Hell: My Life in the Squirrel Nut Zippers

The Swing Movement -- all jazz hands and high-waisted pants -- advanced and receded in good order. I wrote this book to tell the other side of the story. I want you to know about the oddball collection of iconoclasts who got together and made the Squirrel Nut Zippers what they were: a combustible, improbable gumbo of joy and menace. Along the way, I write about our many influences: jazz and blues and hot music and calypso and, yes, swing. Come run these fields, like rabbits, while the harvest moon hangs caught in the branches. Come linger over this snapshot. "[An] utterly engaging memoir.... A must-read for anyone with even the remotest interest in how the music biz works.... A short, sharp, sweet shock of a read.... Both Maxwell's pinch-me moments and his creeping sense of dread are visceral and believable enough to land the reader right there in the middle bunk of the Zippers' tour bus. And if that reader also happens to be an aspiring musician, the message here couldn't be clearer: enjoy the ride, but be careful what you wish for." -BLURT Magazine "Impressive.... [The] book digs into the band's early years in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, music scene, via intimate stories, and the band discovering and incorporating sounds and influences that may have seemed unusual to mainstream audiences, but were simply the result of young, adventurous musicians getting turned on to great music." - Esquire "Tom Maxwell & The Minor Drag are planning a fall tour in support of both the album and book.... Plan to listen and read." -Artist Direct