Asylum Street Spankers
My Favorite Record
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Asylum Street Spankers
My Favorite Record
Bloodshot Records, 2002
RiYL: James Mcmurtry, Squirrel Nut Zippers |
Signs on the doors to a Spankers gig warn the audience that excessive chatting will not be tolerated, and violators have found themselves dressed down by the band (and the rest of the audience). Ardent fans plop down right at the foot of the stage, getting far cozier with a bar floor than anyone ever really should. Ultimately, those willing to shut up and pay attention will feel as if they’ve been shot back in time 80 years, stopping to pick up Johnny Cash and Husker Du along the way.
Unlikely as it seems, the Spankers have been very successful at transferring the schizophrenia and energy of their live sets to record. Their last two studio offerings -- 1999's Hot Lunch and 2001's Spanker Madness -- both managed to bring Spankers favorites to your CD player while preserving what made them favorites. There's still nothing like the live Spankers experience. But if the band won’t come play in your living room every night (and you never know, they just might if you ask), the albums will do.
The group's latest studio offering, My Favorite Record, is another success. As the three principals have grown more comfortable in their roles, they deftly pass the torch around, each one unafraid to make a track his or her own. The result is what a naysayer might call “inconsistent.” The first two tracks somehow feature jungle creatures, antifreeze, and Jesus Lizard. Smith’s understated front-porch whistler “Mountain Town” sits next to Wammo’s “Whatever,” a tongue-in-cheek teary-eyed political ballad warped in the studio into a bombastic production number. Later, you’ll find breathy torch songs (“Breathin’”), ballsy country stompers (“Wingless Angels”), and even a track composed for a Charlie Chaplin film on the bowed flexible saw (“Minor Waltz”). If it’s important to you that one track on an album should bear some resemblance to the rest of the tracks, it’s safe to say that the Spankers are not the band for you.
Most of the tracks on My Favorite Record are left relatively unembellished, letting the same personality that drives the songs in concert shine through on the album. However, Wammo can’t resist taking it up a level on a few tracks-his solo disc, Faster Than The Speed Of Suck, is a testament to his love of the studio. The aforementioned “Whatever” gets the full-on George Martin Sgt. Pepper treatment, and it is certainly no worse for it.
My Favorite Record is as good an introduction to the Spankers as you’ll find on CD, though it’s no substitute for heading out to your local dive when they come to town. Those already on the boat will find it to be a fine souvenir.
JONATHAN PIERCY | Jonathan Piercy is a writer, music lover, and amateur magician in Greensboro, NC. In his spare time, he is a resident physician in internal medicine.