The good news is you have the opportunity to see a genre-bending Austin-based band Asylum Street Spankers and potentially become part of their legion of followers.
The bad news is: If you like them you’re out of luck. The sometimes old-timey, sometimes novelty, sometimes agnostic gospel band is playing its first show in Duluth — a stop on its farewell tour called “Spanks for Everything.â€
“People still get turned on to the band every day,†said the singing, saw-playing, uke-minding Christina Marrs, who has been with the band from the beginning. “Maybe we’ll be one of those bands that get more popular when they break up.â€
Check out my story on Asylum Street Spankers in Thursday’s News Tribune.
Here is Christina Marrs on:
WHETHER THE BAND HAS ACCOMPLISHED WHAT IT WANTED TO
CM: It was formed for people who had … it was just a way to get together and play music and have fun and not have rules imposed. In that spirit, we’ve certainly maintained that. Nothing has been off-limits for this band. That’s certainly been true throughout the history of the band.
HOW TO GET 17 YEARS WORTH OF MATERIAL INTO A FINAL SHOW
CM: We’re doing songs that we’ve been doing for a long time, songs that haven’t been recorded and everything in between. It’s hard to bring it down to 24 songs. I think the really important thing is that we’re happy with the material we’re playing. If we’re sick of a song, we’re likely to retire it.
WHAT FELT LIKE THE APEX OF THE BAND’S CAREER
CM: Our 10th anniversary show was kind of like that. We did two shows here in Austin. We were able to bring back 21-22 current and former members of the band on stage. We had people who hadn’t been in the band in years playing with brand new members. That was really cool. The 10 year marker felt like a real accomplishment.
THE LONGEVITY OF THE BAND AND WHETHER IT IS POSSIBLE TO LAST 17 YEARS ANYMORE
CM: There are (bands that have lasted 17 years) but you haven’t heard of most of them. It’s bands that have been road dogs and had a small but devoted following. … There is something to be said for a grass roots organization. We never signed with a major label, so we were never indebted to a major label.
FANS THAT HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR 17 YEARS
CM: The core group has been following us for a number of years. It’s interesting to see people who were in college and now they have families … Our Facebook stats tell us that our average fan is 39.
HOW THE INTERNET CHANGED THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
CM: Without the internet and videos going viral and file sharing, there are lots of people who never would have heard of us. There is this industry-wide trend of people not listening to music the same way. I want people to hear the music and get turned on to it. On the other hand, people don’t realize how much it hurts bands like us. For a band like us, our bread and butter is CD sales. … It’s a mixed blessing: More people know about you; the more people know about you, the more CD sales drop.
HOW ASYLUM STREET SPANKERS WILL BE REMEMBERED
CM: I would hope that we’d be remembered for the musicality and the skillfullness of our musicians, more than we would be remembered for the videos that went viral or the lowest common denominator novelty songs that were played over and over again on the radio. This band has so many other levels to it. I think of Randy Newman and his song “Short People” that he got so much flack for and is probably best remembered for. I think he’s an amazing songwriter. People tend to grasp the shortest straw. I hope we wouldn’t be like that.
[Note: Bearing that last comment in mind, it seems a little obnoxious that I'm going to post their most-viral of viral videos. But it's good! It's funny! And once again, it is for adult-aged people].
Asylum Street Spankers play at 8 p.m. Monday at Teatro Zuccone, 222 E. Superior St. Tickets are $10.
Photo from MySpace.
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