The Asylum Street Spankers have a pretty complicated, sophisticated recipe going on, but for a useful framework you could consider them an artsy highbrow vaudeville act. You might think of them as Hee Haw for an NPR audience.
For one thing, vaudeville would go with the time line and stylistic range. They have a perfectly modern sensibility, but they lean toward songs and stylings of the '30s and '40s — all acoustic, eschewing the "demon electricity." Plus, they put a strong emphasis on comedic material that could be thought of as novelty music.
But like Homer and Jethro (specifically name-checked), Hee Haw or Spike Jones, the Spankers' bawdy humor and stage antics are an indirect but strong form of bragging. Look, these Asylum Street Spankers are some sick, twisted bastards, but the sonsabitches know how to play. They know that when they pick up their instruments, they're going to give some artistic throw weight to all manner of shtick. They don't have to act like they're serious musicians.
Guy Forsyth can carry on, joking around, and pulling faces all day, but when he turns loose with the steel guitar, playing "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day," he rains down razor sharp shards of blues judgment that will put the fear of God into an atheist. Thus the best moments for repeat viewing are not the highly entertaining and personable shtick, but watching him concentrating during a solo. This is as good a performance of this Robert Johnson standard as I've heard.
They also get some of the vaudeville feel from their use of novelty instruments. It's not good enough for a Spanker to say they played a kazoo, though. Wammo can actually make the thing carry a tune, and get a unique voice out of it. He actually plays that washboard contraption. That ukulele ain't just for show.
Moreover, by Spanker logic, they mostly don't make a big deal of the unusual instruments, they just pick up a saw and a bow and start playing their part. They appear to have at least three people who can play a saw. Miss Christina gets a particularly good spooky saw solo during the Cold War paranoia of "UFO Attack." ("Robot monsters in my underwear!")
This DVD is the recording of an August 2004 performance at the Texas Union Theater in Austin, which was something of a homecoming for all kinds of alumni Spankers. That's slightly problematic during the first set, when they're busy working in the old crew. Every single individual on the stage was a playin' sumbitch, but it was perhaps a bit too much of a good thing trying to shoehorn them all in.
Article comments
1 - Joanie
Sick isn't the only mohawked non-punk musician. Ben Hernandez, an incredibly talented bluesman, is mohawked to the nth degree. Or at least, he was, until he went to the IBC finals in Memphis. I wish he hadn't toned down the look for the trip. I think it made the perfect point about the blues belonging to everyone.