Squirrel Nut Zippers

Maxwell/Mosher - Publishing Bio & Press

Maxwell/Mosher - Publishing Bio

Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher have had a musical relationship for over a decade, beginning with their roles as members and writers for the band Squirrel Nut Zippers (1993-1999). In 2004, they teamed up to form Maxwell/Mosher Publishing. In two years, they have established an excellent reputation as their work has found its way into television, film and commercials.

TV placements include shows on the A&E (Family Plots), Lifetime (Lovespring International), ABC Family (Wildfire) and Disney (Life is Ruff). Their recent film work includes scoring/music supervision for the award winning short "The Bread Squeezer," and prominent placements in LA Film Festival's Best Documentary "Deliver Us From Evil, and the upcoming animated Lionsgate feature "Happily Never After." Their commercials are currently airing on four continents. Amazingly, all of their work is still completed from their studio in Pittsboro, NC.In December, they found themselves between publishing projects and decided to perform live for the first time in years. Promotional shows turned to club shows, and the duo quickly became a potent band. Since February, the Maxwell/ Mosher Band has played a series of regional events, traveled to LA for two shows, and headlined festivals in Beaufort, NC, Greensboro, NC, Raleigh, NC, Saxapahaw, NC and Springfield, OH. In June, Tom and Ken were featured performers at the Atlanta Film Festival.

Their current band features Tom and Ken splitting vocals, guitars, banjo, saxes and glockenspiel, amply supported by tuba player Mark Daumen and drummer Matt Vooris (of pop band SNMNMNM). Their current show features a dozen or so Zippers compositions plus songs from the current Maxwell / Mosher CD, Tom's 2000 release "Samsara," and a good bit of new material as well. See Live Review here: http://greatsouthernbrainfart.blogspot.com Meanwhile, they remain busy with an array of future projects which include a concept for a kids TV show and on a possible radio show for Chapel Hill's WCHL AM 1360. Though much of their work is done in the early 20th century style that made them famous, Maxwell and Mosher can produce music of all genres and styles. Please check out our samples! ThanksTom and Ken

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION
Ken Mosher at snz@mindspring.com
Tom Maxwell at tom@tommaxwell.com

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Press

Zippers fans get holiday treat

By Rebecca Bailey : The Herald-Sun

chh@heraldsun.com

Dec 8, 2005 : 7:13 pm ET

PITTSBORO -- Fans of the Squirrel Nut Zippers -- and anyone who enjoys an exuberantly eclectic mix of jazzy instrumentals, syncopated rhythms and smart lyrics -- will be able to find two new holiday gift possibilities at record stores and, yes, at U.S. post offices this holiday season.

Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher, founding members of the Zippers and the primary songwriters for the late lamented local group, have just released their new CD "Maxwell/Mosher." And the U.S. Post Office will distribute "Dear Santa," a holiday CD that ties in with a FOX special airing tonight at 8 p.m. On that album, two songs by Maxwell and Mosher -- "Carolina Christmas" and "Auld Lang Syne" -- join holiday songs by Alicia Keys, Nat King Cole and other greats, past and present.

"Our songs on the record are a real connection between the classic songs and the modern works," said Mosher.

"We did 'Auld Lang Syne' right after Hurricane Katrina," added Maxwell. "The best way to pay tribute to New Orleans was to arrange 'Auld Lang Syne' as a jazz funeral, with a mournful beginning and a celebratory end."

More than 600,000 copies of the holiday CD will be available from 20,000 post offices across the country. The Fox special tonight will feature the most compelling "Dear Santa" letters from children asking for help.

And the songwriters' new CD, "Maxwell/Mosher," said publicity director Amy Barefoot, "is quirky and beautiful, and as close to a new Zippers record as anybody's gonna get."

The new record, said Maxwell, "continues the Zippers' musical narrative. 'Swing' never fit right as a description. I always believed that the Zippers were defined more by enthusiasm, romance, menace and raggedy authority. The Maxwell/Mosher record's got that in spades."

Mosher said that the new release has two components: the four re-recorded songs from the Zipper years -- 'Hell,' 'Put a Lid on It,' 'The Kraken' and 'Twilight' -- were recorded by request for publishing or commercial usage.

"Except for 'Hell,' these new arrangements are noticeably different from the originals," said Mosher. "'Twilight' has a great new vibe part. 'The Kraken' is longer, with an even more lovely harp part by Emily Laurance. 'Lid' had a great guest vocal by Ingrid Lucia of the Flying Neutrinos, who lost everything in New Orleans after Katrina."

