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MULTI-PLATINUM SELLING CHERRY POPPIN DADDIES ARE BACK WITH A NEW ALBUM, “SUSQUEHANNA”; ALBUM SET FOR RELEASE JUNE 10, 2008 ON DADDIES’ OWN SPACE AGE BACHELOR PAD RECORDS

Eugene, Oregons horn-heavy, genre-bending eight-piece act Cherry Poppin’ Daddies will be releasing their sixth full-length recording, “Susquehanna” (Space Age Bachelor Pad Records) nationally on June 10, 2008.

After selling two-million copies of Zoot Suit Riot: The Swingin’ Hits of…” and dominating the swing and ska revivals in both the mainstream press and commercial radio, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies eventually parted ways with Mojo Records/Universal Music after Universal sold Mojo Records to Jive/Zomba (home of Britney Spears, N’Sync, Backstreet Boys) and retreated into the regional iconoclasm of the Pacific Northwest.

During their hiatus band members spent time with families, finished college degrees, and imagined what might be their response, if any, to an increasingly orthodox, cynically targeted pop landscape.

With a major network TV show, “So You Think You Can Dance”, still playing Zoot Suit Riot, the hit that made Cherry Poppin’ Daddies a household name, the group entered the studio to begin work on what would become “Susquehanna”.

Written mostly in 2007, “Susquehanna” brings together the Daddies West Coast and Latin influences: flamenco, greaser rock, swing, ska, glam, and soca – to name a few.

Named after a muddy, flood-prone river in upstate New York; the Susquehanna, on which front man Steve Perry grew up, the album is a story of memory and time, a tale of losses, love, doubt, and fatigue. But as the end of the record approaches, there is grace and gratitude. Surprisingly, the albums’ stylistic diversity emerges as a bittersweet thematic unity upon its close.

Like its predecessors, “Susquehanna” revisits facets of the group’s oeuvre, ranging from the familiar (“White Trash Toodle-oo” begins with the same type of Krupa-joins-Motorhead tom intro heard on 1989’s “Dr. Bones”) to areas where the musicians might well have had to reach for their compasses.

Opener “Bust Out” begins with a blast of trumpets and Spaghetti Western guitar, like a sonic inverted-exclamation mark at the start of the record. A nod to the Rock En Espanol of bands like Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, the tune explores what Perry sees as an important strand of pop music’s future tapestry. “My prediction is that in 30 years, American pop will owe a huge debt to world sensibilities”, he says, “these I wanted to explore and potentially boil down to some fundamental building blocks that might lead toward a new, more international style.”

“Mongoose and the Snake” might be the Daddies’ first stab at Psychobilly, while “Julie Grave” picks up on a glittery vibe first attempted in a previous single by The Daddies, “Diamond Light Boogie” (“Soul Caddy”, 2000).

“Roseanne” frames Leonard Cohen-esque lyrics in flamenco guitar and percussion sounded by real dancing feet, altogether a lovely and dark meditation on the sway of sex and its proximity to dissolution and death.

“Wing Tips” will feel most comfortable to neo-swingers; that is until the Mel Brooks reminiscent chorus continues “…Black Socks/And Diaper”.

Despite its mlange of styles, “Susquehanna” is lyrically perhaps the band’s most cohesive.

“I guess I hoped for each song as a chapter in a modernist novel”, Perry says of the record, “like James Joyce’s, Ulysses, where the literary style/genre that each chapter is written in is radically different. So a pop album, disjointed and maybe even jarring, in style and structure, but thematically coherent”.

So does he think such an approach will succeed in the age of YouTube?

“Its a little ambitious, I suppose, but you know, why not shoot for something special? You only live once. I’ve been trying to do a version of this with my genre experiments for five albums. I think this one feels the most right.”

Following the release of “Susquehanna”, the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies will be hitting the road throughout the summer and fall, and into winter, reminding fans that they’re alive and well. And “Susquehanna” proves they’re as entertaining, thoughtful and energetic as ever.