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Asylum Street Spankers (2pm Kid's Show & 2 Evening Shows)

Presented by McGonigel's Mucky Duck at McGonigel's Mucky Duck

September 11, 2010

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McGonigel's Mucky Duck presents the Asylum Street Spankers.

The magnificently indefinable Asylum Street Spankers began in 1994 at a booze and hallucinogen-fueled party at the Dabbs Hotel in Llano, Texas. There Christina Marrs and Guy Forsyth met Wammo. During a night spent singing and playing along the banks of the Llano River they made a pact to keep the all-night-sing-along-anything-goes spirit of that party alive. Upon returning to Austin they gathered a few like-minded pals and began playing free shows at clubs and busking on the Guadalupe Street Drag. (Guadalupe was known as Asylum Street because it led to the state, um, hospital. A Spanker is someone who can play their instrument vigorously and proficiently.)

Within a year they conquered Austin, playing three SRO weekly residencies, including the city’s original Gospel Brunch at La Zona Rosa. With the departure of Forsyth in 1998 the band began venturing out into the wider world. Since then, Christina and Wammo have pushed their ever-evolving troupe from simple country-blues revivalism toward smart, challenging music of boundless variety, sophisticated arrangements, stunning showmanship and determined inventiveness.

Founding their own label, Spanks-a-Lot Records, in 1999, the band has built an international audience without the aid of the corporate music industry. Continuing to tour throughout the United States, Europe and Japan, the Spankers are now a world-reknowned underground institution and one of the planet’s most distinctive musical acts.

Defiantly acoustic, fiercely independent and absurdly good, the Spankers have been led by founders Christina Marrs and Wammo from being a country-blues revival act playing happy hours in Austin, through nearly 40 musicians, endless touring and constant evolution to being an internationally reknowned underground institution.

Fueled by an ethos born of their punk roots, Marrs and Wammo have built their lives around making unique music that surprises and entertains.

"The decade-old band is a roots-rock riddle, nestled in a satirical Vaudeville enigma, packaged in an old-timey radio-show puzzle and slathered with hippie-fied mystery sauce." - Tampa Weekly Planet

"...inspired, lunatic brilliance.!" - Richard Skanse, Rolling Stone

"...positively awe inspiring.!" - Chris Davis, The Memphis Flyer

"...a national treasure!" - Jazz Review