>Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 00:40:52 -0500 >From: Vickie Lucero <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Organization: Propaganda Media >X-Accept-Language: en >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Subject: Rolling Stone Network: Live- The Asylum Street Spankers >Status: > > Music the way God intended it. > Asylum Street Spankers > >Mercury Lounge, New York, April 18, 1999 > > It takes considerable balls for a band to face a packed New York City >club and play an entire show without a single mic or amp on stage. It >takes even bigger cajones to ask that crowd to sit down on the grubby, >cigarette-strewn floor for the length of two entire sets. But for the >Asylum Street Spankers, it was just business as usual. > >The Spankers are a ten-member-strong collective of musicians from Austin, >Texas, that specializes in a hybrid mix of swing, jazz, country and >lounge. The band members, ranging in age from twenty to fifty-something, >include (among others): a portly old ukelele and guitar player in overalls >named Pops; an even older, skinny cat with a clarinet and cool beat poet's >rasp; a blond siren with a huge tattoo on her back and voice that moves >from Betty Boop to Bessie Smith in a heartbeat; a guy with a huckster >suit, shades, kazoo and Sammy Davis Jr. vocal chops named Mysterious John; >and a long-haired washboard-and-harmonica-playing loudmouth named Wammo. >Then there's their real gimmick: everything, including vocals, is >delivered completely sans amplification. "Music," proclaimed Mysterious >John, "the way God intended it." > >That's assuming, of course, that God's got a stoner sense of humor bluer >than Cheech and Butthead in a barrel of skin mags. The Spankers do a lot >of things very well, but they excel at lowbrow bawdiness. Pops sang about >funny cigarettes and Whitehouse politics, wherein "you gotta go down to go >up." Wammo, who earlier had pointed out that his parents and family doctor >were in the house, invited audience participation during a sing-along >about his scrotum. Mysterious John hammed through a paean called "Fanny," >which closed with the band leaping into the chorus of Spinal Tap's "Big >Bottom." And during the last song of the evening, "Shave 'Em Dry," >Christina Marrs grabbed her crotch through her long black dress and >salaciously boasted, "I got fat from fucking!" > >Juvenile? Hell yes, but the Spankers pull it off like vaudevillian pros >and back it up with serious musical talent. For every tribute to sex and >drugs, there was a straight-up tribute to giants like Benny Goodman, Al >Jolson, Django Reinhardt and Hank Williams. Several of the bandmembers >took turns on lead vocals, but the standouts were Marrs and clarinetist >Stanley "Cool Pops" Smith. Marrs stands out on one level as the lone >female in the bunch, but it's her extraordinary vocal range that stole the >show tonight. She would sing one song in twee sex-pot caricature, and belt >out the next in a full-bodied, sultry roar which made it perfectly clear >why the Spankers get along just fine without microphones. And when Smith >took the spotlight to blow a solo, sing-speak a verse or even just snap >his fingers to the beat of the stand-up bass and brushed snare drum, the >shenanigans ceased and the Spankers snapped into class. It was announced >that Smith would be leaving the group in the immediate future, and his >loss to the band will be a great one. > >That's not to say Smith's departure will cripple the band. Not by a long >shot. As evidenced tonight, there's too much inventiveness in this group >to go around for it to hang together by any single talent. The opening >song, "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie," was all about Marrs' high, sweet voice >and ukulele, until Wammo cupped his hands over his nose and mouth and >began to scat like a warbled old 78 record being piped in straight from >either Mars or 1925 while the band kicked in behind him. Things would only >get weirder as the Spankers went on to play for two and a half more hours, >but after that opening flash of inspired, lunatic brilliance, the rest was >all gravy. > >RICHARD SKANSE > (April 22, 1999)
