Asylum Street Spankers

Infobox musical artist
Name = Asylum Street Spankers


Img_capt =
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Background = group_or_band
Origin = Austin, Texas, USA
Genre = Progressive folk music, Jazz blues, Ragtime, Roots rock, Comedy rock
Years_active = 1994 - present
Label = Spanks-a-Lot Records
URL = [http://www.asylumstreetspankers.com/ Official website]
Current_members = Jakob Breitbach, Charlie King, Nevada Newman, Scott Marcus, Christina Marrs, Morgan Patrick Thompson, Wammo
Past_members = See Below

The Asylum Street Spankers, formed in Austin, Texas in 1994, is a band whose music is rooted in early 20th century American musical forms. In Fall 2006, the band's anti-war video "Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your SUV" garnered 380,000 views on YouTube within the first two months of its release. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmsOIjzQ1V8 Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your SUV] ]

History

Founded by Guy Forsyth, Wammo and Christina Marrs at a legendary party at the famous Dabbs Hotel along the Llano River in Texas, the band began by busking on the streets of Austin and playing for tips in bars. In their earliest days, the Spankers' repertoire consisted almost entirely of country, blues, jazz, swing and Tin Pan Alley songs dating from the 1890s to the 1950s with a particular emphasis on the 1920s and 1930s. While their tone was raucous and irreverent, the band was also known for its musicianship, theatricality and militant acousticism. Until 2004 they played the vast majority of their concerts without any amplification at all. Not only did this heighten the theatricality of their shows, it caused the musicians to develop inventive vocal and instrumental arrangements in order to constantly engage an audience in such a quiet performance. Several early members were actors and nearly all members have been multi-instrumentalists.

With the departure of Forsyth in 1997, the Spankers' began playing more original songs, most written in the roots styles the band had already mastered. By 1999 only Marrs and Wammo remained of the line up that gained massive popularity in Austin and around Texas. Reconstructing the band under their leadership, Marrs and Wammo began to expand the act's boundaries to include more cross-genre experimentation, ever more intricate arrangements and vocal harmonies, and, most successfully, more humorous, though sometimes pointed social and cultural commentary. Many of their albums from 1999 on have been musically or lyrically thematic. Spanker Madness, primarily country blues music about drug use, is generally pro-marijuana, but several songs examine the negative side of drug use and incisively criticize the War on Drugs. They have also released A Christmas Spanking; Mercurial, an album recorded live using technology and techniques of 1940s vintage; My Favorite Record, an album about their love of music; X-rated EPs; and an album of songs about children and childhood heavily inspired by Shel Silverstein and Maurice Sendak. The Spankers have covered songs by a wide range of artists including Prince, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, The Beastie Boys, The B-52s, Black Flag, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Harry Nilsson, The Jazz Butcher, The Violent Femmes, George Jones, Nirvana, Nina Simone, Nine Inch Nails, Otis Redding, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Johnny Cash. They are also known for throwing snatches of familiar songs into cut and paste sections of their own construction to form musical montages.

In 1999 Marrs and Wammo founded Spanks-a-Lot Records to release their music. Besides giving the group complete creative control, starting their own record label allowed the Spankers to increase the frequency of their releases, avoid the problems they had experienced with their three prior labels and keep a larger share of the profits derived from their recordings. This move was part of a trend amongst musicians allowed by the proliferation of digital recording technology and distribution. Spanks-a-Lot has released two DVDs documenting the group's live show, highlighting its musicianship and continually evolving theatricality.

Band name

The band derived its name from an Austin street where they would often busk that was nicknamed Asylum Street, now named Guadalupe Street, and the term "spanker" which is an old musician's term for "one who plays his instrument vigorously and proficiently". It was along Guadalupe that the group played a number of early shows; Asylum Street led to a state asylum.

Personnel

*Jakob Breitbach
*Charlie King
*Nevada Newman
*Scott Marcus
*Christina Marrs
*Morgan Patrick Thompson
*Wammo

Former members

*Col. Josh Arnson *Pops Bayless *Leroy Biller *Adam "Tiny" Booker *Garreth Broesche *Jimmie Dean *Mysterious John Dodson *Jonathan Doyle *Jake Erwin *Guy Forsyth *Olivier Giraud *Reese Gray *Mike Henry *Josh Hoag

*Billy Horton *Brent Martins *Eamon McLaughlin *Django Porter *Charlie Rose *Mark Rubin *"Salty" John Salmon *Paul Schlichting *PB Shane *Sick *Korey Simeone *Kevin Smith *Stanley Smith *Matt Weiner

Albums

*"Spanks for the Memories"
*"Live"
*"Lowriders On the Storm" (Wammo)
*"Nasty Novelties"
*"Dirty Ditties"
*"In the Land of Dreams" (Stanley Smith)
*"Faster Than the Speed of Suck" (Wammo)
*"Hot Lunch"
*"Spanker Madness"
*"A Christmas Spanking"
*"Stinkin'" b/w "Goodbye Cousin Early"
*"My Favorite Record"
*"Why Do it Right?" (Nevada Newman)
*"Strawberry" (Live)
*"Mercurial"
*"Pussycat"
*"Mommy Says No!"

Videos

*"Sideshow Fez" (DVD)
*"Re-Assembly (2005)" (DVD)
*"Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your SUV"

See also

*Music of Austin

References

* [http://www.hotbands.com/reviews/20030901review.php Interview at HotBands]
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4777190 Interview on NPR's All Things Considered]

External links

* [http://www.asylumstreetspankers.com/ Official site]
*amg | id = 11:n23m961odep2 | label = Asylum Street Spankers
*MusicBrainz artist|id=be9f392d-0475-4c8a-a3b9-f4b476942b40|name=Asylum Street Spankers
* [http://www.archive.org/details/AsylumStreetSpankers Asylum Street Spankers collection] at the Internet Archive's live music archive
* [http://www.montychandler.com/Musicians/Asylum%20Street%20Spankers/index.htm Asylum Street Spankers Photos - 2008]