zappa-esque impressionism. And that's just the half of it. Steve Perry puts on an animated stage-show, with his almost rubberband-like body moving around stage, and the Daddies have one of the hottest horn sections since Tower of Power.

I talked to Perry last week from the Graham offices in San Francisco. Perry agreed that it's hard to define the Daddies' sound.

"I have to say it has a certain hook. It's on the '40s Dean Martin side with a Louis Jordan sound and a Sammy Davis attitude behind it. However, when I write the songs, I think like Randy Newman or Steely Dan, because the songs have narrators.

"Each little song is like a different character. I create an assortment of characters in the lyrics and the changing styles of the music. Though, I'd call our music more jazz. That's our Native American music. We do a jazz-soul jump blues swing."

Perry claims that the Daddies stage show is a lot tamer than it used to be. "When we started out, it was way theatrically oriented. I had red, white and blue hair extensions -- I looked likea flag. Now we don't do as much with characters but we're still pretty physical on stage, because the music is physical.

Don't be surprised to see Perry burst into numbers like Tom Jones's "It's Not Unusual" or "Call Me Irresponsible" by Sammy Davis, Jr. "I can do those songs the best. I really respect and admire the state of mind of the Dean Martins and Sammy Davis, Jrs. of the world. Those performers seemed to have been very survival oriented -- it's an attitude. And the Daddies have had problems not so much with survival, but with the perception of the band," explained Perry.

"We've taken a lot of heat because of the name and at one point changed it to just the Daddies. Then we decided to take on the name again -- it works in the theory of what we're doing. At first glance, the reading of the name is literally sexual -- but that's what the music is like -- sexy. If sounds like you're in a bar in New Orleans."

The Daddies tackling subjects like child abuse in "Drunk Daddy" and boozing in "Pink Elephants" in straight-forward terms. Don't be surprised if the lyrics shock you. Perry said that the band has had more problems with radio stations regarding the name, rather than the lyrical content of the songs. I'd just like to see what Top 40 radion and the FCC will do with tunes "Flovilla Thatch Vs. the Virile Garbageman" or "Master and Slave."