Asylum Street Spankers Spanker Madness CD

If you're ever flipping through the discs in your local record shop wondering "where might I find the perfect soundtrack for my weekend backyard hash get-down," the cover of Spanker Madness, a parody of the propaganda posters associated with the 1938 cult film classic Reefer Madness, should be enough to answer your question. Otherwise, here's the skinny on the disc: This latest Asylum Street Spankers hootenanny consists of 15-some people singing and playing up the wonders of cannabis with everything from guitars, ukuleles, and harmonicas to washboards, bells, and "various pieces of metal piled in the back of Leroy's '67 Ford F100 parked in the studio driveway." The songs are usually trite country blues and old-style jazz ditties: "Wake and Bake" is a love duet about a couple bonding over the morning's first toke of tea, and odd man out and executive producer Wammo stands up for his drug of choice on "Beer." All the tomfoolery (one of the record's more memorable lyrics goes "Marijuana makes me wanna eat candy and screw Madonna/With her hair bleached by peroxide/Huffin' on some nitrous oxide") and the lighthearted jam-session atmosphere makes it tough to take the Spankers seriously, but the album has its solemn moments. On "Take the Heat," for instance, Guy Forsyth sings about a busted woman battling to keep custody of her daughter. Like the doobies they sing about, the lead vocal duties are passed around from song to song, as are the instrumental solos. Wammo and fellow executive producer Christina Mars share most of the singing duties, although other notable performances include Forsyth on "Orion" and Stanley Smith keening like Randy Newman back in the day on "Another Blade of Grass." Other than maybe Dr. Dre's The Chronic, there's probably never been an album dedicated to the use of narcotics that has been too commercially successful. Which quickly dispels the notion that the 13 retro-sounding tunes on this disc are some kind of sellout-throwback gimmick. Coming on the heels of the derivative Big Bad Voodoo Daddy/Cherry Poppin' Daddies neo-swing trend, when suddenly any punk with a zoot suit who knew how to snap and pronounce that word (say it..."dad-dio") was hip, this disc's relative lack of contrivance was a breath of fresh air. ~ John Uhl

Spanker Madness is the Asylum Street Spankers' salute to the devil weed--or, if you prefer, the holy herb. Founding members Christina Marrs and Wammo are joined by a rotating cast of inmates that includes former full-time Spanker Guy Forsyth and producer David Leroy Biller on lead guitars. Marrs initiates a Betty Boop-style duet with the veddy British Martin Blacker on 'Wake and Bake' and strums a ukulele on 'Pakalolo Baby.' Wammo mounts up with the Ghost Riders in the Sky for 'Winning the War on Drugs' and does the Tom Waits thing on 'Amsterdam.' Clarinetist Stanley Smith takes a casually Dylanesque vocal on 'Blade of Grass' before Forsyth revisits the Delta on the bluesy 'Take the Heat.' The Spankers' loose communal spirit entertainingly recalls seminal hippie folk groups such as the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and the Holy Modal Rounders. But the most telling observation belongs to Wammo, who confesses that after decades of devoted experimentation, his favorite altered stat

Recorded at The Bridge, Austin, Texas. Includes liner notes by Wammo.

Asylum Street Spankers: Martin Blacker (vocals); Christina Marrs, Pierre Pichon, Jeff Ross (guitar); Korey Simeone (dobro); Leroy Biller, Pops Bayless (banjo); Guy Forsyth (baritone ukulele); The Mysterious Johyn (kazoo); Stanley Smith (clarinet); Jake Erwin, Rick Ramirez (bass guitar); Wammo (bells); The Red Herring's Men Chorus (background vocals); The Wammoaners, The Royal Cost Effective Choir, Rollingpaper.

The Asylum Street Spankers: Christina Marrs (vocals, electric & tenor guitars, tenor banjo, ukelele, saw); Guy Forsyth (vocals, slide & steel guitars, ukelele, harmonica, bells); Wammo (vocals, harmonica, drums, percussion, bells); Korey S