"They might kick our asses," says Steve Perry, the leader of the Eugene, Oregon-bred Cherry Poppin' Daddies, "but they wouldn't have their hats on when it was over."

How about tag-team thumb wrestling?

"I don't know."

A slightly aggressive backgammon game?

"I don't know. I can't really answer that."

Damn unity. Although swing music is based on a sound your mother's mother digs, America's current fascination with the big beat is in a blissful infant stage in which all swings bands that crisscross the country are simply friends.

"We all know each other--us, Royal Crown Revue, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. We're friends," Perry says. "There's just not as many swing bands right now. I do know that every town is getting one now. But hopefully that won't make the whole thing that competitive. It's not a baseball game. Right now, it's just an exciting and fresh time."

Riding high on the success of their latest effort, Zoot Suit Riot--the band's fourth album and basically a best-of collection of their first three releases--the Daddies have been caught off guard by the neo-swing explosion. They were happy doing things the way they had done them since their 1989 birth, recording an album and hitting the road with some friends from the tight-knit ska community for a few beats and a few laughs. But then, earlier this year, their album's title track took off, soaring up top 40 charts and pumping some life into MTV. The Daddies were already in the studio working on their fifth album.

"Zoot Suit Riot being popular is a complete fluke," says Perry. "But right after the album started blowing up [the record company] hustled us out of the studio and got us on the road. And we've been there ever since."

But it's not just the band's beats--which cover everything from bump 'n' grind and swaggering brass to boogie-woogie rhythms and jump blues--that make them one of the first important swing bands of the '90s. The Daddies actually have a bit more to say musically than "Come over here doll, the drinks are on me." In fact, they may be the first modern-day swing band to delve seriously into social commentary.

"Our lyrics are less about hipster jive and more about contemporary subjects," explains Perry. "It's not just that moon-in-June type of stuff. We sing about child abuse."

The song Perry's referring to is "Drunk Daddy." Zoot Suit Riot, though rooted in fun, takes on similar serious subject matter, like out-of-control drinking ("Pink Elephant") and cheesy Hollywood evil ("Mister White Keys").

"People can get into [the lyrical] side of it if they want to," shrugs Perry. "If you want to know what the lyrics are about and enter it on that level, then you can. If you want to just dance around, you can, too. But if you dance around to a song like 'Drunk Daddy,' it's kind of ironic. But it's okay."

With road plans that extend well into 1999 (most notably as part of the now global Warped Tour) Perry is now having trouble finding time to sleep but is anxious to get into the studio to work on some swing for the next millennium. He's even promised to slip in some country swing the next time around.

"The next one is the one we were all hot to make," he says. "Zoot Suit Riot's popularity kind of got in the way of us making that record. We're antsy, we want to get in there and do it. Of course, we're going to enjoy this while it's happening, but we can't wait until the next thing."