Depending on how powerful your cultural radar is, the swing revival is either the cutting edge of hipness or yesterday's news. It's made the rounds of magazines, been featured in movies (most notably the indie hit "Swingers"), and no doubt gladdened the hearts of vintage clothing-store owners across the country.

But clearly the trend hasn't played itself out yet, and in some ways it's only now getting its marketplace legs under it.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of this recent leaning in popular tastes is the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, the Eugene band that's been playing hybridized swing (along with ska, rock, etc.,) since its inception in 1989. "Zoot Suit Riot," a compilation including the swing-oriented tracks from the group's three previous albums, has been making its way up the Billboard 200 sales chart the past couple of months. After leaping up 20 or 30 positions a week for a while, the album stalled in the 60s for a few weeks, but has picked up speed again, reaching No. 46 on the Saturday chart. Meanwhile, the title track (one of four new recordings on the disc) has pushed to No. 15 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks airplay chart.

The band has laid the groundwork for such success with years of relentless touring, and it'll make a stop at La Luna for a Friday night show, with the Countrypolitans and Marigold sharing opening duties. Earlier in the week, though, singer-bandleader Steve Perry was enjoying some rare down time at his home down the valley and took a few minutes to ponder on the neo-swing craze. "To me it's kind of baffling why people are interested in swing right now," he admitted. But that didn't stop him from theorizing about the effects of the information age.

"It must be that with the rereleasing of a lot of things from the vaults, people resurrecting and redoing master tapes and putting out CDs, a lot of this swing is resurfacing. It's possible to access this kind of material that in the years of the three major networks and FM radio was not (visible). In the '60s or '70s, why wasn't there a swing wave? It's an interesting music; why didn't some group of morons like myself try to start a swing band then? I think that it must be that it was impossible to find that stuff back then." His other theory involves dancing, and the appeal that couples-oriented swing has after years of free-form individual movement as the dominant dance-floor approach.

"I think people had forgotten that dancing with another person actually is way more fun than just bugging out by yourself," Perry said. "There's this weird sense of repression that exists at rock shows that I just can't stand. "I remember a show in Atlanta, before the last record came out. At that point, most of our fans were ska kids. But the club decided to do swing lessons before the show. The instructors came out and told everybody to grab a partner, and they all stood there like 'Whoa, what do I do?' But they got partners and started to learn the steps, and you could feel the relief. Once people touched each other and learned the steps and didn't feel like idiots in front of each other, it wasn't like the normal rock show, where it's all about the color of your socks and looking right. It had the sense of a party and real sense of celebration. Sort of a combination of a modern rock show and a junior high dance."

Dance tastes, like much else, go in cycles. But Perry understands this, too.

"My take on the swing thing is that everyone is convinced that swing is a fad," he said. "Obviously, yes, it's a fad. But are we going to look back on it and say 'That was a cool thing' or 'That was a pathetic thing'? That's going to be proportionate to the amount that it's not nostalgia-based, bad versions of old tunes."

Perry likes the idea of classic swing finding a new audience, but thinks fans should be willing to explore, not just grab a few choices as this month's hip lifestyle accessory.

"I was asked in another magazine to list my favorite swing records," he said. "But I'm kind of loathe to do that, in a way. I'm wary about the swing scene being meted out as a checklist - 'Get this, do this.' I'm really wary of that mentality.

"But I would want to say that Duke Ellington's 'Koko,' for me, is the ultimate swing song of all time. The harmonics are beautiful: It sounds like the wind to me."

And whichever way that wind blows, Perry and the Cherry Poppin' Daddies will swing with it.