Asylum Street Spankers – Mercurial

How does the idea of string-band versions of the B-52’s “Dance This Mess Around”, the Beastie Boys’ “Paul Revere” and Black Flag’s “TV Party” (complete with a series of kitschy TV theme-song excerpts) strike you? Your answer will likely determine how you feel about the Asylum Street Spankers in general, and their new album in particular.

To some, the Spankers’ enthusiasm for such novelty-oriented material is a flat-out hoot. Certainly their live show (captured on the simultaneously released DVD Sideshow Fez) benefits from such wise-ass diversions. But those tracks, along with others meant to show off the band’s oddball sense of humor (the original tune “Hick Hop”, plus a version of “Tight Like That” interpolated with Jim Carroll’s “People Who Died”), tend to wear thin with repeated listenings, whereas the Spankers’ straight-up revivals of classics such as “Shine On Harvest Moon” and “Since I Met You Baby” never do.

That’s largely due to singer Christina Marrs’ formidable vocal range and her easy familiarity with vintage material. Her voice sounds like it should have been preserved on wax cylinders or 78 RPM records, not shards of plastic and aluminum.

The Spankers’ instrumental attack is pleasantly unstuck in time as well. Their deft musicianship on “Digga Digga Doo”, “Some Of These Days”, and the lovely (yet delightfully randy) “Sugar In My Bowl” could have ruled the Vaudevillian stage back in the day. And while their sense of humor is an integral part of the band’s identity, there’s plenty here to suggest they don’t always have to go for the yuks to earn their bucks.