This strange coupling has made the Daddies one of the West Coast's most popular bands, regularly drawing sell-out crowds. Although the music always inspires runaway hip-swivelers to shake their groove things and pitch themselves head-long into the dark above the pulsing pit, the Daddies' songs are not vacuous ditties. Often they are explorations of some part of the world that's gone awry. Drunk Daddy is about child abuse, You Gotta Move is about violence, Flovilla Thatch Vs. the Virile Garbagemen about the insufficiency of traditional gender roles. When you have thrashed yourself into oblivion, there's something left to think about.

The musical scope of the band -- swing, rock, jump blues, country and funk -- has, over the years, attracted increasingly larger and more diverse crowds. Alternative Lad, punks, hippies, high school kids, metal-heads, jazz fans: their audience is as riotous and weirdly-spiced a crowd as could ever be hoped for.

The band, Dan Schmid on bass, Chris Azorr on keyboards, Jason Moss, guitar, and Brian West, drums, are all equally capable of navigating the demanding shifts and changes of style in a Daddies show. They are also all naturals to the stage. Like lead singer Steve Perry, they are bright, energetic, and physical enough to express the cartoon-like nature of rock and roll performance.

The most obvious part of the band, however, is the sharp and punchy horn section, comprising James Phillips on alto sax, Adrian Baxter on tenor sax, and Dana Heitman on trumpet. Whether stabbing and blasting into the air above the crowd or trailing delicate arabesques through the body of the song, the horns are always on display. And always popular.

Their full-length CD, Ferociously Stoned, has had favorable reviews in The Rocket, Alternative Press, The Oregonian and other magazines and newspapers and remained for over a year on The Rocket's Northwest Top Twenty list. They were the Portland Music Association's 1991 Crystal Award winners for Outstanding New Band. In February of 1994, the band was voted one of the three best bands in San Francisco by readers of the S.F. Bay Weekly. They have followed that up with strong performances at SXSW in Austin, Texas; Music West in Vancouver, B.C.; and SFO1 in San Francisco. The Daddies have been consistently recognized for their talent, scope, songwriting and powerful stage presence.

Their newest CD, Rapid City Muscle Car, is due out September 15th. In this recording, as in Fercociously Stoned, the Cherry Poppin' Daddies swing, and they swing without nostalgia. With each new song and each show they take the best of American Music forward. Don't hate them for being beautiful.