The Swing Scene
Preservation Hall
This archive is a selection of magazines, newspapers, and music publications of a great band I had the great pleasure of being a member of during this exciting time, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. It was during the swing revival from 1994 through 1999. The swing scene is still strong to this day!
The collection includes national music publications, industry trades, alternative and regional newspapers, lifestyle magazines, and publications devoted to particular music scenes.
Background:
There were many more magazines and printed materials that would have been included here, but those were selected for our Capitol Records press kit. What I did not know, when I dropped them off at Capitol Records, was that I was never going to get them back.
Unknown to me, they had to cut them up to copy/scan and create the press kit. Later, when I asked to get them back, I was advised they were all gone. A small price to pay for all of the wonderful experiences I got to have being a part of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. So my personal collection contained here is from what was saved, from that point moving forward.
Introduction:
Before music became dominated by websites, social media, streaming services, and digital publications, magazines and newspapers played a major role in introducing artists to the public. For bands building an audience in the 1990s, appearing in print could be an important part of becoming visible beyond the clubs and concert halls where the music was being performed.
Among this print collection are Alternative Press, Billboard, Down Beat, Pollstar, and Tower Records' PULSE!, along with publications such as GQ, People, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, Travel & Leisure, TV Guide, and Vanity Fair. Regional publications including the Santa Barbara Independent, Ventura Independent, and Edmonton's Vue Weekly, as well as scene specific publications such as BandBeat, SMOKE, The Superbowl and Swing Time Magazine, provide additional perspectives on the band's growing presence during this period.
Magazines are listed in alphabetical order. Hope you enjoy these blasts from the past!
Alternative Press
Better known as AP, is an American music magazine founded in June 1985 by 19-year-old Mike Shea in Cleveland, Ohio, starting out as a photocopied punk fanzine handed out at concerts to cover underground music ignored by the local press. AP relaunched in spring 1988 and rode the early-'90s alternative-rock explosion to become a national monthly powerhouse.
Band Beat
A music education magazine that debuted with this February 1999 Volume 1, Issue 1, published as an offshoot of Bands of America, the nonprofit organization behind the Grand National Championships, Regional Championships, and summer band camps.
Billboard
America's legendary music-industry trade weekly, founded in 1894 in Cincinnati as a magazine for bill-posting and carnival acts before evolving into, as its banner says, "The International Newsweekly of Music, Video and Home Entertainment."
See Billboard Magazine Excerpt Here:
Down Beat
Long considered the bible of jazz, it is famous for its in-depth interviews, album reviews with its signature star-rating system, Blindfold Test, and its annual Critics Poll, Readers Poll, and Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame, established in 1952.
See Down Beat Magazine Excerpt Here:
GQ Magazine
Originally Gentlemen's Quarterly is Condé Nast's flagship American men's magazine, first launched in 1931 as Apparel Arts for the clothing trade before becoming a consumer fashion and lifestyle monthly in 1957 and shortening its name to GQ in 1967.
People
Originally entitled People Weekly, is a celebrity and human-interest magazine that was launched in 1974 as a spin-off of Time's People page and published weekly ever since.
See People Magazine Excerpt Here:
Pollstar
Subtitled The Concert Hotwire, is the music industry's trade magazine for the live business, founded in 1981 in Fresno, California and published weekly, still running today in print and daily online.
See Pollstar Magazine Excerpt Here:
PULSE! Magazine
This was the in-house music magazine of famous Tower Records, launched in 1983 under VP of Publishing Mike Farrace and published monthly for 222 issues until December 2002.
See Pulse! Magazine Excerpt Here:
Rolling Stone
was an American music and culture magazine founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleason. It is still published and in print today.
See Rolling Stone Magazine Excerpt Here:
The Santa Barbara Independent
A free alternative weekly newspaper launched in Santa Barbara, California in 1986, published weekly, every Thursday and still running today.
See Santa Barbara Independent Cover Here:
Smithsonian
The monthly magazine of the Smithsonian Institution, launched in Washington, D.C. in 1970 and still published today.
See Smithsonian Magazine Excerpt Here:
SMOKE
was a glossy cigar lifestyle quarterly launched in late 1995, first as Smoke Shop's consumer spin off to ride the mid-'90s cigar boom started by Cigar Aficionado in 1992.
See SMOKE Magazine Excerpt Here:
Super Bowl XXXIII
Performing in the Super Bowl half time show was one of those career moments that still feels unreal. In the 1990's I was playing with an awesome swing band called "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy," and at that time we still were an up-and-coming band. We were set to perform along side the one and only Stevie Wonder and Gloria Estefan. Behind the scenes, it was one part work, one part craziness, and the rest, excitement.
See Superbowl Article & Magazine Here:
Swing Time Magazine - Issue #5
was an independent fanzine launched in San Francisco in 1995 by Michael Moss, devoted entirely to the swing revival.
See Swing Time Magazine Excerpt-Issue #5 Here:
Swing Time Magazine - Issue #2
The cover feature is "Hard-Boiled" The Royal Crown Revue Interview, an exclusive up-close with Mando Dorame and Eddie Nichols shot at Bimbo's, the San Francisco art-deco club where the band helped spark the retro-swing scene back in 1989.
See Swing Time Magazine Excerpt-Issue #2 Here:
Travel & Leisure
An American monthly travel magazine founded in 1971 and published continuously to the present.
See Travel & Leisure Excerpt Here:
TV Guide
An American weekly magazine founded in 1953 to provide television listings, news and interviews. It was published weekly continuously, and remains in print today in a reduced frequency format.
Vanity Fair
An American monthly magazine covering culture, fashion, politics and entertainment, originally founded in 1913. After ceasing publication in 1936, it was revived in its current form by Condé Nast in 1983 and has published monthly continuously to the present.
The Ventura Independent
A free alternative Arts & Entertainment weekly serving Ventura County, California during the 1990s, part of Southern California's boom in alternative weeklies.
See Ventura Independent Excerpt Here:
Vue Weekly
Edmonton's proudly independent alternative news and entertainment weekly, published free every Thursday from 1995 until 2018.
Copyright and Archival Use
The magazine articles, photographs, advertisements, logos, page designs, and other published material reproduced in this archive remain the property of their respective copyright holders. No ownership of third party copyrighted material is claimed.
The material is presented for historical documentation, commentary, research, and archival purposes in connection with the documented history of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. The reproduced pages are included to identify and discuss the band's appearances in contemporary publications and to preserve a record of how the band was represented in the print media of the period.
Publication names, trademarks, logos, photographs, articles, and other identifying material are used to identify the original sources and provide historical context. This archive is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the publications or their respective copyright holders unless specifically stated.
These scans and restorations are not intended to replace the original publications or to serve as substitutes for purchasing or accessing those publications. Where applicable, the inclusion of copyrighted material is intended to fall within the principles of fair use under Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act. Fair use is determined according to the particular circumstances of each use, and this notice is not intended to establish or guarantee a finding of fair use.
The purpose of this archive is preservation, historical documentation, and commentary about the band's own documented history and its place in the music and popular culture of the 1990s.