Ravinia 2026 Issue 1

It was Merge Records and they said if we come to the office on Monday, they would give us a record deal.” And so they went with grounded expectations. “We were playing locally, having a good time,” Mathus says. “That was the extent of it.” That is, until the time came to make their second album. “We were an independent band without much of a budget,” he adds. “We had less than a week to make the album happen.” Mathus was able to swing the outfit time in Kingsway Studio, owned by pro- lific producer Daniel Lanois. “It was the perfect vintage atmosphere,” he recalls. There would be no sophomore slump. “We were getting quite popular and touring,” Mathus says. “We had played at Sundance and Los Ange- les. We rehearsed quite a bit. We had road-tested the songs [that would appear on the album] for quite a while. We were ready.” The album was released in June, but it took its time to find its audience. The outfit was recording its third album, Perennial Favorites when things got, well, hot . Unbeknownst to the band, other retro swing combos were active in Los Angeles. “When we went to play the Brown Derby for the first time, there were these other bands we had never heard of,” Mathus says. “It was a thing; we just didn’t know it.” That fall, the movie Swingers —star- ring Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn, set in LA’s retro lounge culture—was a sleeper hit, further whetting the coun- try’s thirst for old school martinis and swing music. Mathus still has not seen it. That seems incredible, like if Vogue edi- tor-in-chief Anna Wintour, reportedly the model for Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestley, had never seen The Devil Wears Prada . “I have never thought to watch it,” Mathus says. “But I will.” Hot, on the other hand, put the band on the map. Major tastemakers, such as LA’s powerhouse FM station KROQ, got behind the album. “From what I understand, a publicist from the record company somehow convinced the station to play the single ‘Hell’ one time. It’s the classic story—the phones started ringing off the wall. When we first went to the station to play live, I got chills thinking that they were blasting us all over Los Angeles.” Though Mathus believed that “our product was good and our videos were funny,” the album’s phenomenal success took him and the outfit by surprise. “Even at that point, people still had day jobs,” he says. “It took a long time to realize it was going to be a path to making a living in this world. We were encouraged and inspired just by getting a chance to make a record we liked.” Hot ’s breakout success afforded them the opportunity to meet their musical heroes, including Fats Waller’s guitarist, Al Casey. “A lot of his ilk were living in New York,” Mathus says. “We got to hang out with a lot of the Harlem cats. They were interested in what we were doing.” It was a wild ride, Mathus says, until it wasn’t. “The pressure really got to some people more than others, and we weren’t able to sustain the original lineup. We continued to work for a while and then went into hiatus for quite a while.” Mathus went on to have an active career as a solo artist and collaborator, playing with Andrew Bird, Buddy Guy, and the Black Eyed Peas (and that’s only the Bs). As Hot ’s 20th anniversary loomed, he was approached about re- booting the Squirrel Nut Zippers. He re- sisted at first, but then became intrigued about what kind of a new band he could put together to re-interpret the music. The current iteration of the outfit has lasted longer than the original lineup. “It’s a real joy,” he says. “It’s effortless and sounds so good.” At the heart of the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ enduring success is its prior- itization of creating original music. In March, the outfit released Squirrel Nut Zippers Starring in Fat City, a concept album Mathus conceived of 30 years ago based on his grandfather, a bootlegger and juke joint operator in the early 20th century. While it will not be featured on the Ravinia setlist, Mathus says, “I have big plans for that [in a live setting].” Until then, “we have so much mate- rial,” he says. “I recently listened to Hot and I’m very happy with it. It totally captures our sound, and everybody rose to the occasion. I went online to read what commentators were saying about it. What they are saying about it now is what I hoped they would say—that we were able to pull off something so intriguing when we were so young.” Donald Liebenson is a Chicago-based entertainment writer. His work has appeared in the Washington Post , Town & Country , IndieWire , and on VanityFair.com. The first Ravinia concert he attended without his parents was Procol Harum in 1970. RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 11 – JULY 19 , 2026 28 JAMIEHARMON JAMIEHARMON