For 20 years, Eugene’s horn-heavy, genre-bending Cherry Poppin’ Daddies has pushed the limits of popular music. In September, the group issued two releases, “Susquehanna” and “Skaboy JFK: the Skankin’ Hits of the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies.” Susquehanna” was previously only available on the band’s website, while “Skaboy JFK” is a compilation of new ska tracks with older Cherry Poppin’ Daddies ska songs, some of which have been re-recorded.

“Susquehanna” brings together the Daddies’ West Coast retro style and Latin influences: flamenco, “greaser rock,” swing, ska, glam and soca, to name a few. The album is an experiment in narrative storytelling through shifting genres. “I wanted each song to come across as a chapter in a modernist novel,” said band leader Steve Perry, “like James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses,’ where the literary style/genre that each chapter is written in is radically different. So it’s a pop album, disjointed, and maybe even jarring, in style and structure, but it’s thematically coherent.”

Like their 1998 multi-platinum smash “Zoot Suit Riot: the Swingin’ Hits of the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies,” the new album, “Skaboy JFK,” emphasizes a single genre, this time the ’60s era up-tempo form of pre-reggae Jamaican soul known as ska. “Skaboy” combines four new recordings with tracks from the group’s earlier catalogue, reflecting all the waves and varieties of ska: Traditional/Bluebeat, Two Tone, Third Wave and even funky Fishbone-esque hybrids for good measure.

With “Skaboy” the Daddies aim to reconnect with a ska audience that is largely aware of the group as a swing band. “We toured with many of the iconic ska bands when we were coming up,” Perry said, “like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Fishbone, Reel Big Fish, The Specials, No Doubt and Madness, but at that time we were really touring behind ‘Zoot Suit Riot,’ so we didn’t play a ton of ska in our sets. Now we will.”

Cherry Poppin’ Daddies will be in concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 29, at the Liberty Theater, 1203 Commercial St. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $22. For advance ticket locations, visit kvas1039.com and click on “events.” For more information, call (503) 325-5922 or log on to www.liberty-theater.org

More information about the band can be found online at www.daddies.com or www.myspace.com/cherrypoppindaddies

The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies swing outside the box and reintroduce ska to the mix at the Liberty Theater May 29. Submitted photo