Tom Maxwell, one of the founding members of 90’s swing revivalists the Squirrel Nut Zippers, took to an unlikely outlet to discuss why the band won’t be having a full reunion tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their classic album Hot. Instead of a press release or interview, he penned an essay on Medium, an online platform for writers to share their work.
“I’m sorry to say I won’t be joining the Squirrel Nut Zippers on the tour supporting the 20th anniversary of the Hot album next year,” he begins. “This will put me in good company: Katharine Whalen, Ken Mosher, and Don Raleigh won’t be there either.”
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Maxwell goes on to explain that though he’s set aside any hard feelings towards other members of the band, he was told that he won’t be invited to participate an anniversary tour, which has not been formally announced regardless. “It was likely never going to be a proper band reunion (too many hurt feelings for that),” he writes, “but there were two big singles off that record and I wrote ’em both. Instead, I get to watch as the reanimated corpse of something once so lively rises yet again to walk among the unsuspecting. It’s a drag. Jimbo Mathus is a talented dude — a fine songwriter and a hell of a guitarist — but he has no business singing ‘Hell,’ [a song written by Maxwell] nor should he continue making a business out of doing so.”
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He concludes that though “the band that might come through your town next year celebrating this milestone for the Hot album will call themselves the Squirrel Nut Zippers,” in his opinion, the live experience won’t be the same. Read his full essay on Medium here.