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ASS

Asylum Street Spankers.

A band that Skape discovered quite accidentally while fucking around on Napster.

He plugged in "Asylum" and came back with "Asylum Street Spankers -- Rotten Cocksucker's Ball"

He mentioned it and I downloaded it. It's a funny song, done in the style of a barbershop quartet but with real crass lyrics, which makes for a pretty funny juxtaposition.

In any case, that was a few weeks ago. Today I thought I would give some of their other stuff a listen.

EVERY song I download is fucking fantastic.

The style is a lot like say Squirrel Nut Zippers, another band I love, but these guys are better vocalists and all around better musicians. It's a throwback to the style of the 30s and 40s, but with lyrics like "Well I got nipples on my titties big as the end of my thumb. I got something 'tween my leg make a dead man cum." (first line of "Shave Em Dry")

I can't believe I've never heard of them before, not even remotely, and nobody I have talked to has either. They look like more of show band than a studio band. But man are they terrific.

Anybody else ever heard of them?

I highly suggest downloading "If You Want Me To Love You" as a starter kit if you haven't.

Great fucking band.

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Stolen from http://www.asylumstreetspankers.com

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"Folks who know the Asylum Street Spankers - Austin's all-star, all-acoustic, vaudeville riot - won't be surprised that they've made a drug album. With a career built as much on irreverence as musicianship and a repertoire that has always included a mess of old reefer and drug tunes, it's a surprise it took them so long. Amazingly, the idea never came up until a trip to Amsterdam last spring (for which the bass player was too stoned to make the flight) led to a batch of new songs inspired by Dutch hospitality.

These songs became their fourth album, Spanker Madness. Beautifully produced by guitarist Leroy Biller, Spanker Madness successfully captures the Spankers' wild abandon as well as their rapturous intimacy. Swaying and swaggering through woozy jazz, galloping country, wistful ragtime, martial blues, Hawaiian bliss and a couple of genres apparently invented during the sessions, fiddles, harmonicas, saws, banjos, washboards and an astounding array of guitars and voices weave over and around one another. Such a contraption might fall apart in the hands of lesser players, but the Spankers succeed at bringing a delicate grace to even the most chaotic instrumental interplay.

Though musically light years beyond the Spanker's primitive and raucous first release, thematically, Spanker Madness is a return to the band's roots.

As legend has it, five years ago a motley collection of Austin's best singers, pickers, blowers and blowhards convened for a wild weekend of sex, drugs and rock & roll at the historic Dabb's Hotel in Llano, Texas.

Thank goodness nobody forgot the drugs. While being forced to play together acoustically forged these various punks, hillbillies, gypsy swingers, blues shouters, singing actors and performance artists into Spankers, it's doubtful that without the beer, wine, grass and 'shrooms any of them would have so deeply grasped what an awesome amount of electricity they could generate without ever plugging in.

In the years since some thirty or so of Austin's finest musicians have been Spankers, some more than once, many for only a show or two. Constant touring built a dedicated following of self-proclaimed Spankheads around the world. They won a bunch of awards and received some very kind notices from the press. Somehow amidst all the personnel changes and touring they managed to release four albums. Through it all bandleaders Christina Marrs and Wammo have kept two things constant - a reckless sense of fun and an absolute prohibition on amps.

The result is an unrivalled contemporary vaudeville show. With an emphasis on entertaining, the Spankers blend world-class musicianship, topical humor, stunning vocals, broad theatrics and an astonishing use of acoustic dynamics into an entirely unique and engaging experience that has thrilled diverse audiences at jazz, blues, folk, country, punk and bluegrass venues around the world.

Whether performing their legendary gospel brunches, their family oriented festival set or their bawdy nightclub show, The Asylum Street Spankers can effortlessly move audiences from rolling in the aisles during one number to spellbound and breathless the next. The band calls it "getting' spanked" and its even more fun than it sounds."

Also taken from their site.

[This message has been edited by Paint CHiPs (edited 04-06-2001).]

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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)

---Rolling Stone

I am in love with this band.

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In the "This Officially Creeped Me Out Category", The Asylum Street Spankers have a song called "Sad Bomber".

I am not kidding.

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Paint, you should try to contact them and see if they would like to join. They have some pretty good songs, and would probably like this place.

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This beats Dead_Inside's Robyn Hitchcock thread all to hell.

In any case, I was looking up the lyrics to a song on google.

"Asylum Street Spankers" lyrics Beer

And this thread came up as the second link.

"Beer" is the name of a song BTW.

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Did you actually download some Robyn Hitchcock and listen to it and then offer an opinion? I think not.

I will be the better man and download some of this Barbershop quartet music you keep going on about. And offer an opinion as well.

Back off my Robyn thread. It was the best thread, ever. I miss Bubba.

Punk.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Dead_Inside:
Did you actually download some Robyn Hitchcock and listen to it and then offer an opinion? I think not.

I will be the better man and download some of this Barbershop quartet music you keep going on about. And offer an opinion as well.

Back off my Robyn thread. It was the best thread, ever. I miss Bubba.

Punk.

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Best thread ever.

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just send the "Off the Beaten Path" award to my regular address.

Diamanda Galas - Wild Women With Steak Knives.

and i like it.

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I couldn't find them on Napster. Anyone have copies they could link to?

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Hrm. I wonder why people are having trouble finding them. I mean, they're no Metallica, but whenever I pop in the name, I always got a good 50 or so songs pop up. On Limewire it varies, but it varies from 10 to 50+.

That's odd.

If you are really having trouble, as a last resort you may want to just type in "Guy Forsyth" or "Christina Mars" or "Wammo" or "Mysterious John" or whatever (or by song name for that matter). Those are a few of the members that are often attributed in Napster bylines. I'd suggest you keep trying with Asylum Street Spankers though, as only about half of the songs I've come across involve those four (or are commonly attributed to them).

(oh, and the other admins like this group too but won't admit it because the band advocates drug use) ;p

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quote:

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Originally posted by Paint CHiPs:
(oh, and the other admins like this group too but won't admit it because the band advocates drug use)

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Must be some kind of reverse conservatism that kicked in as a result of the exosure to stileproject and the power that they command here.

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>:/

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I think you guys are lying just to weasel out of downloading music I like.

I don't have much of a problem finding their stuff on any file sharing programs. Not always a lot of their stuff, as they are pretty obscure, but a fair amount.

If worse comes to worse, you can always hop in chat and have me DCC some of it to you.

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Went to their website and listened to some of the .rm files there. Interesting stuff. I need Mp3's for any real feel. I am, however, a trooper and will keep trying.

RealPlayer can suck my cock.

Chat? DCC? You confuse and frighten me.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Dead_Inside:
Went to their website and listened to some of the .rm files there. Interesting stuff. I need Mp3's for any real feel. I am, however, a trooper and will keep trying.

RealPlayer can suck my cock.

Chat? DCC? You confuse and frighten me.

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acid makes you flacid

Beer is the only song I could find on the program I'm using

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brad has horrible taste in music.
you are forewarned.
that band has like, TWO good songs. if that. and one is a prince cover.

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But you are loving all the Robyn Hitchcock he downloaded, right karen?

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quote:

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Originally posted by karen:
brad has horrible taste in music.
you are forewarned.
that band has like, TWO good songs. if that. and one is a prince cover.

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