By Tom Johnson
Spinning up Mercurial was like jumping in a time machine set for somewhere around 60-75 years ago. The Asylum Street Spankers bravely blazed their own trail far outside of mainstream music, offering pre-Charlie Parker swing jazz and jump-blues that once kept the flappers cavorting across dancefloors all night long. And they were churning them out out at an amazing rate; eight albums in as many years, to this point.
They may play like it's the '30s, but their own material, mixed with many era-appropriate songs, was peppered with modern pop-culture references—and they even do a couple of amazing covers, the best of which is a spot-on early jazz take on the Beastie Boys' “Paul Revere." If you're an open-minded Beastie fan, you haven't lived until you've heard this hilarious, fun take on their Licensed To Ill classic. The second modern cover is of the B-52s' “Dance This Mess Around." Vocalist Christina Marrs mimics Kate Peirson's distinctive wail, but it's harmonica/washboard/etc. and vocalist Wammo who'll devastate you with his dead-on deadpan of Fred Schneider during the chorus.
If it sounds fun, in spots it's actually hilariously fun—and, in general, I think for the right person it probably is great fun. For me, however, it grew tiresome pretty quickly. It is so time-period accurate that I found myself yearning for the band to open up, to really take these formal arrangements and let them loose—like Parker did.
That's where my interest in jazz begins, with Charlie Parker's incendiary soloing, his refusal to stay within the tight confines of a song. Despite the fun and attitude present in droves in the ranks of the Spankers, I simply found my interest waining. Don't take that as a terribly negative review, however, because this band is incredibly talented. It just needs to be appreciated by a very specific audience.
Those into swing music, this is the stuff for you.
Spinning up Mercurial was like jumping in a time machine set for somewhere around 60-75 years ago. The Asylum Street Spankers bravely blazed their own trail far outside of mainstream music, offering pre-Charlie Parker swing jazz and jump-blues that once kept the flappers cavorting across dancefloors all night long. And they were churning them out out at an amazing rate; eight albums in as many years, to this point.
They may play like it's the '30s, but their own material, mixed with many era-appropriate songs, was peppered with modern pop-culture references—and they even do a couple of amazing covers, the best of which is a spot-on early jazz take on the Beastie Boys' “Paul Revere." If you're an open-minded Beastie fan, you haven't lived until you've heard this hilarious, fun take on their Licensed To Ill classic. The second modern cover is of the B-52s' “Dance This Mess Around." Vocalist Christina Marrs mimics Kate Peirson's distinctive wail, but it's harmonica/washboard/etc. and vocalist Wammo who'll devastate you with his dead-on deadpan of Fred Schneider during the chorus.
If it sounds fun, in spots it's actually hilariously fun—and, in general, I think for the right person it probably is great fun. For me, however, it grew tiresome pretty quickly. It is so time-period accurate that I found myself yearning for the band to open up, to really take these formal arrangements and let them loose—like Parker did.
That's where my interest in jazz begins, with Charlie Parker's incendiary soloing, his refusal to stay within the tight confines of a song. Despite the fun and attitude present in droves in the ranks of the Spankers, I simply found my interest waining. Don't take that as a terribly negative review, however, because this band is incredibly talented. It just needs to be appreciated by a very specific audience.
Those into swing music, this is the stuff for you.