The other 12 songs, said Mosher, are from publishing and scoring work.

"Since we aren't the Zippers -- or a touring band -- we weren't confined to any particular instrumentation," he said. New sounds on the CD include "a couple of synthesizers, accordion, autoharp and songs created over a percussion loop."

Mosher's favorite new songs are also featured in a yet-to-be released film, "The Bread Squeezer." "They all embody the fun of the Zippers feel, but are more complex and dynamic, and integrate many different instruments," he said.

"I don't think there's an instrument made that we don't like, or that we couldn't use," added Maxwell on a recent afternoon, just before the duo headed to a radio interview and a performance for UNC-TV. Mosher said he has always wanted to try the oboe, and Maxwell is interested in the tabla, an Indian drum. "But you actually have to study for years -- and I'm not prepared to do that," he added.

Fans, however, shouldn't rule it out. Both musicians, who live in Pittsboro, said that they have become more interested in classical music. "We have no training classically, or in orchestration, but that won't prevent us from trying," said Maxwell.

The duo has amassed an impressive list of accomplishments, as first Zippers and then as Maxwell/Mosher Publishing.

"We've worked as hard as we have ever worked on writing for the past two years," said Mosher, "and we have two very different records ["Maxwell/Mosher" and the rock album "Brother Seeker"], two finished [movie] soundtracks and a bunch of other pieces."

"Dear Santa" on FOX at 8 p.m. tonight includes music by Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher.

Maxwell and Mosher also will perform at Borders Books in Chapel Hill at 7 p.m. Dec. 15 and at the Cave in Chapel Hill, Dec. 16.

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Thursday, December 22, 2005 1:00 am

Hometown: Pittsboro

Comprised of former members of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Maxwell/Mosher has been touring Borders Bookstores throughout North Carolina to promote "Dear Santa," a Christmas compilation including two of their songs. They'll perform at 7 p.m. Friday at the Borders in Winston-Salem location (252 S. Stratford Rd.). Meanwhile, they recently released their self-titled debut full of Zipper tunes and other originals.

Web site: www.maxwellmosher.com

Behind the music: Tom: "I first laid eyes on Ken when I was practicing in his neighborhood in an abandoned gas station. I was with a band and singing backup really badly. So Ken burst in the door, thinking he knew the band and going to tell me that I was horribly flat or something, but then he realized he didn't know us. So he just said, 'Sounds good,' and leaves.

That's the story I tell anyway ... We've been playing together for 12 years - longer than The Beatles have. That's about the only comparison we can make to The Beatles though."

Ken: "The Zippers started in 1993, and we were both playing there. We left in 1999 and they did one more album after we left. Tom put out a solo record. I joined a rock band. But eventually we wanted to do work together and emphasize publishing and soundtrack work. It's really gone down an unexpected path. I wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me we'd be playing promotional shows. The response to the record's been great."

Changes since Zipper days: Tom: "On the Maxwell/Mosher record we used instruments not used with the Zippers, which is tricky to say because we never felt limited then. There are a couple of stylistic differences, but a lot of it is similar in the sense that all the things we loved about the Zippers are still here: the enthusiasm, the minor keys, the raggedy ass authority. It continues the Zippers' musical narrative ... We realized we each had a little Zipper still in us."

On doing Christmas tunes: Tom: "When you do a Christmas album, you do it in the summer so you don't feel too Christmasy. Honestly, I feel like a lot of Christmas music is crappy, and I certainly don't want to hear it to the extent that it's played during the season. But some of it is really good, too. We also recorded after Katrina, and we'd done a lot of work in New Orleans so we were pretty depressed about that - all the destruction and people we know having to move on - so that was tremendously affecting. It was tough, really tough. 'Auld Lang Syne' we arranged like a New Orleans funeral - starting slow with a party in the middle. The other, 'Carolina Christmas' was a Zipper song. For that we just tried to sound 20 percent less drunk than when we did it on the Zippers album."

The new self-titled album: Ken: "We re-did the Zippers' song 'Hell,' which is the title for A&E's show 'Family Plots.' So there are familiar songs like that. Then there are 12 songs that are a compilation of the publication and soundtrack work we've done over the past year."

