Seeking Asylum even without amplification

Austin band speaks loudly even without amplification

Thursday, November 2, 2000

The Asylum Street Spankers just might be America's greatest unknown band.

Though mainstream success has eluded the Austin, Tex.-based outfit to date, the Spankers have quietly paved a way into the hearts and minds of music lovers across the country via a Kerouacian touring schedule that finds the group on the road six months out of every year.

The Asylum Street Spankers provide a unique take on back-porch music with the all-acoustic "Spanker Madness."

But what's a great live show without great music? Seamlessly blending back-porch blues, drunken jazz, woozy country, hip-shaking skiffle and even a few Hawaiian-flavored tunes, the Spankers truly dazzle with a sound that encompasses nearly every great moment of the early-to-mid 20th century. A "spanker" is a musician who plays an acoustic instrument with equal parts intensity and proficiency. Thus it's no surprise that fiddles, banjos, guitars and harmonicas are played alongside everything from washboards to spoons to saws, all of which concoct the Spankers' unique sound.

Though the band's vaudevillian stage show and commitment to retro grooves might give the impression that they're another trendy batch of swingers, the Spankers are about as far from the Squirrel Nut Cherry Poppin' Voodoo Daddies of yesteryear as it gets. It's gotta be the lyrics.

With red-eyed odes such as "Wake and Bake," "Winning the War on Drugs" and "High as You Can Be," the Spankers may well be the Cypress Hill of the retro set. "If there's a war against drugs, how come so many are around?" asks one song, tongue deadbolted in cheek, while another rattles off a laundry-list of illicit drugs before settling on a "nice cold beer."

Another aspect that sets the Spankers apart from the swinging wolf pack is their refusal to use amplifiers, microphones or even a P.A. system.

"You really don't want to hear a ukulele through a Marshall stack," explains vocalist Christina Marrs from her Austin home. "Every acoustic instrument that you play amplified is going to sound different. Even the human voice sounds different when you amplify it. The instrumentation we use is just meant to be played acoustically. The first gig we played, we didn't have any microphones or amplification or anything. It really snowballed. Suddenly, we had all these people at our gigs, and we knew we were onto something."

In this modern age of musical gadgets and gimmickry, being an all-acoustic band isn't necessarily the easiest route to super stardom. The Spankers usually wind up explaining their approach to the uninitiated.

"Sometimes we'll go into a club, and the owner or the promoter, who hasn't seen us yet, are just aghast at the idea that we don't use mikes," Marrs says laughing. "They're like, 'Oh my god. No one's going to be able to hear you.' We try to tell them that we've been doing this for a long time. There really aren't any rooms that you can't get away with it in, as long as the audience cooperates with you and sits back and watches the show. We usually make a request for the audience to keep the chatter to a minimum so everybody can enjoy the show, and it works out really well."

Taking over the Asylum

What: Asylum Street Spankers

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday

Where: The Jazzhaus, 926 1/2 Mass.

Ticket information: 749-3320

When: 8 p.m. Thursday

Where: Davey's Uptown, 3402 Main, KC, Mo.

Ticket information: (816) 753-1909

The legend of the Asylum Street Spankers dates back to the early '90s, when various founding members of the soon-to-be group gathered for a weekend of debauchery at the infamous Dabb's Hotel in Llano, Tex.

"They had a festival kind of thing featuring weird, wacky acts," Marrs recalls. "I went there with my friend Guy Forsyth, and we met Wammo there. That evening a bunch of people just sat around passing around a guitar. Wammo and Guy became friends. They decided that it would be fun to start an acoustic band � one that didn't use amplification. It was sort of an alternative to the bands that they were in, which were loud rock bands. They wanted to use weird instruments like washboard. We barely even had one rehearsal and we got a gig. The folklore differs. I say that we never intended to use amplification, but others swear that we forgot to bring the P.A. to the first gig."

The Spankers toured endlessly, stopping only to record three highly-acclaimed records before releasing this year's "Spanker Madness." Though the band's early works were recorded live, with only a single microphone capturing the sound, the Spankers' third effort, "Hot Lunch," was a heavily-produced studio affair that got a mixed reaction from the band members and many of their fans.

"It was a full-on studio record, complete with overdubs and solos and studio tricks," Marrs says with a sardonic sigh. "We made a really nice, polite-sounding record. A lot of people complained that it didn't really sound like the Spankers to them, and a lot of people really love it. After that, we wanted to do something kind of in-between. On 'Spanker Madness,' the basic tracks were recorded live, and we didn't do as many tricks this time."

Much of "Spanker Madness" was inspired by a 1999 visit to the Netherlands, where the band got a heavy dose of Dutch lifestyle.

"We spent some time in Utrecht, which is about 45 minutes outside of Amsterdam," Marrs recalls. "It was a beautiful city. Then we went to Amsterdam and it was really incredible. We hung out and we did do every coffee bar we could find. It was a fun city, but it's not rampant, out-of-control drug use or anything."

Scrutinizing the words

The lyrical forays into taboo topics has made the band an occasional target for the right. A reviewer from Christian Woman Today magazine decried the band's "absolutely filthy subject matter and lyrics" but noted that "one may delight in the exemplary musicianship." Still, the band mostly has avoided the critical media blasts launched at rappers with similar lyrical content.

"We're not showing up in a lot of teen-ager's record collections," Marrs explains. "We're not as popular with the kids as hip-hop music. Actually, we're more likely to appeal to their parents."

So why the lyrical focus on the hypocrisy of the war on drugs?

"I can't speak for everybody in the band, but I'd say that we're probably pro-decriminalization or pro-legalization. It seems like the only sensible thing to do. There's too much money in the prison system with the private, institutionalized prisons. It's a big money maker for everyone involved, including our government. This country has already seen that prohibition didn't work. I'm hoping that in my lifetime that we'll see marijuana decriminalized in this country to the point where it's not a big deal. I think we're heading on that track. So my vote goes to Nader this year.

"I hope a lot of people are willing to get out and vote. He could win, if only people who don't like the two-party system would get out and vote. It's a shame that he or Buchanan weren't allowed into the debates. But people are so apathetic in this country. It seems like as long as they have cable and beer, they're not too willing to do much of anything."

The Spankers always seem to be doing something. Currently, the band is refining a live performance piece set to Charlie Chaplin's silent movie, "The Gold Rush." The show, which is an Austin-only event, is largely a farewell to the city that the band has called home for 12 years. In the coming months, the Spankers plan to relocate to New Orleans.

"A lot has changed in Austin," Marrs explains. "We used to have a great music scene, a real sense of community and a lot of great bands. It used to be on a Monday night, you couldn't even decide what to do. There were so many things going on. Now, even on a Friday or Saturday night, it's hard to find quality entertainment. Austin has changed a lot economically. We've had a huge tech boom here the last few years which has driven up rent and real estate and caused a lot of traffic congestion. All the cool, funky, locally-owned places are shutting down and being replaced with Starbucks and Borders, that kind of thing. It's affected the music scene here a lot, in my opinion. Most musicians can't afford to live here anymore."

Fourth of July / The Danny Pound Band / Drakkar Sauna / Black Christmas / Ebony & Ivory / Brodioke :: A measly $2 gets you into two venues all night to see this walloping mega-bill of top-shelf local rock, hip-hop, metal, alt-country, and DJ acts ... More info

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