[Asylum Street Spankers is] a total organic assembly of diverse people with nothing in common except for a love of music.
— Founding member, Guy Forsyth, talking about the all-acoustic, jazz/blues/country/jug band Asylum Street Spankers.
"Two more years of doing this, and I'll have been doing this for a third of my life," Asylum Street Spanker founder, musical director and guiding spirit, Christina Marrs remarks on at least two occasions in this sprawling two-set, three-hour live DVD commemoration of her band's 10th anniversary. It sounds like a story problem (answer: she's 34), but actually, it's a declaration of purpose. Marrs and her co-founders Wammo and Guy Forsyth, met at the Dabbs Hotel in Llano, Texas in 1994 and, in a party that turned into an all-night singalong, discovered a common love for acoustic early music. Starting as buskers on Austin's Guadaloupe Street (also known as Asylum Street, because it led to the state hospital), the band quickly moved to more established venues, whose logos decorate the set for this reunion concert -- La Zona Rosa, The Electric Factory, Antone's, The Outhouse and the Continental Club.
Over the years, the band attracted a changing cast of unamplified musicians, many of whom have returned for this nostalgia-inducing Spankers celebration. Nearly every new song brings another member of the extended family to the front, and by the end, more than 20 people have shared the crowded stage.
The show begins with "Monkey Rag", a jaunty, staccato rhythmed song that has every member of the band bobbing and nodding to the beat. On the optional audio track that accompanies the cut, Marrs recalls that the song had been shelved for years, because right at its middle, everybody in the band handed their instrument to the left and started playing a new one. Colonel Josh Aronson, she explained, was always going to learn the trumpet for the song, and never did. For this version, the Spankers retain their original instruments, but it is a sign of their unusual musical skill that eight or 10 people could even consider trading instruments mid-song.
The first set is varied -- incorporating ragtime-ish jaunts, classic blues tunes and comic rants. Washboard player/poet Wammo takes the stage for "Beer" by calculating the number of cold ones he's consumed over the Spankers 10-year run. At three beers a day, which even he admits may be low, the number exceeds 11,000, which leads into a herky jerky litany of the shortcomings of other drugs, and a rousing chorus of "Beer, beer, beer, beer, beer…" etc. etc. In their running commentary, Spankers founders recall the time they played that song at a radio show on the day that a ninth grade class from nearby just happened to be visiting the studio -- and almost got their teacher fired for encouraging the kids to sing along. It's the first of several slyly funny songs, mostly by Wammo. Later "Lee Harvey" and, on the second disk, "Amsterdam" showcase his anarchic take on traditional forms.
Founding member Guy Forsyth joins the group three songs in, perhaps because he has not been a full-time member since 1998. He plays a silver resonator guitar, digging the notes out of its strings, bending them into arabesque shapes and slapping the front of his instrument extra rhythmic backing. The song is Robert Johnson's "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day" and his fiery interpretation of it reminds you just how brutal and elemental acoustic blues guitar can be. Then Wammo introduces jazz clarinetist Stanley Smith with a very funny story about a Keith Moon biography and a dirty bathroom, and Smith himself joins in.
The Spankers sound is intensely rhythmic, staccato and clipped, a clatter of rim-shot snare and slap-and-pop string bass and rapid-strummed guitars and banjos all moving in quick sync through many of the songs. Smith's old-time jazz clarinet provides a fluid, sensual counterpart in "Since I Met You Baby"; it's sort of like pouring oil over a rough surface. You get the same effect again, in the second set, when Smith leads a silky rendition of Benny Goodman's "A Smooth One", each of four Spankers guitar players taking a turn playing homage to Goodman ax-man Charlie Christian.
There's a mix of old songs and new ones that could be old, if they weren't so smart-ass. Among the older compositions, one of the best is "Jerry the Junker", sung with manic intensity by Forsyth, and the Blind Lemon Jefferson "Deep Ellum Blues" coming early in set two. The newer ones seem mostly concerned with intoxicants -- "Beer", "Funny Cigarette", "Gettin' High" and "Amsterdam". "Whatever", which closes out the first set, is a welcome break, sardonically promising to believe and say whatever it takes to get a high-minded girl into bed.
Extras in this voluminous package include mostly forgettable "behind the scenes" footage from before the concert, an intermission's worth of old band photos, and an optional commentary by Marrs, Forsyth, Wammo and band manager JP Riede. This last element is mostly hard-core fans. You can't really hear the music adequately when it's on, so you'll probably want to watch the show first, then sample the commentary. That will, necessarily, require a more than six hour commitment to Re-Assembly which is more than most people are going to be willing to dedicate.
Still, too much of a good thing is still a good thing. Just make sure, like the opening menu says, that you have enough time and beer and pot to get you through.
— 13 April 2006
