Link to the Triad: 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

Tom Maxwell, left, and Ken Mosher

Members: Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher. The two play everything from guitar to trombone to banjo.

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."