Maxwell/Mosher's desert island discs: The Beatles' "Revolver," Fats Waller's "Pipe Organ Sides," Johnny Ace's memorial album, The Zombies' "Odessey and Oracle," and Radiohead's "OK Computer."

Favorite lyrics: Tom: "I lie in the road try to trip up the passing cars/Yes me and the hedgehog/We're bursting the tires all day.' It's from "Rock Bottom," an album by Robert Wyatt. It's just a tremendous study in having a hard day.

Ken: "There's just so many great lyrics out there. I mean, we were sitting around last night celebrating the life of John Lennon and listening to Lennon records. 'Strawberry Fields Forever' is just a lesson on how to kick ass. That was a man who was never at a loss for an amazing lyric."

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Zippers live on in odd spots

David Menconi, Staff Writer

As most bands do, Chapel Hill's Squirrel Nut Zippers ended badly, splintering a few years ago amid much acrimony. It was an unfortunate end to one of the unlikeliest success stories of the 1990s -- a million-selling album and a hit song, "Hell," that helped kick off the short-lived swing fad.

But eight years after the Zippers' "Hell" was an MTV staple, it still turns up in some strange places. Coming Jan. 10 is a "comedy-rock" compilation called "Fun Tracks Wisecracks" (Rhino Records), featuring "Hell" alongside novelty-flavored songs by Devo, Fountains of Wayne, They Might Be Giants, Barenaked Ladies and Wall of Voodoo. And Zippers alumnus Tom Maxwell, who wrote "Hell," reports that the song is also in a detergent commercial in Turkey.

"I guess interest in that song just never waned," Maxwell says. "Even if it was always a square peg."

Since there seems to be demand for the Zippers with no band to satisfy it, Maxwell and his fellow ex-Zipper Ken Mosher decided to do the next best thing. Their self-released new album "Maxwell/Mosher" includes re-recordings of four Zippers songs (including "Hell" and "Put a Lid on It"), plus new songs in the same spirit. It's the closest thing to another Squirrel Nut Zippers record that is ever likely to be.

"We're not calling this a Zippers record, but if you didn't like the Zippers, you won't enjoy it," Maxwell says. "We incorporate a lot of what we thought defined the Zippers: enthusiasm, minor keys, menace, off-kilter romance, raggedy-ass authority, diversity. I loved that then and I still love it now. It just took a few years to get the bad taste out of my mouth."

Maxwell and Mosher also have two tracks on the recently released Christmas album "Dear Santa," which is being sold through the U.S. Postal Service. They remade another Zippers song, "Carolina Christmas" (from 1998's "Christmas Caravan"); and they recorded the New Year's Eve standard "Auld Lang Syne" in the style of jazz funeral music -- a tribute to New Orleans, where the Zippers did a lot of their recording.

"We needed to get something cooking to still have a career," Maxwell says. "We're not exactly cashing gigantic Squirrel Nut Zippers checks and drinking ourselves to sleep every night. But there's interest out there, which is immensely gratifying. We tried to do music that would date well, but you don't know if it will last -- especially since the success we had was in this boat-anchor swing crapola that had a shelf-life date on it. After it ended, that was that. But we still get fan letters from 16-year-olds. We were dropping off some records and this girl goes, 'Squirrel Nut Zippers, I used to listen to you when I was 9!'

"Funny," Maxwell concludes, "I told her, 'I was in that band when I was 12.' "

Maxwell/Mosher are also playing some live shows, including a double-header tonight -- 7 p.m. at the North Raleigh Borders, on Six Forks Road at Strickland Road, followed by a nightcap performance later at The Cave in Chapel Hill. They next play Saturday at the Cary Borders, then Thursday at the Central Raleigh Borders, on Six Forks Road at Wake Forest Road. For details, check www.maxwellmosher.com .

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ENTERTAINMENT PICK #1 FOR CHRISTMAS WEEK, 2005

Maxwell/Mosher. You don't know the name. But you know where they've come from. Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher are former members of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, the North Carolina group that became one of the biggest music stories of the 1990s in North Carolina. Maxwell and Mosher have joined forces to put out their first CD as well as contribute a tune, "Carolina Christmas" to a "Dear Santa" compilation that includes Alicia Keys, Andy Williams and Johnny Mathis.

Matter of fact, you can catch Maxwell and Mosher at the Border's in Winston-Salem at 7 p.m.

Friday. Also, visit www.gotriad.com/go/audio to hear "Carolina Christmas." It's a sweet tune.