Search - Asylum Street Spankers :: Mercurial

Mercurial
Asylum Street Spankers
Mercurial
Genres: Country, Folk, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (14) - Disc #1


     
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CD Details

All Artists: Asylum Street Spankers
Title: Mercurial
Members Wishing: 5
Total Copies: 0
Label: Yellow Dog Records
Release Date: 3/20/2007
Genres: Country, Folk, Pop
Styles: Americana, Traditional Folk, Contemporary Folk
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 823800140420

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CD Reviews

Pure, polished, irreverent fun.
Miles D. Moore | Alexandria, VA USA | 03/14/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Asylum Street Spankers defy easy categorization. Sticking resolutely to acoustic instruments including clarinet, harmonica, banjo and at times even musical saw, the Spankers perform a bewildering array of songs in just about every popular style extant in America since the end of World War I. Though the band's lineup changes with each recording, the two leaders have remained constant: Christina Marrs, whose vocal tone and range remind me of Barbara Cook with touches of Aretha Franklin and Betty Boop, and Wammo, who is truly one of a kind. The Spankers' MO is to take absolutely nothing seriously except their musicianship (which is polished to the point of glowing) and to celebrate all forms of pleasure, not excluding those that are generally considered to be either immoral, illegal or fattening. (For their sake, I hope John Ashcroft never gets hold of a copy of "Spanker Madness.") Their new album, "Mercurial"--so named for Mercury Hall in their home town of Austin, where this CD was recorded--basically is a sampler of everything that makes the Spankers great. They perform everything from true old-time numbers such as "Shine On Harvest Moon" and "Digga Digga Doo" to a hilarious cover of the B-52's "Dance This Mess Around." Christina Marrs lights up the torches in such down-and-dirty blues numbers as "Got My Mojo Workin'" and "Sugar in My Bowl," but it's Wammo who is the album's standout in his wonderful original, "Hick Hop," best described as a rumble between the posses of Toby Keith and Snoop Dogg. Sadly, "Mercurial" probably marks the last appearances of Stanley Smith and Korey Simeone as regular Spankers--Smith quit the band because of ill health, Simeone to pursue an acting career--but the new touring group of Spankers is as tight an ensemble as ever, and bodes well for the band's survival as a living monument to the Pleasure Principle."
Genre-bending gritty pretty music
Tuckers Kahuna | San Francisco, CA USA | 08/31/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the most amazing amalgam of alt country, old-timey swing, big band, blues and modern covers. No holds are barred, and no style is safe. Sparkling between these genre-bending excursions is some amazing musicianship. I haven't enjoyed an album this much in a long time. Their talent is startling original and fresh.



Backing up this superb release are class A sonics. I hold the recording engineers in awe to be able to mate the plaintive sounds of Christina Marrs singing a sultry ballad, and a wailing and crashing full-band assault in the next bar. It all sounds very live, organic and original.

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One of their best
J. Palus | 05/23/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first time I saw the Spankers was in 1998 in Austin. To me, that incarnation of the band will always be THE Asylum Street Spankers. But that's not to say that they still aren't the best thing to happen to American music since Bessie Smith. Mercurial, of course, is quintessential Spankers--just listen to the scatting on "Tight Like That", as Christina Marrs and Wammo counterpoint with one more voice (that I admit I can't identify)...Does it get any better than that? Or note how the group uses their genius to approximate (and improve upon) "Dance this Mess Around", using only acoustic instruments--if you've never heard a steel guitar banging out the chords for a B-52s song, you haven't lived. Or listen to Christina Marrs belt out "Got My Mojo Workin". Does it get any better than that?



Well, yes, actually, but you'll have to see them live. Until you can, Mercurial is a great way to get the Spanker experience."